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Not a lot of big news, but a lot of little news: Soufriere Hills at night during the late January 2010 dome growth episode. Note the hot rock falls from the collapsing dome. Image courtesy of Photovolcanica. This might not be new, but Dr. Boris Behncke brought the new webcam at the rim of Chaiten in Chile to my attention. You get a birds-eye view of the growing dome from the edge of the caldera - pretty nifty view for a once-in-a-hundred-years sort of event. The NASA Earth Observatory has posted a close-up of the Soufriere Hills imagethat I posted yesterday, showing the February 11 plume. The…
Shiveluch in Kamchatka in an undated photo. Just a quick note, but I got this email overnight regarding the status of KVERT, the Kamchatka-Kuril Island volcano monitoring body in Russia. Scientists of KVERT Project return to the full KVERT operations (the information ensuring of air services for the results of daily analysis and evaluation of activity of Kamchatka and Northern Kuriles volcanoes) and will discharge these obligations for 01 February - 30 April 2010. So, after losing their funding, it has some back until the end of April (based on how I read this). Russian politics as usual? A…
First off, I wanted to thank all of the Eruptions readers for making January the most popular month ever on this blog. I suppose I should give an assist to Yellowstone, but really, thanks for coming to the blog, reading the posts and engaging in all the great discussions that go on within its (cyber)walls. KÄ«lauea's east rift zone eruption site. Image courtesy of the USGS/HVO. On to some news! I suppose you've made the big time when you're in the New York Times, and sure enough, the current Yellowstone earthquake swarm is in the Old Grey Lady. Nothing much new to read, but summarizes the…
Bezymianny in Kamchatka, one of the many volcanoes in eastern Russia that will no longer be monitored by KVERT. In some bad news for volcano watchers (and the general public, too), Russia has decided to stop funding KVERT (the Russian equivalent of the Alaska Volcano Observatory), the institute that monitors and researches volcanic eruptions on the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kuril Islands in the western Pacific. Here is the news release from KVERT: Due to a loss of government funding beginning February 01, 2010, KVERT will no longer distribute information regarding volcanic activity in…
This week's USGS/Smithsonian GVP Volcano Update! Highlights include: A volcano I had never heard of in the Kuril islands is showing signs of life: Kharimkotan. Satellite images show a thermal anomaly at the summit of the volcano - its last known eruption was in 1933. Ash, sulfur dioxide and steam continue to erupt from Nyamuragira in the Congo, although lava flows have abated. Crater C at Arenal had sporadic strombolian activity - which is par for the course for the Costa Rican volcano. I must have missed this, but since December 14, the ash erupted at Gaua in Vanuatu has become denser and…
The weekly volcano report, brought to you by our friends at the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program and the U.S. Geological Survey. Highlights (not including Mayon, Nyamuragira and Turrialba): Eruptions continue at Piton de la Fournaise on Reunion Island - heck, this would be the volcano news if it wasn't for all these other, more explosive systems getting in the way. Lava fountains, flows and pools were the order of the day in the SW Dolomieu crater until the 12th of January. Chaiten in Chile continues to chug along - block-and-ash flows were seen and ash plumes continue to emanate from the…
2009 is over! If you missed the Volcanic Year in Review, check out my summary of the volcanic events that captivated many of us over the past year. However, only one event will get the coveted 2009 Pliny for Volcanic Event of the Year. A lot of you wrote in with votes and comments - I thank you - and a number of events stood out in your mind. Here we go: Honorable mention A few volcanic events got multiple votes: - Soufriere Hills on Montserrat. - Mando Hararo in Ethiopia. - Chaiten, Chile and the new research on the eruption. - The earthquakes in western Saudi Arabia under the Harrat…
Here it is, my attempt to recap a year's worth of volcanic events. By no means is this supposed to capture every event, but rather the highlight/lowlights and what most captivated me during 2009. I'll be announcing the winner of the 2009 Pliny for Volcanic Event of the Year tomorrow. Waimangu Geothermal Valley in New Zealand, taken in January 2009 by Erik Klemetti. January The year started out with a trip to New Zealand (well, for me at least) and vistas of the Waimangu Valley, formed in the 1886 eruption of Tarawera on the North Island. We were also still thinking about the late 2008…
Looks like last night was busy, volcanically speaking. Eruptions readers noted that VAAC warning of ash from both Mayon (to 10,000 feet / 3.0 km) and Bezymianny (to 32,000 feet / 10 km) were issued {hat tip to Chance Metz for the updates}. Here is some more news on these ongoing events: Mayon erupting in December 2009. Mayon, PhilippinesEvacuations are continuing near Mayon in the Philippines, some of them forcibly by the local authorities. PHIVOLCS is reporting that SO2 output from Mayon has jumped from ~750 tonnes/day to almost 2,800 tonnes/day over the last 24 hours and seimicity continues…
It's the last week of classes and it's also AGU (which I will be missing for the first time in 5 years). If you happen to be at the big meeting in SF and hear something you think we'd like to hear, feel free to drop me a line or leave a comment so we can live vicariously through you. Pyroclastic flows at Sourfriere Hills, December 2009. Image courtesy of MVO. Some news: UPDATE 12:40PM 12/14/2009: Just to update the Mayon news from earlier today, PHIVOLC is reporting that lava has been spotting flowing from the main crater on Mayon. Sounds like the eruption we've been waiting for is beginning…
