Volcanos

Roundup of Global Volcanic Activity:

Popocatépetl (Central Mexico): A significant increase in activity occurred at the volcano. Starting at 19:28 h local time yesterday, volcanic tremor of high amplitude has been recorded for 3.5 hours and accompanied by strong steam and ash emissions creating an eruption column rising 3 km. Explosions ejected incandescent fragments to distances of 700 m from the crater. The eruption plume drifted ESE and caused ash fall in areas of the villages of San Juan Tianguismanalco, San Pedro Benito Juárez and the City of Puebla. It is possible that more ash fall will be reported from other villages in the east, south-east (Atlixco) and south (Tochimilco).

Volcanos

Roundup of Global Volcanic Activity:

Cleveland (Aleutian Islands, Alaska): After finding evidence of a new lava dome growing in the summit crater, AVO raised the alert level of Cleveland back to orange. The decision was based on satellite obtained on 30 Jan that indicate that a lava dome has grown in the summit crater. As of January 30 the dome was about 100 m in diameter and may have begun forming as early as January 24 when elevated surface temperatures were observed in satellite images. The size and shape of the dome appears to be unchanged through February 2 according to the most recently available satellite data. AVO has received no reports of activity or ash emissions since elevated surface temperatures were first observed around the 24th of January.

Campi Flegrei (Phlegrean Fields) (Italy): (6 Feb) A new fumarole vent has been detected recently in the Campi Flegrei in the hydrothermal field of Pisciarelli. The new vent was seen ejecting hot gas as well as geyser-like fountains of water reaching 4-5 meters of height. This will inevitably trigger headlines in the press about the possibility of a volcanic eruption in the area. Not much new activity has occurred in the world of volcanoes today.

Rabaul (Tavurvur) (New Britain, Papua New Guinea): Small to medium-sized ash eruptions from Tavurvur continue. VAAC Darwin detected ash plumes this morning rising to 8,000 ft (2.5 km) altitude and maintains aviation alert code orange.

Paluweh (off Flores Island, Indonesia): (6 Feb) It seems that activity has decreased since the large explosion on Sunday. It also appears likely that it had been triggered by a partial dome collapse followed by an explosion and more dome collapse events could follow.

Dukono (Halmahera): (6 Feb) Increased activity has generated a SO2 plume visible on today's NOAA satellite data.

Colima (Western Mexico): (6 Feb) Small explosion and rockfall signals have become more frequent over the past days.

Popocatépetl (Central Mexico): Gas emissions (SO2) remain high, while the rate of emissions has decreased again to less than 1 per hour.

Activity of the Guatemalan volcanoes Fuego and Santiaguito has been becoming increasingly explosive in favor of effusive. Both have mild strombolian explosions and weakly alimented lava flows.

San Cristobal (Nicaragua): Surface activity and tremor remain low, but there has been an increase in small volcanic quakes.

In Colombia, Machin continues to show seismic activity above background, mainly in the form of frequent tiny volcanic earthquakes. Nevado del Ruiz produces a steam and gas plume sometimes mixed with some ash. Seismic activity has been low.

Kamchatka: Lava flow emission remains unchanged at the ongoing eruption of Tolbachik volcano. Moderate seismicity accompanies the lava dome building at Sheveluch and Kizimen. Seismicity remained low at Karymski and Klyuchevskoi volcano, although small explosions probably continue at both volcanoes. The strong seismicity from Tolbachik still makes it impossible to read the signals from Bezymianny, which also has been active and building a lava dome for years. Gorely has medium levels of tremor that relate to fluid movements and strong degassing.

Volcanos

Roundup of Global Volcanic Activity:

Etna (Sicily, Italy): After a day with ash emissions from New SE crater and occasionally from Bocca Nuova, another eruptive episode with strong strombolian activity occurred over night from both the New SE crater and Bocca Nuova. This is the 8th eruptive episode during 2013, but the first when both the New SE crater and Bocca Nuova were active at the same time.

White Island (New Zealand): Strong steaming from the crater floor is visible, accompanied by again increased tremor with many interspersed earthquakes today.

Iliamna (Cook Inlet (SW Alaska)): A swarm of earthquakes has started yesterday near Iliamna volcano. This morning, a 3.7 quake occurred about 30 km to the east, the strongest event in this new pulse of seismic activity so far. The volcano had just been set back to status level "normal" by AVO almost a month ago, after the seismic unrest in 2012 had gradually declined over the past month. So far, AVO has not changed the alert status again.

