
Karkar volcano as seen from space.
Eruptions reader The Bobs left a note mentioning that there may have been a 'significant' eruption at Karkar in Papua New Guinea. The only place I can find information is John Seach's Volcano Live:
An eruption occurred at Karkar volcano at 6:39 pm on 25th November 2009. The eruption plume reached a height of 45,000 ft. A magnitude 5.1 earthquake hit 90 km SSE of Karkar volcano 7.5 hours before the eruption.
I don't know too much about Karkar, but the GVP says that it is a volcanic island made of a pair of calderas, with the inner caldera formed in the last 1,500 years. Volcano Live mentions a 1997 activity at the volcano (in the form of fumarolic activity), but the GVP lists the last eruption as occurring in 1980. Most eruptions look to be fairly explosive (~VEI 2) from the pyroclastic cone in the inner caldera. Weekly volcano reports from the SI/USGS lists some fumarolic activity from the inner caldera in January 2008.
If the reports are accurate for this new activity, it could definitely be a "significant" eruption. More news as I can find it.
UPDATE 5:30PM 11/23/2009: And more information is found, over at the Volcanism Blog.
UPDATE 6:45PM 11/23/2009: This isn't really an update as such, but I did stumble across these TOMS images of SO2 from a 1979 eruption of Karkar.


Comments (206)
first eruption to 45,000 feet and another seems to have happeend. This volcano means busniess. Never heard of it myslef either. it seems the volcanoes no one knws much aobut are the ones that blow like Chaiten,go figure.
IDD41295
VA ADVISORY
DTG: 20091125/2316Z
VAAC: Darwin
VOLCANO: Karkar 0501-03
PSN: S0439 E14558
AREA: New_Guinea NE_of
SUMMIT ELEV: 1839M
ADVISORY NR: 2009/5
INFO SOURCE: MT-SAT
AVIATION COLOUR CODE: RED
ERUPTION DETAILS: ANOTHER VA PLUME OBS TO FL300 AT VOLCANO
OBS VA DTG:
OBS VA CLD:
FCST VA CLD +6HR:
FCST VA CLD +12HR:
FCST VA CLD +18HR:
RMK: A MORE DETAILED ADVISORY WILL FOLLOW AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
Graphic at [lower case]
http://www.bom.gov.au/info/vaac/advisories.shtml
NXT ADVISORY: NO LATER THAN 20091126/0515Z
Posted by: Chance Metz | November 25, 2009 6:34 PM