GLOBAL VOLCANISM: The Latest Report Of Volcanic Eruptions, Activity, Unrest And Awakenings – April 20-24, 2016! [PHOTOS + VIDEO]

Sinabung volcano. Endro Lewa

April 24, 2016 - EARTH - The following constitutes the new activity, unrest and ongoing reports of volcanoes across the globe.


Sinabung (North Sumatra, Indonesia): The Sinabung is always active in recent days.

Great photos of Firdaus Surbakti and Endro Lewa allow to detail the evolution of the pyroclastic flow of April 20.

Beidar Sinabung

Beidar Sinabung

Beidar Sinabung

Endro Lewa

Santiaguito (Guatemala): Another large eruption occurred at the Caliente dome yesterday morning, at around 6 am, with a new series of collapses that generated pyroclastic flows and an impressive ash plume that rose approx. 3 km above the lava dome.

Santiaguito volcano in Guatemala. Matthew Karsten

Ash plume from Santiaguito. Carlos Ventura / Prensa Libre

Carlos Ventura / Prensa Libre

According to INSIVUMEH, the source of the collapses is the continued supply of viscous lava that extrudes into the summit of the Caliente dome, and the collapse and pyroclastic flows affected its eastern side.

Ash fall occurred in areas to the west and southwest in up to 25 km distance, including the towns of Cuyotenango, San Francisco, Zunilito and Pueblo Nuevo.


WATCH: Santiaguito volcano erupts.

Masaya (Nicaragua): The lava lake in the volcano's summit crater continues to be very active and its level has risen a bit during the past days, INETER reports.

View of Masaya's lava lake. INETER crater webcam

Seismic activity, including tremor reflecting the degassing of the lava lake, fluctuates at moderate to high levels.


Pavlof (Alaska Peninsula, USA): Seismic activity at the volcano has continued to decrease over the past two weeks and no anomalous activity has been detected in satellite data since weakly elevated surface temperatures were seen on April 8.

AVO is therefore lowering the aviation color code to GREEN and the Volcano Alert Level to NORMAL.


Langila (New Britain, Papua New Guinea): Darwin VAAC reported ash emissions from the volcano that rose to 7,000 ft (2.1 km) altitude and drifted up to 100 km north.

Aviation color code is at orange.


Alaid (Northern Kuriles, Kuril Islands): Eruptive activity on the remote volcano continues; satellite images show fresh ash deposits and evidence a strong heat source from the crater.

Satellite image of Alaid, showing ash-darkened snow. Terra satellite / NASA

Heat signal from Alaid volcano. MIROVA

Kliuchevskoi (Kamchatka):  The volcano continues to be in mild to moderate strombolian activity.

Strombolian activity at Klyuchevskoy volcano.Yury Demyanchuk

Dukono (Halmahera, Indonesia): Intense ash emissions continue from the volcano.

Dukono's ash plume. Aqua / NASA satellite image

This morning, VAAC Darwin reported a plume at approx. 7,000 ft (2.1 km) altitude extending 50 km to the NE, well visible on satellite images.


Nevados de Chillán (Chile):  New ash emissions occurred yesterday morning, generating a small plume that rose approx. 500 m.

Small ash emissions from Nevados de Chillán volcano. SERNAGEOMIN

According to Sernageomin, this activity is not caused directly by fresh magma, but related to disturbances of the shallow hydrothermal system which interacts with an underlying, probably only small body of magma.SERNAGEOMIN also reported a slight increase in earthquakes typical of internal fluid movements (LP- long period events) during the past weeks and that sporadic ash emissions are likely to continue.

The volcano's alert level remains at "yellow" and it is recommended to stay outside a radius of 2 km around the active craters


Popocatépetl (Central Mexico): Following Monday's large explosive activity (2 hours of lava fountaining), the volcano returned to be relatively calm, producing only steam emissions and no significant explosions.

Steam emission ("exhalation") from Popocatepetl volcano.

Bright glow remains visible from the summit, indicating that magma continues to rise and accumulate at the summit vent.


Suwanose-jima (Ryukyu Islands, Japan):  The strombolian-type activity from the volcano on the small island in southern Japan continues to be elevated.