A new Weekly Volcano Report from the Smithsonian GVP/USGS ... enjoy! Highlights include: There has been a number of reports of new activity at Llaima in Chile (hat tip to Eruptions reader Manuel Humeres for bringing them to us). Most of the current activity is steam-and-gas plumes along with long-period seismicity, suggesting we could be headed towards a new eruption. Lava flows continue to erupt from Kliuchevskoi in Kamchatka, along with strombolian activity throwing ejecta up to 300 m / ~1000 feet above the crater. Rabaul is busy shaking windows 20 km / 12 miles from the Tavurvur crater,…
We get a new update from the Smithsonian/USGS Global Volcanism Program ... Highlights (not counting Soufriere Hills or Gaua) include: The Weekly Report mentions the mystery eruption/noneruption of Karkar in PNG. Specifically, they report:The report also stated that ash had merged with a thunderstorm cloud and had become unidentifiable. Two ash plumes (11/25, 26) that reached at least 9.1 km / 30,000 feet were reported by the Darwin VAAC ... but as we know, it is far from clear that anything actually happened at Karkar last week. Activity has quieted significantly at Chaiten in Chile, with…
Back to work after Thanksgiving Break ... lets clean up a few news items I missed trying to figure out the non-eruption of Karkar. Undated photo of the summit area of Gaua, Vanuatu. There was an actual eruption - or, more correctly, a continued eruption - of Gaua in Vanuatu. The current activity has prompted the evacuation of 300 villagers from the island and they will not be able to return until activity wanes. Tourists were also told to stay away from the volcano, but the airport on the island has not been affected by the eruption, which might suggest the activity is relatively localized.…
The latest news from the USGS/Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program Weekly Volcano Report ... Highlights (not including Mayon) include: Strombolian eruptions and small pyroclastic falls at Arenal in Costa Rica. 3 km / 10 000 foot ash plume from Bagana on Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea. Rumbling noises, ~4.5 km / 14 000 foot ash plumes and incandescence were all reported coming from Fuego in Guatemala. Steam-and-ash from Popocatepetl near Mexico City reached 7.4 km / 24 300 feet. Satellite images of Shiveluch revealed a large thermal anomaly - the new lava dome - along with multiple…
The latest of volcano news from around the world, brought to you by the USGS and Smithsonian Institute Global Volcanism Program (and especially Sally Kuhn Sennert!) Highlights this week include: Karangetang in Indonesia produced a couple 3 km/10,000 foot steam-and-ash plumes according to reports from pilots. Soufriere Hills on the island on Montserrat has had quite a few pyroclastic flows over the last few weeks since the volcano started erupting again. Mix that with some heavy rainfall and lahars were produced as well. The alert level is still at Orange at Karymsky in Kamchatka, which…
The SI/USGS GVP site is back up and running - and they've posted a new weekly volcano activity report. Enjoy! Highlights include: Nevado del Huila in Colombia has been showing signs that a new eruption might be starting. Seismicity has increased and minor ash fall has been reported, leading to an increase in the alert level at the volcano to "orange" (high). Ebeko in the Kuril Islands off Russia and Japan produced a ~8.8 km / 29,000 foot ash plume. Thermal images of the crater at El Reventador in Ecuador show that hot material is filling in the dome complex - this followed ash-and-steam…
I'll be giving a talk this afternoon here at Denison on rhyolite generation, so I might be a little brief this morning. Undated image of Mayon in the Philippines. The province of Albay in the Philippines is on alert for both a typhoon and a volcano (that country seems to be hit with that 300,000 may need to be ready to evacuate if the volcano continues to show signs that it might erupt - in fact, Mayon is producing ash as of this morning, albeit only one minor ash explosion. Lava flows from Kilauea are drawing crowds as they inundate a road in Kalapana. There is a nice video link to the…
Before we get to the latest SI/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report (WVAR), I wanted to draw your attention to some nifty NASA Earth Observatory images from the current activity at Soufriere Hills in Montserrat. After a few puffs last week, the volcano is now releasing a relatively constant stream of ash and steam, this after ~10 months of quiescence. The two images, one on October 12 and one on the 13th, suggest there is a lot of a variability, day to day, in the plume. See the latest WVAR for more info on Soufriere Hills. On to the Report! Highlights this week (not including Soufriere Hills…
Sometimes it is hard to keep up with the mountain of remote sensing (or not so remote) images that get released on the internet. Over the last few days, the NASA Earth Observatory has released a bunch of images/videos of current eruptions, so I thought I'd round them all up here for you to peruse. Soufriere Hills releasing puffs of ash-and-steam on October 6, 2009. Image courtesy of the NASA Earth Observatory. Four new images in the recent past: A nice, clear picture of an ash-and-steam plume from Rabaul in PNG was captured by the Terra satellite's MODIS imager on September 30, 2009. The…
Two volcanoes that have been rumbling and rocking for a while now made some noise today: Kliuchevskoi Volcano in Russia. Soufriere Hills on Montserrat had a relatively impressive explosive event, producing a ~3 km / ~11,000 foot ash plume - its first eruption in 10 months. This was after a sharp increase in seismicity at the West Indies volcanoes since Sunday. This is a bit of a surprise as the eruptive period at Soufriere Hills was seen to be coming to an end - however, this eruption isn't really anything out of the ordinary according to James White Jr., the acting director of the Disaster…