Volcanos

Roundup of Global Volcanic Activity

Kilauea volcano update: Lava flows continue to advance, evacuations possible within days Lava has crossed the Apaʻa Street / Cemetery Road near the driveway to the Pāhoa cemetery and is now spreading mainly over open grassland. Between 40 and 50 households could be evacuated within the next few days, as soon as Tuesday, if the lava continues to advance at current rates (approx. 250 m per day) and follows the most likely paths. The lava flow front, approx. 70 m wide, is headed northeast and only 1 km straight line distance from Pahoa Village Road,” he said. The best guess of HVO is that the lava might cross Pahoa Village Road a little bit west of the Pahoa Post Office.

Bardarbunga (Iceland): The eruption seems to continue with no changes, but there were no visual observations today. IMO writes: "Seismic activity on the Bárðarbunga caldera rim continues at comparably high rates as in recent days. Activity in the dyke intrusion was rather low during the last 26 hours since the last report, seismicity around Herðubreið has slightly decreased.

Kirishima (Kyushu): The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a "near crater warning" for the Shinmoedake vent of Kirishima volcano last Friday. Increased earthquake activity were detected and mean an increased risk of a possible (probably phreatic) explosions. Following last months deadly eruption of Ontake-san, news articles about this (routine) event have exploded, focusing on the potential hazards of a volcanic eruption towards the Sendai nuclear power plant, located in the city of Satsumasendai in the Kagoshima Prefecture, approx. 40 km away from the volcano. While a small to moderate eruption could threaten anybody in the immediate vicinity of the volcano, only an exceptionally large (on a global scale) eruption would likely be a threat to this. At the moment, nothing seems to be pointing towards such a scenario.

Sinabung (Sumatra, Indonesia): More pyroclastic flows have occurred today. A larger one this morning at 09:47 local time probably reached 3-4 km length and produced an ash plume that rose to 15,000 ft (4.5 km) altitude.