Marc Szeglat

Cumbre Vieja: Eruption stable

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State: Spain | Coordinates: 28.57, -17.84 | Eruption: Hawaiian

The eruption on La Palma continues and is stable. LiveCam videos show that the remaining lava fountain has been producing lava all night. Lava flows continued to advance, but moved more slowly than anticipated and the postulated Ocean Entry is still a long time coming. Last night, there was a magnitude 3.8 earthquake event, followed by other earth tremors that were somewhat weaker. Further evacuations were initiated due to the new vent that opened yesterday afternoon. There are no signs that the volcanic eruption will end soon.

Cumbre Vieja erupted on La Palma

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This afternoon, at about 15:12 local time, the volcano Cumbre Vieja erupted on La Palma. At the edge of the volcanic ridge Cumbre Vieja opened eruption fissures and lava fountains generate lava flows since then. The eruption began with the rise of an ash cloud. The eruption site is close to a settlement and it is likely that destruction of infrastructure will occur. A road has already been overrun by lava. The formation of an ocean entry is also conceivable.

Update 23.00: The eruption on La Palma continues and even intensified. In the late afternoon, more vents opened along a 2nd fissure. In the evening, at least 11 vents were active: 2 vents were strombolian active and produced ash clouds and incandescent tephra, lava fountains were generated from the other vents. The lava ignited trees and flowed from Montaña Rajada towards the settlement of El Paraiso. The first buildings have already been destroyed and major damage is expected. The lava is moving relatively slowly and people have time to flee. More than 1400 people have already left their homes. Emergency plans call for up to 10,000 more people to follow. Besides the lava, there are concerns about forest fires and air pollution.

Volcano Update 19.09.21: Cumbre Vieja

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State: Spain | Coordinates: 28.57, -17.84 | Eruption: magma intrusion

A magnitude 3.8 earthquake occurred at Cumbre Vieja on La Palma, with a hypocenter at a depth of only 2 km. The seismicity continued to intensify during the last hours. Several earthquakes could be felt by the population. Since the beginning of the swarm earthquake, 6632 tremors were detected. If the earthquakes in the micorseismic area are added, there were more than 25,000 shakings. The ground uplift is up to 15 cm. It is noticeable that the number of shallow earthquakes increases at depths of less than 6 km. It cannot be excluded that the final magma uplift has already started and that an eruption will occur already in the next hours/days. As always, no one knows for sure what will happen. The magma could still get stuck in the earth’s crust.

Kilauea with earthquake swarm

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An earthquake swarm occurred at Kilauea in Hawaii. It put the HVO volcanologists on alert and the alert status was raised from “yellow” to “orange”.

The swarm now comprises more than 140 quakes. In addition, an intensification of the ground deformation was measured with the onset of the swarm quake. It confirms my earlier suggestion that a magmatic dyke is intruding into shallow areas beneath the crater. The probability of an eruption in the area of the summit caldera increases.

Fukutoku-Okanoba: Birth of a volcanic island

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State: Japan | Coordinates: 24.28, 141.48 |Eruption: Surtseyan

If you are in the area of the Japanese Volcano Island archipelago these days, you should not miss a side trip to Fukutoku-Okanoba (Fukutoku-Oka-No-Ba). There you will witness the birth of a new volcanic island. It is a birth that is not without labor pains. It is a birth that is not without labor pains. They express themselves in very strong phreatomagmatic eruptions. During the weekend, such enormous eruption clouds were formed, rising up to a height of 16 km. Currently, the activity has decreased somewhat and the VAAC last detected an eruptive cloud last night.

Last year, monitoring flights sighted water discoloration caused either by strong hydrothermal activity, or by a minor volcanic eruption. The last major eruption of the submarine volcano occurred in 2010, and it is known from previous eruptions that even a short-lived island was formed, but quickly eroded again. The last time this happened was in 1986. Such an ephemeral island is also known from 1904. In fact, most volcanic islands start out this way and it is quite possible that it will eventually establish a stable island. In the immediate vicinity of Fukutoku Okanoba is a steeply rising islet. It is reasonable to assume that it is another peak of the same volcano.

Fagradalsfjall: Crater cone grows

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State: Iceland | Coordinates: 63.903, -22.273 | Eruption: Hawaiian

At Fagradalsfjall, activity continues in the usual way, but the small lava fountains look a bit higher. This could be due to the fact that the cone continues to grow and the diameter of the crater opening decreases. As a result, the flowing lava has less space in the crater and takes flight upward. The main part of the lava continues to flow towards the Meradalir valley. Some forms branching lava flows in a southeasterly direction.

While seismicity at Fagradalsfjall is low, there have been other earthquakes further southwest at Reykjanes Ridge. The three strongest had magnitudes between 3.8 and 3.2 with earthquake foci a good 10 km deep. The epicenters were located 25.7 km west-southwest of Eldeyjarboði. Last week there were reports that signs of a submarine eruption had been sighted in the area. A Coast Guard vessel was dispatched, but no submarine eruption was detected.

Copahue emits volcanic ash

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State: Chile | Coordinates: -37.85, -71.17 | Eruption: ash-steam cloud

Chile’s Copahue volcano became active on Tuesday, emitting a cloud of ash vapor. In addition, red glow can be seen at the crater at night. SERNAGEOMIN registers weak tremor and writes on Twitter that the volcano often showed a similar behavior in the winter months (in the southern hemisphere it is winter right now). The reason given for this is that a reduction in the size of the crater lake releases a vent that otherwise operates covertly underwater.

Etna with new paroxysm

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Country: Italy | Coordinates: 37.73, 15.00 |Eruption: Paroxysmal

As expected, Etna produced a new paroxysm during the night. Eyewitnesses described it as strong. Some explosions made not only window panes and inventory shatter, but even house walls vibrate. Strombolian eruptions started already in the evening. Around 2 a.m. local time, activity began to increase, and 90 minutes later the main phase of the short-lived volcanic eruption began. Volcanic ash was produced up to an altitude of 9000 m and several lava flows flowed: the well-known flow to the southwest and several lava flows to the east. These flowed over the escarpment in the Valle del Bove. In the final phase of the eruption, a production vent opened at the eastern base of the New Southeast Crater cone. It is located at an altitude of about 3000 m and erupted a lava flow together with an ash cloud. On a photo it looks as if a small pyroclastic flow was formed. But it could also be that the ash cloud was pushed to the ground by downdraft winds.

 

Fagradalsfjall with lava flows

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State: Iceland | Coordinates: 63.903, -22.273 | Eruption: Hawaiian

After almost three days without visible activity, flowing lava is visible again on the LiveCams. Already yesterday afternoon the lava level in the crater started to rise and in the evening an overflow of a lava flow occurred, which splits into several arms below the outflow channel. Part of the lava flows towards the south, the rest towards the Meradalir valley. The lava emitted very high thermal radiation tonight. MIROVA registered a power of 3545 MW, which is very close to the peak values of May. The tremor has increased again. The increase was slower than in the previous pulses.

New data on the eruption were also released, reflecting what happened in late July: The production rate was 11.3 cubic meters per second. A total of 109 million cubic meters of lava were produced. They covered an area of 4.3 square kilometers. The data were published by the university in Iceland.