Tag Archives: Mt. Cleveland

Latest Volcanic Eruptions

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Eruption Update for August 21, 2012: Cleveland, Tungurahua and More

  • By Erik Klemetti
  • Email Author
  • August 21, 2012 |

  • 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).

    Alaska

    Cleveland has continued its 2012 pattern of explosive destruction of the summit dome – the volcano experienced yet another small explosion according to AVO. The volcano is remote, so the threat is mainly to air traffic, so Cleveland is watched via satellite for these explosions.

     

    Ecuador

    Another restless volcano was moved into a higher alert status after new explosions produced ash fall from a 1.5 km / 5,000 foot plume and pyroclastic flows from Ecuador’s Tungurahua. Most of the english-speaking media on the activity seems to be a string of images from previous eruptions with no real information, but spanish-speaking reports tell of evacuations near the volcano due to the heightened activity. This renewed activity at Tungurahua has apparently caused significant damage to crops and livestock in the area surrounding the volcano.

  • from:    http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/eruption-update-for-august-21-2012/#more-125988

Mt. Cleveland Dome Continues to build

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MOUNT CLEVELAND VOLCANO CONTINUES BUILDING MASSIVE DOME
GW RASTOPSOFF, ALASKA NATIVE NEWS

PUBLISHED 09/07/2011 – 7:18 A.M. AKST
CHUGINADAK ISLAND, ALASKA-Mount Cleveland, a strato-volcano perched on Chuginadak island, has had its Volcano Alert status raised back up to “Watch” and its Aviation code re-raised to “Orange.”
This comes as observations of the volcano yesterday that the small lava dome in the summit crater has resumed growth and now fills the floor of the crater.
A persistent thermal anomaly has been observed since September 3, probably marking the timing of resumed lava dome growth. The size of the dome as of August 30 when it appeared to have stopped growing was approximately 262 feet in diameter. The current dome is approximately 394 feet in diameter. If dome growth continues, lava flows onto the flanks of the volcano may develop but would not be hazardous to aviation. The presence of the lava dome increases the possibility of an explosive eruption, but does not necessarily indicate that one will occur. Short-lived explosions could produce an ash cloud that exceeds 20,000 ft above sea level. These events can occur without warning and may go undetected in satellite imagery for hours.
The team at the Alaska Volcano Observatory were unsure on September 2nd, whether the 6.8 earthquake had disturbed the apparent rest of the volcano. But, satellite information began to trickle in on the next day as the first of the anomalies since the down-grade of the volcano made itself known. That information had the volcano obscured by cloud cover so no determination could be made then. It wasn’t until yesterday that a better view of the summit of the volcano could be seen.
Although no connection has been made, the 6.8 earthquake and its numerous after-shocks felt on and after September 2nd, may very well have been responsible for the current activity at Mount Cleveland.
There was another after-shock from the September 2nd quake again early this morning at 2:36 am measuring 4.4 magnitude.