Ash plume from an eruption at Suwanose-jima volcano. JMA webcam

Frequent explosions produce small to moderate ash plumes that rise to altitudes of 5-7,000 ft (1.5-2 km).

Constant glow is visible from the O-take crater at night.


Soufrière Hills (Montserrat): On the island of Montserrat, heavy rains have eroded and re-mobilized the eruptive ash deposits in the Belham Valley, creating lahars there and making of this a dangerous area.

Lahars in the Belham Valley. MVO

The activity of the volcano Soufriere Hills, remains unchanged, characterized by a plume of gas blown northwards towards uninhabited areas. The alert level remains at 1.




Etna (Sicily, Italy): At Etna, ash emissions are noticed on the night of April 20 to 21, still visible the next morning at the northeast and new southeast craters.

 EtnaLive site states, based on the latest multidisciplinary INGV Catania report on the April 19th, that at the level of Bocca Nuova, the crater floor collapsed gradually, to produce the formation of a new crater in the fossa.
 

Bocca Nuova Etna - the red arrow indicates the collapse. INGV Catania

Etna summit craters - with legend. Joseph Nasi / Butterfly helicopters Service

Nevado del Ruiz (Colombia): The volcano produced a small ash plume today, Manizales volcano observatory reported to Washington VAAC.

Webcam views are obscured by weather clouds.Sporadic mild ash emissions have been occurring from the volcano from time to time during the past weeks.




- Volcano Discovery | MVO | INGV Catania | GVP.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: The Latest Report Of Volcanic Eruptions, Activity, Unrest And Awakenings – March 12-26, 2016! [PHOTOS]

Nyiragongo's intra-crater lava flows last week, cascading into the main lava lake (Image: João Cunha Monteiro / Facebook)

March 27, 2016 - EARTH - The following constitutes the new activity, unrest and ongoing reports of volcanoes across the globe.


Nyiragongo (DRCongo): The mainly effusive activity from the new secondary vent inside the volcano's caldera continues with little changes.

Lava cascading into the central lava lake of Nyiragongo volcano (Image: Jason Sehorn)

By now, new lava flows have surrounded the central pit (containing the main lava lake), covered most of the lower platform and cascade into the central vent at multiple locations.


Suwanose-jima (Ryukyu Islands): The strombolian activity continues at the Otake crater continues. In the past days, it has been more intense, generating bright glow visible from neighboring islands and ash plumes that rose up to approx. 1 km.

Eruption at Suwanose-jima.

Sinabung (Sumatra, Indonesia): Activity of the volcano continues essentially unchanged with very slow lava extrusion and intermittent small to moderate explosions at the lava dome.

These occur at irregular intervals almost daily, generating ash plumes that rise 1-3 km: last evening, an explosion produced a plume that rose approx. 2500 m, local observers reported. This morning, an ash plume to 9,000 ft (2.7 km) altitude was reported by Darwin VAAC.


Copahue (Chile/Argentina): Ash emissions from the volcano (which had been less vigorous and more intermittent over the previous days) have increased this morning and become continuous. Buenos Aires VAAC reported a plume at approx. 12,000 ft (3.6 km) altitude extending 35 km east from the volcano.

Ash plume from Copahue

Alaid (Northern Kuriles): The new eruptive phase that started in late February continues. An intense thermal anomaly has been detected from the volcano's summit area on satellite imagery and weak ash emissions extending approx. 60 km NW from the island were observed yesterday and this morning (Tokyo VAAC).

Thermal radiation from Alaid volcano (MODIS / Mirova)

Akita-Komaga-take (Honshu): Elevated seismic activity has been detected by Japanese volcanologists.
No other parameters (visual fumarolic activity, deformation etc) seem to be above background levels and no particular alert was raised.


Colima (Western Mexico): Mild explosive activity continues from the volcano. Mostly small explosions occur at irregular intervals of typically several hours from the summit vent where a small new lava dome is present and probably growing slowly.

Colima eruption.

An aerial photograph from February 29 shows the dome with a diameter of approx. 40-50 meters.