Colima (Western Mexico): Small explosions, rockfalls, short pulses of tremor and occasional volcanic earthquakes continue. New lava is slowly accumulating inside the new crater left by the large explosion on Tuesday. The explosion had destroyed the older lava dome that had been slowly growing within and in places over-topped the summit crater since the late 1990s.

Popocatépetl (Central Mexico): Activity has remained stable. Glow from the summit indicates slow supply of magma to the lava dome. The rate of emissions has climbed a bit to almost 2 per hour average.

Santa María / Santiaguito (Guatemala): (1 Feb) The eruption remains relatively weak and mainly effusive, with the slow extrusion of lava flows descending the flanks of the dome and producing small to moderate avalanches. Ash generated by this process is currently blown mainly towards the south where light ash fall occurs, namely in Lotificación las Marías and areas near San Felipe Reu.

Fuego (Guatemala): (1 Feb) The effusion rate has again increased today. The old lava flow headed towards the Taniluyá canyon gained strength again and increased to 200 m length and a new flow started to flow towards the Ceniza drainage and reached 150 m length this morning. There were 9 weak explosions during the past 24 hours, generating light gray ash plumes rising up to 400 m and drifting up to 8 km to the west and southwest.

San Cristobal (Nicaragua): Intermittent phases of continuous volcanic tremor have started to appear at the volcano. There are no reports of new activity at the surface.

Machin (Colombia): A period of markedly increased seismic activity occurred over night.

Nevado del Ruiz (Colombia): Strong gas emissions are visible on the latest NOAA SO2 image for the region. Seismic activity has been low, but small volcanic quakes continue to occur.

Reventador (Ecuador): The activity of the volcano remains strong. The new summit lava dome continues to grow and produce explosions and feed active lava flows on the upper flank. During the afternoon of 31 Jan, an strong emission column of steam and moderate ash content could be observed rising 3.5 km above the crater.

Tungurahua (Ecuador): A steam column rose about 100 m during the afternoon of 31 Jan. Seismic activity remains at moderate levels, with a tendency of a slow increase. During 1 Feb, IG counted 40 long-period and one volcanic-tectonic quake.

Copahue (Chile/Argentina border): Seismic activity has decreased and no new surface activity observed. During the past 24 hours since last night, SERNAGEOMIN only detected one tiny volcanic earthquake.

Kamchatka: No notable changes have occurred in activity at any of the Kamchatkan volcanoes. Accompanied by high tremor (but slightly lower than during the previous weeks), fluid lava continues to be erupted from Plosky Tolbachik volcano. Moderate seismicity accompanies the lava extrusion at Sheveluchand Kizimen volcanoes. Low seismicity accompanies occasional explosive (strombolian to vulcanian) activity at Karymski volcano. Loud volcanic tremor from Tolbachik masks seismicity that is likely taking place in-conjunction with lava extrusion at Bezymianny volcano and strombolian activity at the summit of Klyuchevskoi volcano. Gorely volcano continues to exhibit moderate hydrothermal tremor and volcanic earthquakes in-conjunction with strong degassing.

Volcanos

Roundup of Global Volcanic Activity:

Lokon-Empung (North Sulawesi, Indonesia): Following the moderately large explosion yesterday, small ash emissions continue from the crater, as seen on this webcam image today.

Ambrym (Vanuatu): A large SO2 plume is seen on NOAA satellite data today, indicating that fresh lava continues to arrive inside the lava lakes of the caldera vents.

White Island (New Zealand): New Zealand scientist undertook a gas measurements flight and found values of CO2 and SO2 emissions at similar levels as in December. Observations during the flight revealed that the mud geysering in the main crater lake is still vigorous Tremor and seismic activity also remain high and eruptions could occur with no or little warning.

Agrigan (Mariana Islands, USA): In a satellite image from January 22, NOAA's Washington Volcanic Ash Advisory Center spotted a possible volcanic plume from Agrigan volcano, located on the next volcanic island north of Pagan (Mariana Isl). Neither USGS nor NOAA have received confirmation of a volcanic source for this anomaly and it is likely the cloud was weather-related.

San Cristobal (Nicaragua): Volcanic earthquakes and low-level volcanic tremor continue at fluctuating levels within the volcano.

San Miguel (El Salvador): Volcanic tremor and earthquake numbers increased slightly yesterday, but dropped again today.

