Volcanos

Roundup of Global Volcanic Activity

Nyamuragira (DRCongo): The lava lake at the bottom of the inner pit in the volcano's summit caldera has recently disappeared, a recent survey by scientist from the Goma volcano observatory (OVG) and UN. It is not known when exactly this happened and how, but the thermal signal stops abruptly around 1 April, suggesting that the lake, which had appeared during 2014, drained quickly at around this date. During their overflight on 6 April, the group of scientists from OVG, UN and the Second University of Naples around D. Tedesco only saw an incandescent vent, releasing a jet of hot gasses, in the place of the lava lake.

Alaid (Northern Kuriles): The eruption at the volcano continues as a strong thermal heat source remains active at the summit crater; no details about the nature of the activity (perhaps a small lava lake) are currently known. KVERT reported that moderate activity at Alaid continued during 1-8 April. Satellite images showed an intense daily thermal anomaly over the volcano. A gas-and-steam plume containing minor amounts of ash drifted about 40 km SW on 1 April. The Aviation Colour Code remained at Orange (the second highest level on a four-colour scale).

Chirpoi (Kurile Islands, Russia): Satellite images detected a thermal anomaly over Snow, a volcano of Chirpoi, during 4-5 and 7 April. The Aviation Colour Code remained at Yellow.

Sakurajima (Kyushu, Japan): Over the past days, vulcanian-type explosions - mainly from Showa crater - have become weaker and less frequent; none have been recorded since Tuesday. However, both Showa and Minamidake crater continue to show phases of continuous steaming/degassing with weak ash emissions, which in turn suggests probably deep-seated strombolian activity in both craters.

Dukono (Halmahera): Strong ash emissions continue to be observed almost daily, suggesting that the volcano's activity (continuous strong ash venting, intermittent strombolian explosions from its main crater) has not changed significantly over the past months.

Popocatépetl (Central Mexico): The activity of the volcano has been relatively low during the past days, after the series of stronger explosions in early April had destroyed the previous lava dome. CENAPRED reported 74 weak emissions and one explosion over the past 24 hours.