Sheveluch volcano, Kamchatka, Russia – (AV & CultureVolcan – June 27 – 15:37 UTC)
KVERT report of June 26 : According to seismic data, strong ash explosions began from 19:10 UTC on June 26, and continued about 40 min. Probably ash plumes rose up to 33,000-39,400 (10-12 km) a.s.l. Ash plumes are extending to the SOUTH-WEST of the volcano. Ashfalls was in Klyuchi Village – about 02 mm red ash. Density clouds obscure the volcano at now.
Explosive-extrusive-effusive eruption of the volcano continues. Ash explosions up to 23,800 ft (10 km) a.s.l. could occur at any time. Ongoing activity could affect international and low-flying aircraft.
Ash falls at Klyuchi Village on June 26, 21:00-23:00 UTC – Courtesy and copyright – Yu. Demyanchuk – Institute of Volcanology and Seismology FEB RAS, KVERT
Ashfall in Lazo village – image courtesy and copyright vmdaily.ru – also thanks to http://laculturevolcan.blogspot.fr/ for pointing us
Kerinci volcano, Sumatra, Indonesia (AV – June 2 – 14:41 UTC)
2 great twitter sites to follow up activity and images of Gunung Kerinci : @Infoseismic and @padangekspres
The image below is a twitter image of the ash cloud earlier today :
Twitter Image courtesy @ Padangekspres
Kerinci volcano, Sumatra, Indonesia (AV – June 2 – 12:15 UTC)
The Indonesian press reports that some villagers living on the slopes and at the base of the Kerinci volcano (alert level Waspada or 2 on a scale of 4) have fled their houses due to a number of “atomic bomb” black smoke eruptions. The atomic bomb description has to be regarded as a mushroom kind of smoke column. This kind of explosions are very similar than those happening in September 9/2007.
Villagers are fearing that their crops will be lost as soon after the eruption black ash was falling out of the sky. To make it even worse, it started to rain shortly thereafter making the ash even more dangerous for crops. Villagers also told the reporters that they felt strong vibrations.
We expect that CVGHM will increase the alert level from Waspada to Siaga (3 on a scale of 4) very soon.
The volcano was in Waspada status since 2007!
Mount Kerinci is the highest volcano in Indonesia.The summit towers 3805 m above sea level.
An explosion at Mexico’s Popocatépetl taken from the Tlamacas webcam on May 15, 2013. Image: CENAPRED.
The high alert at Mexico’s Popocatépetl remains in place as the restless Mexican volcano still shows signs that new magma is at the surface, meaning a larger explosion could occur if pressures builds under the summit crater. Over the last day, the volcano has produced 22 separate explosions (see above) or “exhalations” of ash, as they are refered. The latest CENAPRED update from today (May 16) says that the explosive strombolian activity at the summit has continued, with blocks of volcanic tephra and ash being thrown up to 400 meters from the vent. Ash has been reported falling occasionally in cities all around the volcano as well. Combine that with near constant seismicity and ash emissions reaching up to 3.5 km (11,500 feet) that wax and wane, and we have a very active volcano. CENAPRED has left Popocatépetl at alert level Yellow Phase 3 and officials are making plans for evacuations and shelters if the eruption gets worse. The current 12 kilometer exclusion zone around the volcano also remains in place.
Now, it wouldn’t be a volcanic crisis without the usual “the locals don’t care if the volcano is active” articles — and sure enough, here it is. You can see the formula for these articles: a volcano is restless and officials are worry, but local residents near volcano X are plucky/fearless/dumb. Geologists say “danger” but local residents have something colorful to say about how they don’t care, usually with a folksy attitude/idea of why it erupts. Now, I know there is a whole cottage industry in the media for these “people” stories, but I do wonder if they really sell the local communities short. Sure, stick a reporter’s microphone in your face that everything is normal and you won’t leave. Yes, there are very real issues with theft and looting during evacuations (as this article points out) — something we’ve seen before at other volcanic crises. However, when it comes down to an actual large eruption, attitudes change quickly as your and your families’ lives are threatened by the erupting volcano. Then again, we could be looking at fine journalism that uses public opinion to speculate on if a major eruption will occur (sigh) and whether folks think this is an actual emergency.
The Santiaguito dome on Santa Maria in Guatemala, showing a diffuse ash plume and a possible pyroclastic flow in the foreground. Image: Webcam capture on November 29, 2012 / INSIVUMEH.
You can see some of this activity on the INSIVUMEH webcam for the Santiaguito dome complex — even in the image from today, an ash plume as possible small pyroclastic flows are visible (see above).
New Zealand’s Mount Tongariro volcano erupted for the second time this year on Wednesday (Nov. 21), sending a plume of ash 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) skyward and raising the odds that another eruption is imminent.
Tongariro, one of three active volcanoes that stand over Tongariro National Park in the heart of New Zealand’s North Island, lay dormant for more than a century before blowing open its Te Maari crater in August.
That eruption was augured by an increase in seismic activity, but Wednesday’s eruption came without any warning, said volcanologist Tony Hurst, who spoke to Radio New Zealand.