Telica (Nicaragua): After a period of several days of calm, lava glow has again become visible over night from the crater; during the day, increased degassing can be noted.

Lava glow from Telica's crater

Likely, the new fissure that formed on March 2, has again become active and erupted a small (if not tiny) amount of lava into the crater.


Soputan (North Sulawesi, Indonesia): A small group of VolcanoDiscovery just returned from a visit to Soputan. While clouds prevented detailed observations most of the time, glow was visible from the summit at night and moderate steaming during the day.

Glow from Soputan. (Photo: Ingrid / VolcanoDiscovery)

No other unusual events were observed (rockfalls, movements of the recent lava flows etc).

This suggests that effusive activity if at all is very weak at the lava dome occupying the summit crater.


Momotombo (Nicaragua): Explosions seem to have ceased during the past week. Glow remains visible at the crater, suggesting that lava continues to be present there.

Momotombo volcano's glow

Etna (Sicily, Italy): INGV Catania published the result of very high-resolution satellite-based measurements of ground deformation of Etna during the period between February 2015 - February 2016.

They show that Etna's dominant trend of deformation has changed from inflation (in blue) to deflation since the latest eruption in early December.

Deformation at Etna in late Dec 2015 (INGV)

Inflation of the entire volcanic edifice continued until November 2015, before the violent paroxysmal episodes occurred in December. During this event, the deflation that accompanied the eruptive activity has almost completely neutralized the preceding inflation, which likely means that most of the accumulated magma inside the volcano had been erupted during the recent activity.

This also suggests that Etna, currently very calm, might not be in for significant eruptions in the near future of the coming months (although only she herself knows for sure...)

The data were obtained using a modern interferometric techniques from TOPSAR (Terrain Observation with Progressive Scans SAR) radar images acquired by the Sentinel-1A satellite and have a precision in the sub-centimeter range.

Other interesting observations include eastward sliding movements of the northeastern and eastern flanks of Etna during and after the latest eruptive phase.

Source: Mt. Etna - Monitoraggio delle deformazioni del suolo con Sentinel 1 A. (INGV Catania)
 

Sakurajima (Kyushu, Japan): The activity at the volcano has decreased again over the past 2 weeks. The average size and frequency of explosions has dropped to one every few days (compared to several / day earlier in February). So far, March has only seen 3 explosions recorded by JMA.

Something new, however, is that a number of the recent explosions came not from the Showa crater, but from the Minamidake summit crater, the older one of the two, located west above the former one.

Eruption from Sakurajima's Minamidake crater

Minamidake had been Sakurajima's main active vent for decades since 1955, until a new crater on its eastern flank began to form and gradually "take over" in 2006 and became known as the Showa crater. In the past few years, only very few explosions were recorded from Minamidake,- nearly all activity had been at Showa crater, but this might have changed very recently.

From Smithsonian / USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report March 2-8, 2016:
During February 29  to March 4, JMA reported that two explosions from Showa Crater at Aira Caldera’s Sakurajima volcano ejected tephra as far as 500 m. At 0038 on March 4, an explosion at Minamidake summit crater generated an ash plume that rose 1.6 km. The Alert Level remained at 3 (on a 5-level scale). 



Shishaldin (Aleutian Islands, Alaska): The alert level was lowered back to normal status. Detectable activity (visible observations and satellite-based data) has been decreasing steadily of the past several months, the Alaska Volcano Observatory reported:

"There has been a steady decrease in detected thermal activity at Shishaldin over the past several months. No anomalous activity has been observed in several clear satellite images of Shishaldin since moderately elevated surface temperatures were detected on January 13. Airwaves associated with low-level explosive degassing have not been detected in infrasound data since February 7.

Low-amplitude seismic tremor consistent with an open, degassing system continues to be seen in seismic data and is considered to be within the bounds of background activity for Shishaldin. AVO is therefore downgrading the status of Shishaldin Volcano from aviation color code YELLOW to GREEN and from volcano alert level ADVISORY to NORMAL."


