Volcanos

Roundup of Global Volcanic Activity

Etna (Sicily, Italy): Over the past weeks, the volcano's activity (at Voragine and the New SE crater) has generally decreased and tremor levels are currently low. While not entirely stopped, the emissions of hot incandescent gasses and ash, along with weak strombolian activity from the new vent in the Voragine crater have become less pronounced. Similarly, the sporadic ash emissions from the New SE, observed intermittently until at least Saturday, have ceased or become even rarer. This could rapidly change, however.

Katla (Southern Iceland): At least one earthquake of magnitude 4.5 occurred this morning under the volcano, the strongest recorded for Katla in recent decades. It was felt in nearby areas. The Icelandic Met Office (IMO) reported two quakes, one at 01:47:02 local time at 3.8 km depth 8.1 km east of the summit (Goðabunga) followed 20 seconds later by another magnitude 4.5 quake at 0.1 km depth. Caution is required as these data are from automatic calculations which could actually in fact describe only one quake.

Bagana (Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea): Low-level ash emissions occur at the volcano, producing a plume at estimated 7,000 ft (2.1 km) altitude drifting west from the volcano. The latest Terra satellite image shows a narrow plume of mostly gas and possible light ash content extending about 70 km to the west of Bougainville Island. A moderate thermal hot spot is visible on MODIS data and has increased recently. This suggests that the volcano's activity (effusive or mildly explosive or both) has picked up recently.

Copahue (Chile/Argentina): Strombolian activity continues in the El Agrio crater at fluctuating, generally low intensity. Occasionally, incandescent bombs are projected higher than the crater rim and small ash plumes rise up to a few hundred meters before dissipating.