A view of Mount Tongariro just after it erupted on Wednesday (Nov. 21).
CREDIT: Via Stuff.co.nz | Lomi Schaumkel/Tamatea Intermediate School
New Zealand’s Mount Tongariro volcano erupted for the second time this year on Wednesday (Nov. 21), sending a plume of ash 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) skyward and raising the odds that another eruption is imminent.
Tongariro, one of three active volcanoes that stand over Tongariro National Park in the heart of New Zealand’s North Island, lay dormant for more than a century before blowing open its Te Maari crater in August.
That eruption was augured by an increase in seismic activity, but Wednesday’s eruption came without any warning, said volcanologist Tony Hurst, who spoke to Radio New Zealand.
There were hikers in the area at the time of the eruption, including a group of schoolchildren, but no injuries have been reported. Hurst said the eruption was relatively non-threatening because it didn’t eject many rocks, suggesting it may have originated from the same vent that had been mostly cleared out by the August eruption, which rained rocks on a hiker’s shelter a mile (1.5 km) away from the crater.
Middle school teacher Paul Lowes was hiking on Tongariro with his class when Wednesday’s 5-minute eruption began, at about 1:25 p.m. local time.
“We were sitting there celebrating with the kids, the achievement of them getting up there, and next thing, one of them pointed out, ‘Look what’s happening.’ I turned around and there [the volcano] was, just starting to blow,” Lowes told Stuff.co.nz. “We stopped in a bit of awe of it to start with, and didn’t realize what was actually happening. And as it was getting bigger, then it was sort of, ‘Right-o, it’s time to move everyone out of here.'”
Scientists had no reason to expect the eruption, but one no-warning eruption serves as a warning for the next. That’s because, historically, the Te Maari crater has had a tendency to break a silence and keep talking.
“In 1892 and 1896, it sort of had eruptive periods that went on for months with a number of different events,” Hurst told Radio New Zealand. “Having [now had] two events, it could well have more than two in this sequence. There’s an enhanced risk at the moment, certainly.”
But Tongariro is not the only potential loose cannon in the park right now. Last week, GNS Science, an official monitoring body in New Zealand and Hurst’s employer, issued a warning that Mount Ruapehu, a neighboring volcano, is showing signs that it may erupt in the coming weeks or months.
Tongariro National Park served as the backdrop of numerous scenes in the “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy, standing in for the fictional land of Mordor.
The park’s third active volcano, Mount Nguaruhoe, featured as the movies’ Mount Doom in long shots. That volcano last erupted in 1975.
The plume from Tungurahua in Ecuador as seen on August 19, 2012. Webcam capture by Eruptions reader Kirby.
It is that time of year again – the summer is ending and classes begin within a week. Now, I am on leave for the fall, but that doesn’t mean the pace of things isn’t picking up. I spent the end of last week blasting zircons with a laser up at Michigan State in order to get some ages on those crystals and in about 2 weeks from now, I’ll be headed back to California for a week of field excursions across the Sierras. So, busy indeed.
Things have also settled down a smidge volcanically as well. After the New Zealand trifecta, we’ve had some rumblings around the globe … so I thought I’d just use today’s post to catch up with some news I’ve seen (or posted links to on Twitter).
It took a little bit to decipher, but it appears that the Grozny Group in the Kuril Islands may have had its first eruption since 1989. A couple of reports out of Russia suggest that the Ivan Gronzy (Ivan the Terrible; see above) dome in this cluster of lava domes within a caldera may have had a small eruption that spread ash across Iturup Island. One article says that the plume may have only been ~1 km, but it was enough to for people to note ash fall in Goryachiye Klyuchi (9 km) and Kurilsk (25 km).
Beyond this, the news is, well, hard to understand. The article in the Moscow Times claims that the eruption was caused by “increased water flows rushing into the volcano after heavy downpours” and that people noticed “hydrogen peroxide fumes“. Now, I’m hoping a lot of this is merely lost in translation as the ITAS TASS article talks about there no longer being a hydrogen sulfide odor in the area.
In any case, if this eruption is confirmed, it is the first at the Grozny Group since 1989. The complex of volcanoes is a very hydrothermally active area, with strong fumaroles, mostly at Machekh Crater. However, all the historic eruptions from the Grozny Group, including the one in 1989, have come from Ivan Gronzy, as this new eruption seems to be as well.
Aerial view by the New Zealand Navy of a pumice raft spotted near Raoul Island in the Kermadec Islands on August 10, 2012. Image from the New Zealand Herald.
