Volcanos

Roundup of Global Volcanic Activity

Klyuchevskoy (Kamchatka): The effusive and mildly explosive eruption of the volcano continues with no significant changes over the past weeks. Active lava flows continue to descend on the eastern and south-western flanks of the volcano and produce a huge thermal anomaly seen on satellite data. Intermittent phases of elevated explosions at the summit crater as well as interaction of lava flows with snow also often generate a moderately large steam plume mixed with ash.

Yasur (Tanna Island, Vanuatu): Strombolian activity at the volcano has been very strong recently. Lava bombs often fall onto the outer crater rim or beyond, making it extremely dangerous to stay in that area. A video posted on youtube a few days ago (youtube.com/watch?v=XWeCuIC2zyw) shows a near-miss of a tourist filming on the crater rim when a strong explosion occurred, obscuring the view with ash and thousands of projectiles and a large (1 m across) bomb landed just two meters next to him... Extreme caution is required when visiting Yasur volcano!

Turrialba (Costa Rica): After more than 6 weeks of calm, a new eruption occurred Tuesday morning. Starting from 02:10 local time, strong gas and ash emissions generated a plume that reached approx. 1000 m height and was dispersed westwards. Activity continued until the early morning and gradually subsided around 06:00 local time. According to RNS (Red Nacional Sismologica), changes in internal (seismic) activity of the volcano had been detected since the evening before and new phases of ash emissions in the near future are possible if not likely.

Ubinas (Peru): The volcano has been showing increased signs of unrest that could herald a new phase of activity in the new future. Peru's Geophysical Institute (IGP) reported very significant changes in the volcano's seismic activity recently. After a gradual decrease of activity during the first half of the year until May, seismicity started again to pick up since June, indicating a new phase of internal pressure build-up. This trend has become more pronounced since 9 September when volcano-tectonic quakes, caused by internal rock fracturing (possibly due to intruding magma), appeared in greater numbers and with greater energy. Their location was at shallow depths of 3.6 km beneath the summit.

Piton de la Fournaise (La Réunion): The spectacular fissure eruption which had started on 11 Sep continues without signs of weakening. Over the past days, lava fountaining activity shifted from originally 4 or more active vents along the fissure to the northernmost vent where a cinder cone is forming and the main lava flow is emerging. Probably as a result of activity now focused on one vent, the lava fountains have increased to 30-50 meters average at the northern cone. The lava flow, traveling north and northeast, has a main channel and several side branches. It has by now reached the base of the northern cliffs of the Enclos near Nez Coupé de Sainte Rose. According to the volcano observatory, tremor has been stable, and actually showed a slight increase over the past days, meaning that the eruption could still continue for some time.