Rincón de la Vieja (Costa Rica): The volcano had a new explosion from its crater lake last Wednesday March 8. The eruption threw deposits of mud and ash onto the northern side of the crater to up to 120 m distance from the rim and generated a small plume of ash that caused light ash fall in nearby villages in up to 6 km distance to the north.

The activity at the volcano had started to increase already in 2015. Volcanologists have found evidence of several similar explosions that occurred in the past months, but the most recent one on Wednesday seems to have been significantly larger (although still small in itself).

Eruption at Rincón de la Vieja volcano (OVSICORI-UNA)

The new ash deposit on the northern crater flank (OVSICORI-UNA)

Close-up of the erupted ash: b) and c) show glassy lava from fresh magma (OVSICORI-UNA)

The most interesting news, however, comes from the analysis of the ejected ash. OVSICORI-UNA staff found that besides fragmented older rocks and sulfur, about 3-10 % of the ejected ash particles are glassy shards from juvenile (i.e. new) magma.

This means that the explosions were not entirely driven by steam only (so-called phreatic explosions), but involved a component of fresh magma that seems to have recently risen to shallow depths near the surface and was contributing to the energy of the explosion (phreatomagmatic activity). This could (but not necessarily must) signify that more eruptive activity, potentially stronger, is going to occur at the volcano in the near to medium-term future.

- Volcano Discovery.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: The Latest Report Of Volcanic Eruptions, Activity, Unrest And Awakenings – March 3-7, 2016! [PHOTOS + VIDEOS]

Strombolian eruption at Tungurahua on March 2, 2016. (Photo: E. Gaunt - OVTIGEPN)

March 7, 2016 - EARTH - The following constitutes the new activity, unrest and ongoing reports of volcanoes across the globe.


Tungurahua (Ecuador): The volcano is in a phase of mild to moderate strombolian activity. Incandescent bombs are ejected to the upper slopes of the volcano, generating avalanches. Ash plumes rise up to a few km above the crater and drift mostly in westerly directions.

Apparently, the large vent-clearing explosion on 27 Feb has opened the conduit to allow a sustained slow rise of magma and more gradual release of gas pressure in small discrete explosions (= strombolian activity).

In its latest report, IGEPN published a series of remarkable photos taken during cloud-free periods at night.



Nevado del Ruiz (Colombia): An explosion occurred at the volcano this morning, producing an ash plume that rose 3000 m above the summit. The eruption was accompanied by Ash falls occurred later in several nearby towns to the NW including Chinchiná, Villamaría, Manizales and Palestine.

Nevado del Ruiz' eruption column. (Photo: Luis Guillermo Velásquez / La Patria)

The regional La Nubia airport was closed today after noon.


Shiveluch (Kamchatka): The lava dome continues to be very active, generating frequent rockfalls and small glowing avalanches on the SW side as well as, more rarely, on the SE side as can be seen on today's time-lapse video.


WATCH: Time-lapse of Shiveluch.

A larger event might have taken place after dark, as Tokyo VAAC reported an ash plume to 18,000 ft (5.4 km) altitude this morning 08:20 UTC (17:20 local time in Kamchatka).



Copahue (Chile): The activity at the volcano, near-constant degassing with sometimes ash emissions, has decreased over the past weeks. Ash venting has become less frequent and intense, and the glow from E Agrio crater that had been visible at the crater disappeared.

Weak steam/ash plume from Copahue.

According to the Chilean scientists from SERNAGEOMIN who monitor the volcano, the current activity of the volcano is being caused by the interaction of a small volume of new magma under its highly active shallow hydrothermal system - none or little of this magma reaches the surface itself, but the heat transfer into the circulating fluids causes fragmentation by small explosions and the emission of gasses and particles (ash). This activity reflects in a continuous tremor signal of moderate intensity.

Scientists concluded that the new magma volume has been too small to greatly affect the internal balance in the hydrothermal system. Other geophysical parameters such as rate of degassing and deformation are mostly within normal levels of the volcano. It is therefore expected that the current activity continues in the coming weeks to months at fluctuating rates. This includes possible short-lived phases of more pronounced sporadic phreatic to strombolian explosions.




