Volcanos

Roundup of Global Volcanic Activity

Stromboli (Eolian Islands, Italy): (13 Aug) The lava flow continues to be well alimented with little variation visible. It forms an active stream on most of the Sciara, but its flow front during the past days only occasionally reached the sea, and rather accumulated to thicken the lava delta at the NE base of the Sciara.

Etna (Sicily, Italy): New access regulations for the summit region of Etna volcano have been agreed upon with the prefecture of Catania and the mountain guides.

While the summit area (above 2900 m a.s.l.) was often closed to everybody, even if accompanied by mountain guides, this limitation is now lifted: Groups accompanied by an accredited mountain guide may now access the summit area at their own judgement and risk even when the summit area is closed to the public.

This is a significant step towards a more liberal approach to make this unique, highly interesting, although potentially dangerous geologic environment available for a personal first-hand experience. It opens the way for those who would like to see the fascinating summit craters of Europe's most active volcano from close. If you are interested in a guided tour to Etna's summit area, have a look here.

Bagana (Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea): Intense activity has been taking place at the volcano during the past days. A significant ash plume reaching approx. 25,000 ft (7-8 km) altitude has been observed on satellite imagery drifting 100-150 km southwest.

It is unknown what type of activity is producing the ash plumes. A thermal anomaly is visible on satellite imagery, suggesting that the volcano has entered a phase of significant lava dome growth that produces explosions and/or collapse events that result in ash plumes.

Slamet (Central Java): VSI raised the alert level back to 3 ("Siaga") on a scale of 1-4 last Monday, as activity had been increasing recently.

The observatory reported elevated tremor accompanying strong and increasingly frequent strombolian explosions, with incandescent material thrown above the crater rim and ash plumes rising up to more than 2000 m.

Deformation measurements show slight inflation of the volcanic edifice, indicating the arrival of fresh magma inside the conduit.

Ambang (North Sulawesi & Sangihe Islands): VSI lowered the alert level back to 1 (normal) on 8 August due to decreased seismic and fumarolic activity.