Just think, one week ago I was saying that 2012 was a relatively quiet year for volcanic eruptions. We haven’t made up all the ground of the more active years like 2010-11, however New Zealand had one of its more exciting volcanic weeks in a century – White Island and Tongariro both had eruptions and yesterday a large pumice raft was spotted north of the island nation. This pumice raft (see above) is the product of a submarine volcanic eruption from one of the multiple of seamounts that are part of Kermadec arc north of New Zealand. Exactly which volcano is the source of the pumice is unclear – early on, it was suggested that Monowai was the source, but that seems to be in some question based on the location of the 26,000 square kilometer pumice raft (see below). The raft is located to the northeast of Raoul Island, one of the active volcanoes of the Kermadec Islands that is above the sea surface. The next known active volcano to the northeast of Raoul is Monowai, thus the suspicion that it may be the source. Likely the only way this actual source will be identified is through matching the composition of this pumice with that of known material from Monowai (or another Kermadec volcano). Rafts like this can travel great distances – some of the pumice rafts from the Krakatau eruption in 1886 washed up on African beaches months later – so trying to determine the exact source of the pumice when it is so widespread is challenging. However, this is likely a significant eruption based on the size of the pumice raft across the ocean surface. Monowai does seem reasonable, though, as it has produced significant eruptions in the last few years.
A raw Aqua/MODIS image of the pumice raft off Raoul Island in the Kermadecs, seen on August 10, 2012. Image courtesy of NASA.
Much like I said yesterday, none of these eruptions are directly connected – Tongariro, White Island and this submarine eruption in the Kermadecs are too far apart to be sharing any magmatism. However, the tectonics that control the formation of volcanoes are all the same – the subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Australian Plate.
Steam seen on August 8, 2012 from one of the sources of the August 6 eruption of Tongariro in New Zealand. Image from OneNews.
The hits just keep on coming this week in New Zealand. We’re seen eruptions from both Tongariro and White Island this week – and White Island seems to be picking up the pace. Last night, reports of volcanic lightning from White Island abounded along the Bay of Plenty and a 300 meter eruptive plume was confirmed for the volcano, meaning. Ash fall was also reported at Papamoa, on the coast near Tauranga, the first ash produced from White Island since 2001. To my knowledge, tours of White Island have not been officially banned yet – even the wording of the GNS Science report suggests that tours are still going on: “GNS advises visitors to take a high level of caution.” This is fascinating because as Eruptions reader Claude G. pointed out, the New Zealand government quickly closed access to the Tongariro area after its eruption on Monday, but the same ban has not been produced for the more-vigourously active White Island. My post from Monday that was lost in tall the eruptive excitement gets into some of the issues of these tours to active volcanoes like White Island. The volcano is still at alert level 2 and aviation alert orange according to the latest GNS Science update.
Meanwhile, more of the results (video) of the Tongariro eruption have become apparent. At least three blast craters were formed along with a fissure on the volcano during the eruption and the volcanic tephra produced a small debris flow that travelled a few kilometers from the crater (like caused by a breached lake at the Te Mari crater and/or mixing with snow on the volcano). The GNS Science overflight also captured some cool images of impact craters from the bombs thrown from the vent area. Things have settled down at Tongariro, with only low levels of seismicity under the volcano, but new video footage of the Te Mari crater area shows the vigorous steaming (see above) around the area of the eruption. Be sure to check out the great gallery of images from Tongariro on the GNS Science Flickr stream. Some early analyses of the Tongariro ash show that is was somewhat fluorine rich – an issue especially important for agricultural interests near the volcano. However, this eruption didn’t produce sufficient volume of ash for the fluorine to be problematic, but a larger, sustained eruption might change that. I did find it frustrating how some media made it seem like fluorine in the ash was both surprising and dangerous. This isn’t really the case as almost all volcanic ash as some fluorine. More interestingly, these early ash analyses suggest that little to no juvenile (new magma) material present. Speaking of the ash plume, the NASA Earth Observatory posted a great night image of the plume from the eruption showing it stretching eastward across the North Island. GNS Science has left Tongariro at alert level 2/aviation alert yellow.
Now, one question that I’ve seen asked in a number of places is “are these eruptions related?”. The answer is yes and no. Yes, White Island and Tongariro are both part of the same volcanic arc, where the Pacific Plate is being subducted under the Australian Plate. This means that the processes that generate the primary magmas that feed the volcanoes are the same – as they are for all the volcanoes of New Zealand. However, White Island and Tongariro are geographically separated by over 220 km, so, no, their respective eruption did not cause/prompt the other. Instead, we’re just seeing another example of the random distribution of volcanic activity that produced a beguiling but ultimately false correlation. Now, if Tongariro erupted in quick succession with Ruapehu, only ~17 km away, then there could be more argument for a shared cause (think something like the Katmai eruption in Alaska in 1912). However, White Island and Tongariro are just too far apart to be directly connected in their magmatic systems.
The webicorder trace for Tongariro in New Zealand showing a potential explosion (near bottom) at the volcano. Image courtesy of GNS Science.
I just saw this come across Twitter but there are reports of ash fall near Tongariro in New Zealand (apparently upwards of 5 cm[!] on state highway 46, north of the volcano) along with an unconfirmed report of “red/orange glow” from the Te Mari Crater. The Desert Road near Tongariro has also now been closed, which suggests an eruption (or hydrothermal explosion) has occurred and rescue teams are headed up to hikers’ huts to make sure no one is trapped near the volcano. GNS Science has raised the alert status to Level 2 after these reports. I’m trying to find some more information so we can confirm this, but the webicorders for Tongariro show what could be an explosion signal (see above). Sadly, there isn’t much of a view in the webcam for the volcano.