Chripoi (Kurile Islands, Russia): A new eruption might have taken place at the volcano this afternoon. Based on satellite imagery, Tokyo VAAC reported an ash plume to estimated 20,000 ft (6 km) altitude that drifted east.

Whether or not an eruption took place still needs to be confirmed.



Alaid (Northern Kuriles): A new eruption is occurring at the volcano, satellite images show. A pronounced steam plume with possible ash content can be seen drifting west from the volcano, at estimated 13,000 ft (4 km) altitude. In addition, NASA's MODIS and VIIRS sensors have been detecting an intense heat source from the volcano's summit lately.

Steam plume from Alaid volcano. NASA Suomi NPP satellite image

Bromo (East Java, Indonesia): The latest eruptive cycle of the volcano might have ended. No more eruptions (explosions, ash emissions) have been observed during the past 2 weeks and seismic activity has returned to normal levels as well, our friend Oystein Andersen from Jakarta reported.

Tokyo VAAC raised the aviation color code to orange.


Suwanose-jima (Ryukyu Islands): The (probably) strombolian-type activity that had started a few days ago continues at the Otake crater and is visible as bright glow from neighboring islands.

Glow from Suwanose-jima's active crater.

Manam (Papua New Guinea): New activity has been reported from the volcano this morning. A pilot reported an ash plume at approx. 10,000 ft (3 km) altitude extending 50 km to the SE. A plume, along with a thermal signal, can also be seen on the latest satellite image.

Ash plume from Manam volcano

You can find photos and more detailed reports of the latest eruption at his website.


Telica (Nicaragua): The volcano has remained mostly calm during the past 24 hours. Sporadic weak ash emissions occurred at night, but glow could no longer be seen from the crater.

Ash emission from Telica.

Masaya (Nicaragua): The activity of the lava lake in the Santiago crater has been increasing in the past week. In a recent bulletin, INETER mentions that the previously two ponds in two adjacent vents have now joined, probably as a result of erosion by the violently degassing and convective lava.

The following video taken on the 1st of March gives a good impression:


WATCH: Activity at the Masaya lake.

Nevados de Chillán (Central Chile): A small eruption occurred at the volcano again yesterday, the first activity since the mild explosive activity on 7 February. Starting around noon, the volcano began to emit a steam plume of variable intensity, sometimes mixed with ash. The activity took place at one of the new craters that had formed in early February.

Eruption of Nevados de Chillan volcano

According to SERNAGEOMIN, seismicity and other monitored parameters had shown little fluctuations during most of February, but then started to increase at the end of the month, possibly related to a slowly ascending body of magma. Yesterday's new activity is likely the result of this and could be a precursor of more activity in the near to medium future.


Bagana (Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea): Based on Himawari-8 satellite data, Darwin VAAC reported an ash emission from the volcano at 7,000 ft (2.1 km) altitude last evening, creating a plume that drifted 100 km to the NE. Aviation color code is at Orange.


Kilauea (Hawai'i): The activity of the volcano remains essentially unchanged. Rising magma levels under the east rift zone briefly caused an overflow of lava that erupted from a spatter cone within the southern part of the Puʻu ʻŌʻō crater.

Thermal image of the lava overflow inside Kilauea's Pu'u 'O'o crater

This activity started around 8:15 a.m. local time yesterday (2 Mar), covered part of the crater floor and ceased at about 15:00 local time. No lava flowed beyond the crater. According to HVO, "this type of activity is not unusual for Puʻu ʻŌʻō, and does not reflect a significant change in the ongoing eruption".
At the summit caldera, rising magma levels temporarily brought the surface of the lava lake inside Halema'uma'u back in sight from the Jaggar Museum overlook in the early morning hours before receding.

Scattered surface flows remain active on the 'June 27th' flow field, all within about 6.0 km (4 mi) of Puʻu ʻŌʻō and do not currently threaten any nearby communities. Seismicity and deformation are within normal levels throughout the volcano.


Popocatépetl (Central Mexico): No significant changes in activity have occurred over the past weeks. Bright glow at the summit crater indicates that the lava dome in its inner crater continues to grow slowly.

