Volcanos

Roundup of Global Volcanic Activity:

Stromboli (Eolian Islands, Italy): Activity remains elevated, but the new lava flow is no longer much alimented at the moment. INGV Catania corrected initial reports in that the lava flow front had actually NOT reached the sea during the night 17-18 April, but only about half way. Most likely, observers had confused glowing blocks detaching from the flow and descending to the sea with an actual coherent lava flow.

Etna (Sicily, Italy): Weak explosive activity persists at the New SE crater, which has been producing small ash emissions throughout the day yesterday. During the night, a small lava flow emerged from the fissure that cuts through the cone on its eastern flank.

Tolbachik (Kamchatka): KVERT reports no significant changes in the eruption. Tremor has remained at similar levels as during the past week, and lava flows continue to erupt from the southern fissure. Several other sites however mentioned that the thermal and (sometimes visible incandescence) signal have dropped a lot, suggesting that an end of the eruption could be close.

Sakurajima (Kyushu, Japan): After a rather calm phase during 4-17 April, the volcano is gradually wakening up again. Vulcanian-style explosions have begun to occur more "frequently" again, at rates of 1-2 per day. Ash plumes rose to 6-8,000 ft (1.8-2.4 km) altitude during the most recent few explosions.

Batu Tara (Sunda Islands, Indonesia): An eruption sent an ash plume to 7,000 ft altitude this morning. The plume extended 25 nautical miles to the west, VAAC Darwin reported.

Paluweh (off Flores Island, Indonesia): The lava dome remains active. An ash plume rose to 7,000 ft this morning, probably caused by an explosion or another partial dome collapse.

White Island (New Zealand): Volcanic tremor remains unstable and has risen again a bit recently.

Kilauea (Hawai'i): The eruption has not changed significantly over the past weeks, with continuing activity in both the summit lava lake and lava flows on the rift zone, reaching the sea. A new inflation cycle has started yesterday and the lava lake in the Halema'uma'u summit crater, at about 30 m below the crater floor, has risen a bit.

Mount St. Helens (Washington): (Very) tiny earthquakes occur regularly at the volcano, but nothing suggests anything unusual going on at the volcano for the moment.

Colima (Western Mexico): Explosions, rockfalls and small pyroclastic flows, as well as volcanic earthquakes have increased and become more frequent at the volcano. Hot pyroclastic deposits on the eastern flank of the volcano are visible on recent MODIS satellite image data.

Popocatépetl (Central Mexico): A stronger-then-usual explosion occurred last night (23:23 h local time) and produced a plume of ash rising about 2 km above the crater. Incandescent fragments were thrown to distances of 900 m. During the day, CENPRED recorded several weak phases of tremor, accompanied by emissions of steam, gas and sometimes ash occurring at rates of approx. 1 per hour.

Santa María / Santiaguito (Guatemala): INSIVUMEH reports weak to moderate explosions producing dense grey ash plumes rising to up to 1 km above the lava dome and drifting west for more than 10 km. The lava flows have picked up activity as well and advanced within the gullies of Nima Nima I and II.

Pacaya (Guatemala): After a few days with no or very little activity, incandescence and weak strombolian activity have resumed at the Mackenney crater.

Fuego (Guatemala): Activity has been low, with only few (less than 10) small to moderate explosions observed during most days.

Telica (Nicaragua): The earthquake swarm continues, with increasingly large volcanic quakes (up to magnitude 3), many of which are showing up on INTETER's country-wide earthquake list as well. However, there is still no official report about anything unusual going on, which suggests that the swarm is not regarded as alarming.

Poas (Costa Rica): Minor volcanic unrest that had affected the volcano in the past days seems to be over.

Nevado del Ruiz (Colombia): The earthquake swarm continues with increasingly large volcanic quakes. The magmatic intrusion is reflected also in increased SO2 emissions.

Copahue (Chile/Argentina): Volcanic unrest has been declared over and the volcanic alert level was lowered back to green, as well as the hazard level for the community of Alto Biobio.

Laguna del Maule (Central Chile): The latest report of Sernageomin indicates that volcanic unrest continues at reduced intensity. GPS measurements show that the central part of the volcanic edifice has been experiencing uplift at a rate of 1.4 cm / month and a horizontal displacement to the west at a rate of 0.64 cm / month. Another station, located in the southwest of the caldera has in turn showing displacement to the SW. This indicates clearly that a small bulge (presumably caused by intruding magma) has formed in the central part of the Laguna del Maule.

Nyiragongo (DRCongo): A strong SO2 plume is drifting west from the volcano, indicating that the lava lake remains well active.