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.

Anak Krakatoa: New eruptions

by

The Indonesian island volcano Anak Krakatau continues to be explosively active and produces volcanic ash. The VAAC Darwin reports ash at 2400 m altitude. MIROVA recorded a weak thermal anomaly with a power of 3 MW and seismic activity is elevated. Unfortunately, there are no longer any usable LiveCam images, because the ash erupted yesterday has soiled the camera.

The VSI recorded 18 seismic signals caused by explosive eruptions. The longest lasted 62 minutes. Harmonic tremors were also recorded. Already at the beginning of the month the earthquakes increased with a low frequency and indicated that magma was moving underground. Further eruptions can be expected.

The eruptions started on 29 December 2019, and initially the volcano increased its activity and erupted phreatic. In the evening, glowing tephra and volcanic ash was also produced.

Nevados de Chillan: Pyroclastic flow

by

The Chilean volcano Nevados de Chillan is very active and produces several explosive ash eruptions daily. The volcanic ash penetrates up to altitudes of 5000 m. At least one of these eruptions produced a small pyroclastic flow yesterday. After an explosion, it rushed down the northern slope of the volcano. The explosion emanated from the lava dome, which is called “Gil-Cruz”. The dome began to grow in January 2018. A few months later it was partially destroyed by a series of eruptions. Meanwhile it seems to have recovered well. SERNAGEOMIN keeps the VONA status on “orange”.

White Island: Dead during eruption

by

The New Zealand island volcano White Island lies in the bay of Plenty and erupted explosively. Volcanic ash rose to an altitude of 3600 m. The collapsing eruption cloud caused a pyroclastic flow that reached the sea.

The island volcano is a popular tourist attraction. From the coastal town of Whakatane, curious people take off by boat and helicopter to the volcano to see the numerous hydrothermal phenomena. Today at least 5 tourists died on the island, several people were injured. 23 people have been evacuated from the island so far. Most of them showed burns. Up to 27 people could still be on the volcano. Their fate is uncertain. According to media reports, a rescue team was still on its way in the evening, but was not allowed to enter the island because the danger of another eruption was too high.

There were about 100 people in the catchment area of the island when the eruption occurred at 14:11 local time. On video recordings you can see people covered with ashes waiting at the jetty for their boat. Many people only wore shorts and t-shirts. You can also see a destroyed helicopter that had dropped tourists on the island.

Etna: strombolian eruptions at NSEC

by

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

by

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

by

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

by

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

by

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

by

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

by

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.