Intermittent weak to moderate explosions (on average 2-3 per day) sometimes produce ash plumes that rise up to 1-2 km and rarely eject incandescent material outside the crater.


WATCH: Glow from Popocatepetl volcano.

Fuego (Guatemala): The volcano's activity started to drop again to normal levels (intermittent small explosions) yesterday evening - the most recent paroxysm has now ended.

View of Fuego volcano.

Barren Island (Indian Ocean): Weak eruptive activity continues at the summit vent of the remote and rarely directly observed volcano, satellite data indicates.

A thermal hot spot has been present regularly during recent weeks, and on cloud-free days, a steam-gas plume can often be seen drifting from the island that sometimes contains some ash.

Steam (and ash?) plume from Barren Island on March 1(red spot is a thermal anomaly detected by the VIIRS radiometer onboard NASA's Suomi NPP)

What exactly the activity is like is difficult to say, but most likely is mild strombolian activity and/or the occasional presence of a (very small) lava lake in the summit crater.

- Volcano Discovery .

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: The Latest Report Of Volcanic Eruptions, Activity, Unrest And Awakenings – February 7, 2016! [PHOTOS + VIDEOS]

View of the ash plumes from the explosion and pyroclastic flow from the west (Image: Bomberos Retalhuleu / CONRED)

February 7, 2016 - EARTH - The following constitutes the new activity, unrest and ongoing reports of volcanoes across the globe.


Santiaguito (Guatemala): A strong explosion occurred from the active Caliente lava dome this morning around 10:30 local time. It genereated a pyroclastic flow that traveled down the southeast flank of the dome complex reaching a length of approx. 2-3 km. No damage or injuries were reported.

Ash plumes from both the explosion and the pyroclastic flow rose to an elevation of 17,000 ft (5.5 km) and produced moderate ash falls in the southern sectors of the volcano, in particular in the village and coffee farm of El Palmar. Authorities ordered preventive evacuations in areas to the S and SE closest to the volcano.

Santiaguito's pyroclastic flow this morning seen from NE near Santa Maria de Jesus (Image: Silverio Zum via Erick Colop/Twitter)

El Palmar under ash fall after the explosion (Image: Stereo100Noticias ‏@stereo100xela / twitter)

At the moment, it is unclear what exactly triggered the pyroclastic flow - collapse of ejected material or partial collapse of the upper parts of the dome itself, or, most likely, a combination of both. Whether the event was (as often) an isolated one or might be a first in a series of stronger explosions and collapses with more pyroclastic flows is impossible to know at the moment.

According to CONRED, this morning's eruption was preceded by 34 small to moderate explosions within 24 hours, a quite unusually high rate, suggesting that magma and/or gas supply into the dome has been elevated at the moment.


Soputan (North-Sulawesi, Indonesia): A larger explosive eruption was reported to have occurred about two hours ago (10:15 UTC). At 11:45 UTC, Darwin VAAC issued alerts to aviation about an ash plume that had risen to estimated 23,000 ft (7 km) altitude and has been drifting NW. Aviation color code was immediately raised to RED.

Picture allegedly showing an ash plume from Soputan today (from the first, smaller eruption; Source: Istimewa/Tribun Regional)

Forecast of ash plume from Soputan's eruption this morning (VAAC Darwin)

According to a local newspaper article, there were two eruptions today: a presumably smaller one (which did not cause any alerts) in the morning at 10:00, and a "terrific" eruption at 18:15 local time (or 10:15 GMT), which sent a large ash plume into the sky. Ash fall was reported from the areas at the feet of the volcano, but there seems not to have been any damage reported.



Alaid (Kuriles Islands, Russia): The most recent eruption of the volcano, which began in October last year, can be regarded as over and the aviation color code was lowered back to green.

Comparison of satellite images from July 2015 and January this year, showing that large parts of the summit crater have been filled by new lava
(Images: Nasa, annotations: Culture Volcan)

MODIS thermal signal from Alaid (MIROVA)

Satellite data compiled by Culture Volcan show no more heat emission from the volcano since January and visible satellite imagery now show that the crater has been partially filled with fresh lava from the eruption.