Reventador (Ecuador): IG reported lava flows descending from the summit area and continuous emissions creating a 2 km tall plume yesterday (24 Jan). Several hot spots are visible on MODIS images. Today, the seismic signal alternates between periods of strong tremor with quieter phases, suggesting that activity has been occurring in pulses.

Copahue (Chile/Argentina border): Intense internal (seismic) unrest continues. Sernageomin reported 25 volcano-tectonic and 106 long period events as well as episodes of tremor during 19 hours between 22-23 Jan. An explosion signal was recorded at 23:55 local time (22 Jan) that corresponded to a brief increase of the height of the gas plume to 1500 m above the crater. No ash emissions or incandescence, or other signs of surface activity other than a moderate slow increase in degassing have so far been observed.

Volcanos

Volcanic activity world-wide:

Ash emissions from Paluweh volcano (Rokatenda) volcano off Flores, Indonesia, continue to show up on satellite images. VAAC Darwin reported a plume at 8,000 ft (2.4 km) altitude extending about 100 km to the west from the volcano today.

Not much activity has been reported recently from Etna volcano, but a small SO2 plume showed up on NOAA's satellite image of 14 Nov, suggesting a phase of increased degassing.

Popocatépetl's activity remains elevated (compared to previous weeks) with frequent (141 during 13-14 Nov) emissions, mainly of steam, but some with small ash plumes and ejection of incandescent material onto the upper crater area. Glow is well visible at night and a strong SO2 emission signal indicates the continuing rise of fresh magma. A seismic swarm seems to be occurring today.

Very few if any explosions have been occurring recently at Fuego volcano in Guatemala. The lava flow towards the Ceniza canyon, 350 m long on 14 Nov, remains weakly active. Nearby Santiaguito also remains mainly effusive in activity with only few explosions, but still active block lava flows on the flanks of the dome.

Nicaragua's San Cristobal volcano has been showing some tremor in recent days.

During the past week, Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia showed in increase in seismic activity with more frequent small quakes. They were mostly located N and NW of the Arenas crater at depths between 4 and 10 km. The largest was a magnitude 2.2 event on 5 Nov at 01:38 local time.

Seismic activity at Galeras volcano remained at fluctuating levels. Occasional gas and ash emissions were observed.

Seismic swams continue to occur beneath Cumbal volcano. No other changes have been noted at the volcano.

Reventador volcano in Ecuador continues to build a new lava dome and effuse a lava flow. Strong steaming can be observed when the volcano is not hidden in clouds, and occasional explosions can occur any time.

Significant SO2 plumes are regularly seen from Ambrym volcano on Vanuatu and from Nyiragongo volcano in the DR Congo. Both volcanoes continue to have very active lava lakes.

The seismic swarm in the Tjörnes Fracture Zone north off Iceland seems finally to be coming to an end.

Volcanos

Global volcano activity 6 - 7 November 2012;

Strombolian activity has been observed at Raung volcano in East Java during a visit by two of our local expedition organizers in Indonesia.

Paluweh volcano (Rokatenda) volcano on Flores produces a strong gas plume suggesting that significant eruptive activity continues from the volcano.

Popocatépetl's activity [Mexico] remains fluctuating between low to moderate. During 5-6 Oct, there was only about 1 weak explosion per hour with no or little ash content and plumes of up to 1 km height. Glow from the crater remains visible at night.

Activity of Fuego volcano [Guatemala] remains stable with weak strombolian explosions and the effusion of a lava flow on the southern flank, 600 m long on 6 Nov.

The lava flows from Santiaguito's lava dome [Guatemala] remain active and there are occasional weak to moderate explosions with ash plumes rising up to about 800 m above the crater.

Elevated volcano-tectonic seismic activity continues at Nevado del Ruiz volcano volcano in Colombia. Steam columns reach up to 2 km above the volcano and there are occasional weak ash explosions.

Seismic activity at Galeras volcano [Colombia] remained at fluctuating levels with a slight decrease compared to the previous week. Occasional gas and ash emissions were observed.

Elevated seismicity, but lower than in previous weeks, continued under Cumbal volcano [Colombia] with 2 swarms of quakes with 79 and 81 events on 2 and 4 November.

Also in Colombia, weakly elevated seismic activity also continues under Cerro Machin and Sotará volcanoes.

Another small seismic swarm has occurred (or started) yesterday near Mammoth Mountain in California, with about 20 very small quakes located at about 6 km east of the volcano at depths mostly between 10 and 5 km.

