Tag Archives: Eruptions

Nevado del Ruiz Volcano in Colombia Heating Up

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Increasing Volcanic Unrest Observed at Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia

The crater of Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia seen on March 8, 2012. The area is obviously warm and INGEOMINAS scientists noticed ash in the crater area as well.

Eruptions reader Sherine pointed me towards the recent updates from INGEOMINAS in Colombia onNevado del Ruiz. The volcano hasn’t erupted in over 20 years, but the signs are beginning to point towards a potential revival of the volcano.

 

INGEOMINAS scientists were able to do a flyover with the Colombian Air Force and got a number of shotsof the summit area. They also reported “ash on the glacier, near the crater rim and on the eastern flank of the same,” likely from a February 22 explosion from Ruiz. The steam plume from the main crater on the day of the flyover was ~1.4 km / 4,500 feet. That same day, a seismic signal of tremor associated with multiple small ash emissions were reported along with an increase in sulfur dioxide emissions. All of these events suggest that Ruiz is seeing heating in the summit area and likely phreatic explosions. The increased sulfur dioxide would additionally suggest new magma in the volcano. The shots of the summit area clearly show steam coming from the crater, although it is doesn’t appear to show any new material in the crater. Shots of the entire summit show ash on some of the snow-covered areas as well (see below – grey on foreground slopes of the volcano).

The summit area of Nevado del Ruiz. In the foreground a small dusting of ash can be seen on the snow. The plume seen here reaches ~1.4 km.

Most people are familiar with Nevado del Ruiz due to the eruption in 1985 that killed over 23,000 people. That disaster was caused by a lahar (volcanic mudflow) generated by a small eruption from the summit crater melting the abundance ice and snow at the summit. The most recent pictures of the summit area (see below) show that there is plenty of snow to make lahars a very real hazard if Ruiz where to begin to enter a new period of eruption.

from:    http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/03/increasing-volcanic-unrest-observed-at-nevado-del-ruiz-in-colombia/#more-99578

Continued Seismic Activity at El Hierro

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El Hierro Volcano (Canary Islands) : Red alert – seismic activity not over yet

Last update: October 20, 2011 at 3:55 pm by By 

Read also:   Part 4 (from October 14 until October 17 )

Update 20/10 – 15:53 UTC:  
– 10 earthquakes have been recorded by IGN (max. magnitude : 2.0) since midnight UTC.
– The diving companies, one of the important sub-economies on the island,  are living through a very bad period. Cancellations have been coming in until december 2012. Alpidio Armas hopes that the present crisis situation will end soon and that business will gradually be back to normal.

El Mundo Radiography animation of the El Hierro volcano eruption

Update 20/10 – 7:46 UTC:  Spanish newspaper El Mundo did something what you can expect from a quality newspaper, they invested money in afantastic animated overview of what happened .  The animation is divided into the following parts :
– Geography of El Hierro
– Divergent fault line
– location and size of the craters/cinder cones
– Ocean sea floor surrounding El Hierro
– Eruption specifics.
We advise our readers to take a look at this great animation. Click here to watch the El Mundo animation

Update 20/10 – 7:37 UTC:  slight changing harmonic tremors during the last 8 hours. Since midnight IGN reported 2 earthquakes (this number can change when IGN updates her records).
The number of earthquakes yesterday was the highest in number since October 10 when the active period started

Port of La Restinga on October 19 – many fish died by the acidic water – image courtesy and copyright Desiree Martin

Update 19/10 – 23:58 UTC:  Killing nature. Due to the  lower Ph, the water is very acid and a lot of fish did not survive it. The picture at right has been shot in the port of La Restinga.

Update 19/10 – 23:55 UTC:  A total of 16 volcanic earthquakes have been recorded on Wednesday. Max. magnitude: 2.6

Update 19/10 – 17:44 UTC:   La Restinga fishermen demand that the Ramon Margalef will not only have geologists on board, but also the “best possible biologists”. They want to know from the biologists when their fishing grounds will get back to normal.

to read more, and for updates, go to:    http://earthquake-report.com/2011/09/25/el-hierro-canary-islands-spain-volcanic-risk-alert-increased-to-yellow/