Pagan (Mariana Islands): Satellite data and ground-based observations from a field crew and local residents near Pagan indicated that steam-and-gas emissions have significantly decreased since March 2015. The Aviation Color Code and Volcano Alert Level were lowered to Unassigned on January 30.



Cotopaxi (Ecuador): On January 29, IG reported that in recent weeks superficial activity at Cotopaxi was characterized by minor steam emissions from the crater and sporadic gas emissions with minor amounts of ash.

The volcano's last eruption in November, 2015.

Sulfur dioxide emissions were less than 1,000 tons per day (pre-eruptive levels) and seismicity had almost returned to baseline levels. At 1843 on 24 January a plume with low-to-moderate levels of ash rose 700 m above the crater and drifted W. The emission coincided with a hybrid earthquake.


Chirpoi  (Kurile Islands, Russia): Satellite images detected a thermal anomaly over Snow, a volcano of Chirpoi, during 25, 27-28, and 30-31 January. The Aviation Color Code remained at Yellow.


Macdonald (Austral Islands): Scientists and crew aboard CSIRO’s (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) Marine National Facility research vessel Investigator observed a plume rising from McDonald Island (the largest island) during the last week of January. Visual observations of the McDonald Islands are very rare due to its remote location.


Egon (Flores Island, Indonesia): Volcanic unrest has decreased at the volcano, making the likelihood of an impending eruption smaller. The volcano's alert level was lowered from 3 to 2 (on a scale of 1-4).

"During 20 January-1 February seismicity at Egon was dominated by signals indicating emissions; shallow volcanic events had decreased.

RSAM values increased on 25 January but did not exceed values detected during the previous peak on 12 January; overall seismicity had declined. The Alert Level was lowered to 2 (on a scale of 1-4) and residents were advised to stay at least 1.5 km away from the crater."


Bardarbunga (Central Iceland): Over the past few months, seismic activity at the volcano, mainly under the volcano's large, ice-covered caldera has been increasing again, suggesting that magma might be filling the volcano's reservoir underneath the caldera.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 300 shallow earthquakes of magnitudes up to 3.8 on the Richter scale were recorded, clustered in areas near the southern and northeastern caldera rim.

Earthquakes under and near Bardarbunga volcano since January 2016 (yellow circles = older than 2 days, red = past 48 hours)

Time vs depth of earthquakes since January 1, 2016

Another cluster of small earthquakes concentrates along the 2014-15 eruptive dyke 20 km to the NE of the volcano.

Whether or not, and if so, when the observed earthquake activity under the caldera could lead to another eruption of the volcano, now considered one of, if not even THE most active in Iceland, is impossible to predict.


Sakurajima (Kyushu, Japan): After several months of unusual calm, the volcano had a moderately strong vulcanian explosion from the Showa crater this morning. An ash plume rose to approx. 10,000 ft (3 km) altitude.

Eruption of Sakurajima volcano this morning (NHK)

Until the end of Sep 2015, Sakurajima had been producing such explosions, of varying intensity, at rates of typically 3-5 or more per day. This activity ceased around 28 Sep 2015 and until now, the volcano had only manifested surface activity in the form of minor ash emissions, degassing, as well as, very rarely, minor explosions. Whether the volcano is back to its previously typical behavior with more frequent and stronger explosions, as it had been during most of the recent years, remains to be seen.


Sinabung (Sumatra, Indonesia): Recently, explosions from the active summit lava dome have become more frequent, producing ash plumes that rose 1-2 km above the summit.

Explosion at Sinabung volcano yesterday (Image: Endro Lewa / Facebook)

Extrusion of viscous lava also continues at slow pace, generating small to moderate pyroclastic flows from time to time.


Fuego (Guatemala): Activity at the volcano is again increasing and seems to be heading towards another (the 3rd in 2016) paroxysm.

Glowing avalanches after an explosion of Fuego.

Explosions have become stronger, and possibly, one or several short lava flows are active on the upper flanks. The thermal output of the volcano, measured by NASA's satellite-based MODIS spectroradiometer, also shows a clear increasing trend.


- Volcano Discovery.