In New Zealand, Tongariro volcano continues to show increased degassing mainly from the Te Maari eruption site. The hottest temperature measured from gas vents in this area was 235 °C, while others range from 95 °C to 104 °C (GeoNet). Seismic activity overall has remained low with only few earthquakes.

Satellite observations: Strong SO2 emissions are visible from Bagana volcano in Papua New Guinea, Dukono Volcano (Halmahera, Indonesia), and from Nyiragongo in Central Africa.

Volcanos

Volcanic activity world-wide 3-5 November 2012:

The seismic swarm in the Tjörnes Fracture Zone north off Iceland continues with little changes. About 50-100 earthquakes mostly of magnitudes of around 1-2 are being recorded daily.

At Kilauea volcano on Hawai'i, the 2 lava lakes at the summit and in Pu'u 'O'o on the rift zone remain active. A spatter cone near Pu`u `O`o continued to emit lava flows. In the coastal plain, lava flows remain active as well have been advancing slowly, but are still at least 1 km away from the coast.

Popocatépetl's activity [Mexico] has continued to increase a bit over the past days with about 3 weak to moderate explosions per hour, some producing small ash plumes.

Activity of Fuego volcano in Guatemala continues dominated by the effusion of a lava flow, reaching now 800 meters length. Mild explosive activity was observed as well with 13 weak strombolian explosions during 4-5 Nov with ash plumes rising 2-500 m and spreading west and northwest. Incandescent material was thrown to 100 meters above the crater and generated weak avalanches on the upper crater's flanks.

The viscous lava flows from Santiaguito lava dome resumed their progress. Strong glow from the western lava dome rim and constant avalanches from the flow fronts were observed during 4-5 Nov. [Guatemala].

Seismic activity at El Salvador's San Miguel volcano has calmed down compared to some weeks ago, but still shows many small quakes and long-period events.

An eruption of Manam volcano in Papua New Guinea produced an ash plume rising to 10,000 ft / 3 km altitude on 3 Nov, indicating that sporadic explosive activity from the volcano goes on.

After a relatively quiet period between 30 Oct - 3 Nov, Sakurajima volcano on Kyushu in Japan had a record number of 6 moderate explosions on 4 November (GMT time). Ash rose to altitudes of 6-8,000 ft (1.8-2.4 km).

Volcanos

An increased number of earthquakes have been noted beneath Askja volcano in Iceland during the recent days.

A strong SO2 plume is visible from Nyiragongo, in the DR Congo. The Goma Volcano Observatory has reported continuous ash emissions. This could suggest a new eruptive phase at the volcano has begun.

The seismic swarm in the Tjörnes Fracture Zone north off Iceland that had started nearly 2 weeks ago continues as well although at somewhat reduced pace. Quakes are contentrated in 2 main areas at the western and eastern sides of the fault system.

Elevated seismic activity including a swarm of quakes in mid October and ongoing slight deflation continued at Yellowstone caldera volcano during October. There are no signs of a possible reawakening in a near future.

Popocatépetl's activity [Mexico] has been showing a weak increasing trend with more than 2 exhalations per hour during 30 Oct - 1 Nov. Glow from the crater remains visible at night, indicating that the lava dome continues to grow slowly there.

Fuego volcano in Guatemala has mild infrequent strombolian explosions and continues to feed its lava flow, which however has decreased to 200 m length.

The lava flows from Santiaguito lava dome were reported calm this morning [Guatemala]. Few weak explosions are sometimes observed from the dome.

Pacaya volcano [Guatemala] is steaming only, but continues to show some elevated seismic activity.

Seismic swarms of low energy continue to occur at Cumbal volcano in Colombia. Nevado del Ruiz volcano continues to emit significant amounts of steam and gas, and sometimes small amounts of ash. Galeras volcano has had small intermittent ash explosions recently. The country's other volcanoes currently on yellow alert have not shown significant variations in their activity during the past week.

MODVOLC detected a hot spot at Pagan volcano in the Marianas on 31 Oct, the first time since August 2012. According to USGS, the volcano continues to show only steaming, but it cannot ruled out that the new thermal anomaly might be caused by near-surface lava.

Alaid volcano (Northern Kuriles, Russia) continues to show a thermal hot spot as well. The volcano is not monitored on ground.

Raung volcano in East Java might have been erupting on a small scale already since 19 Oct. A video from a visit at the local volcano observatory shows strong seismic activity, but no visible plumes rising from the volcano's summit.

An explosion from Kizimen volcano in Kamchatka today produced an ash plume rising to 17,000 ft (5.2 km) altitude, VAAC Tokyo reported.