Volcanos

Roundup of Global Volcanic Activity

Dukono (Halmahera): The activity at the volcano remains intense. Our friend Patrick Marcel who visited the volcano last week reported that the vents at the bottom of the crater emitted a sustained, extremely noisy jet of gas, steam and ash, and ejected incandescent bombs to up to 500 m height. Some of them landed outside the crater rim. Ash plumes drifting from the volcano in various directions for tens of kilometres have been being spotted on satellite imagery by Darwin VAAC almost daily.

Nyiragongo (DRCongo): Goma Volcano Observatory published the results of recent field work on the crater of Nyiragongo during 10-11 March in a new report: in summary, it seems that the current intense activity from the two vents inside the inner crater is confined to this area, and no magma has migrated laterally. In other words, the risk of a flank eruption in the near future should be relatively low for the time being. The report expressively mentions that inhabitants of the surrounding villages should not be worried too much about the new activity inside the crater, at least unless something changes significantly. High-precision distance measurements, as far available, show no significant deformation of the volcano's edifice occurred after the opening of the new vent in late February; only a modest extension of 17 mm in NW-SE direction was measured between two fix points on the crater rim between 7 Feb and 2 March, but none since. In addition, no increase in temperature inside the many fissures on the crater and the volcano's flanks has been noted. As to the activity at the new vent itself: when OVG's volcanologists observed it on 10-11 March, it consisted in pulsating lava fountains / strombolian bursts of a few tens of meter height, and the effusion of abundant lava flows that started circumvent the central pit's rims, which are slightly elevated on the lower platform (caused by repeated overflows in the past few years).