Eruptions

News about eruptions and volcanoes can be found in this category. It is updated frequently. Volcano expert and journalist Marc Szeglat reports live from his expeditions to volcanoes.

Etna: strombolian eruptions at NSEC

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Last night Etna showed its strombolian side and produced further eruptions from the New South East Crater. Glowing tephra was ejected up to 100 m high, which was quite photogenic. At peak times MIROVA registered thermal radiation with a power of 144 MW.

This morning the activity seems to have decreased, MIROVA only registered a thermal anomaly of 36 MW power. In addition, the Thermalcam shows no more thermal radiation around the last active vent. But there seems to be more activity in the central crater. Possibly the small lava flow is still pouring into Bocca Nouva. It originated at the new intracrater cone of Voragine. The tremor is clearly increased and gives an indication that this activity is continuing. The video shows the status-quo on Friday.

Sabancaya erupts over 10,000 m high

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Today, the Peruvian volcano Sabancaya erupted an ash cloud that rose to an altitude of more than 10,000 m. In the last 24 hours, 5 eruption clouds were detected. In the last days the activity increased significantly. MIROVA only sporadically registers a weak heat signature. Apparently very little glowing tephra is being generated. Nevertheless, volcanologists at INGEMMET have confirmed dome growth. The seismic activity is high.

Vesuvius: Seismic Swarm

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Today, another swarm quake occurred at Vesuvius in Italy. The tremors have low magnitudes smaller than 1. 22 quakes are reported on the INGV site since last night. The hypocentres are mostly located at depths less than 1000 m. Most of the quakes scatter over the north and east flank of the summit area. The Meteovesuvio website even reports 85 microquakes.

In October, 118 quakes were recorded at Vesuvius. The strongest had the magnitude 1.8. The long-term trend shows an increase in seismic activity with a previous peak last year. However, the volcanologists of the INGV Naples are registering a deflationary trend: the slope is decreasing and it does not look like the earthquakes are caused by rising magma. Here is a live cam. The seismograms are currently offline.

Anak Krakatau continues to erupt

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In the last 24 hours 5 VONA reports about eruptions at Anak Krakatau were published. In the VSI reports the height of the eruption clouds was given as 357 m above the crater. The VAAC Darwin registered volcanic ash at a height of 600 m. The volcanic ash was recorded in the VSI reports. The longest eruption lasted about 5 minutes and produced a seismic signal with a maximum amplitude of 41 mm.

Piton de la Fournaise: 5th Eruption of the year started

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The expected eruption at Piton de la Fournaise started at 14.40 (local time). According to first reports, 2 fissures opened relatively far below the volcanic slope at 1400 m altitude. They are located about 1 km north of Piton Tremblet, which formed in 2007 during a large flank eruption. Several lava flows began to flow, at least one of which is still active and already below the Piton Tremblet. The lava flows at the edge of the older lava field from 2007 and set Vegetaion on fire. Fire-fighting planes are used to fight the flames. Eruptions so far below the volcano often have the potential to interrupt the coastal road. The lava could even reach the sea. It is the 5th volcanic eruption on La Réunion this year.

Stromboli: another strong eruption

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At 12:17 p.m. another strong eruption occurred at Stromboli (Sicily). The explosion produced an ash cloud several kilometres high. Lava boulders even landed on the outer flank of the cone, about where the ascent route leaves the reed belt. On the side of Ginostra the vegetation burned to about 200 m height. A pyroclastic flow ran over Sciara del Fuoco. The eruption was announced shortly before by a significant increase in inflation. According to an initial assessment, the explosion was not quite as strong as the one on July 3. Nevertheless, the risk potential was very high. There have not yet been any reports of victims, but it is quite conceivable that there were.

Anak Krakatau with eruption

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VSI today reports an eruption at Anak Krakatau. Since the volcano was hidden in the haze, there was no visual confirmation of the eruption. However, a seismic eruption signal was registered. It lasted 60 seconds and had a maximum amplitude of 46 mm. All probability was a phreatic eruption. The volcanic island was the target of an expedition only a few days ago, during which the water temperature of the crater lake was measured.

Stromboli with strong activity

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Yesterday Stromboli turned up and increased its activity again. In the night to Sunday a new lava flow became active. According to LGS the lava front reached a height of 600 m above sea level. From the front of the lava flow there were occasional debris avalanches. Lava rocks jumped over Sciara del Fuoco into the sea. The explosive activity was also high: an average of 28 eruptions per hour were recorded. In the evening continuous lava spattering took place from some vents. The most northeastern vent generated strong strombolian eruptions. Glowing tephra reached a height of about 300 m. Some explosions were very loud. The infrasound pressure was correspondingly high. The volcanologists measured very high sulphur dioxide emission and a strong tremor.

Stromboli: Lavastream flows again

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The activity at Stromboli continues. Webcam observers in our FB group reported brisk explosive activity from at least 6 conveyor chutes: Stromboli fires from all pipes! In addition, MIROVA today again registers thermal radiation with an output of 126 MW. On the thermal cam of the LGS you can see a lava flow that reaches quite far down. The picture below shows the current Livecam picture.

Tonga: Ship gets into pumice carpet

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A sailing ship got caught in a pumice carpet off Tonga island Vava’u. The sailors of the catamaran ROAM reported on facebook about their experience: At noon they passed an area about 50 nautical miles away from Vava’u, where other ships had warned about the pumice carpet. The crew sighted only a few pumice lumps, but smelled the stench of hydrogen sulphide. Carefully they sailed on. In the evening it suddenly sounded as if the catamaran was sailing through glass. Unnoticed, they had fallen into the pumice carpet, which had drifted faster than one would suspect. In the light of the spotlights they discovered a closed pumice blanket in which individual chunks reached the size of basket balls. With the slowest speed they changed course several times to reach free water again. They heard the pumice chunks hit the rudder, but the boat did not suffer any major damage.

Pumice is a volcanic glass that, similar to the black obsidian, cooled quickly after the eruption and formed no (or only small) crystals. Unlike obsidian, pumice is explosively extracted and consists of tephra. So a submarine volcano erupted explosively. Since pumice is formed from very gas-rich magma and contains many pores, the rock floats. Pumice carpets are often found in the volcanic island arches of Tonga, Fiji and Samoa. Here a nameless underwater volcano was probably active on the Vava’u ridge.