Volcano watch

[Sevan Makaracı]

Japan: A new island appears in the Ogasawara Islands - November 2013

Active volcanoes (Sep 28, 2012)

Source

Source

"Of course all volcanoes will explode, as this is going to be a very severe pole shift. What about the months and years preceding the pole shift? It is no secret that Mammoth Lake and the caldera of Yellowstone are warming up, and the populace has been prepared for these occurrences by the movie Volcano where there, in the middle of LA, lava is bubbling up. In fact, there is a fault line running from the approximate San Diego/LA area, up into the Sierras, and this is liable to rupture rather violently during one of the quakes that precedes the pole shift by some months. Volcanic eruptions from that area in the Sierras can be expected. Will Mount St. Helen erupt? All volcanoes that have been active within the memory of man will begin spewing and burping and oozing, and many that were not expected to become active will reactive. "   ZetaTalk - Feb 15, 2000

[Derrick Johnson]

New volcanic activity in Tonga

Tongan authorities say fresh volcanic activity at the Home Reef volcano, near the northern islands of Vava'u, is creating a steam cloud two kilometres high.

Government geologist Rennie Vaiomounga says a local pilot first reported the activity on Tuesday afternoon.

Mr Vaiomounga says that report has since been confirmed by a boat in the area.

"We got the report from the Real Tonga airlines pilot about they saw a plume coming out from the area which we roughly estimate the area should be from the Home Reef about 40 nautical miles southwest of Vava'u. It's one of the submarine volcanoes."

Mr Vaiomounga says a team will be sent to monitor the activity once weather conditions have improved.

The Home Reef volcano last had signficant activity in 2006.

One month ago volcanic activity disrupted flights and created land in the Hunga Ha'apai area further south.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/265818/new-volc...

[Recall 15]

Vids of Fire Volcano in Guatemala:
Feb 8. 2015

Audio is from the seismograms with vertical on the right and north on the left.

The camera is located at INSIVUMEH's Fuego Observatory in Panimache, Chimaltenango, Guatemala about 7 km southwest of the summit of Fuego. The image is updated every minute

Feb 7, 2015

From:

http://www.msn.com/es-xl/noticias/mundo/alerta-naranja-por-erupci%C...

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&a...

[Derrick Johnson]

Volcano Ash To Blame For 'Milky' Rain In Oregon, Washington, Meteorologists Suggest

Meteorologists are stumped after rainfall in Oregon, Washington and neighboring areas in which the precipitation appeared to be dirty, or milky, in texture. Photographs posted by the U.S. National Weather Service indicate that, unlike typically clear rain, this liquid was infused with something else. But what?

The so-called milky rain, pelting the Pacific Northwest Friday morning, left cars and other outdoor fixtures covered with streaks of white, dusty material.

A number of theories abound, with meteorologists telling BuzzFeed the likeliest cause is dirt and dust from the Northwest landscape being circulated within the weather system.

“The ash is more than likely from Volcano Shiveluch in Kamchatka Krai, Russia, which spewed an ash plume to about the 22,000-foot level in late January,” the Walla Walla County Emergency Management agency in Walla Walla, Washington said in a Facebook post. It added there are a number of active volcanoes that could be responsible. “It has been deposited in a wide spread area, including Washington and Oregon,” the agency said.

The right-leaning media outlet the Blaze suggested the cloudiness of the rainwater could be caused by dust from recent eruptions of Japan’s Sakurajima volcano. Commenters beneath the article took on a decidedly more conspiratorial bent, accusing the liberal media of being too quick to blame climate change.

The NWS plans to re-examine old satellite data with the hope of finding out exactly what happened. This type of activity isn’t totally unprecedented in Oregon, although ashlike rain typically falls toward the end of a long hot summer.

“Oregon has strong winds,” NWS meteorologist Mark Tuner told BuzzFeed. “In some summer dry spells, we’ll get big dust storms, and then if it rains, we can see a similar thing. ... It’s a mystery at this point.”

Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/volcano-ash-blame-milky-rain-oregon-washingt...

[Derrick Johnson]

Guatemala's Fuego volcano spews ash, forces airport closure

Feb 7 (Reuters) - Guatemala's Fuego volcano belched black ash into the sky on Saturday, causing the government to evacuate 100 nearby residents and forcing the closure of the capital's international airport, President Otto Perez told reporters.

The volcano, about 25 miles (40 km) southwest of the capital, forced the cancellation of several flights as Guatemala's main airport shut down and workers sought to clear the runways of ash.

Officials said the amount of falling ash was moderate but urged nearby residents to use masks or wet cloth to guard against breathing dangerous contaminants.

The airport is expected to reopen by early Sunday morning. (Reporting by Sofia Menchu; Writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/02/08/guatemala-volcano-idINL1N0...

Rooftops and San Francisco church, background, are covered with ash from the eruption of the Fuego Volcano at Antigua, Guatemala, on Saturday. (Moises Castillo/Associated Press)

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/guatemala-volcano-eruption-showers-tow...

[Howard]

New Volcanic Eruption off South Africa After Quake Swarm (Feb 4)

A new eruption has started on remote Reunion Island, where Piton de la Fournaise is now producing a lava flow that is snaking down its slopes.

The new eruption is coming from the southern side of the volcano and webcams show the lava from Piton de Bert, one of the peaks of Piton de la Fournaise.

The lava flow is descending SSW and has already reached the base of the Dolomieu crater, i.e. the floor of the enclos. Its length is more than 1 km.

A swarm of earthquakes preceded this eruption, with at least a few hundred recorded earlier today. 

This is the second eruption in the past year at Piton de la Fournaise after 3 years of quiet. That eruption only lasted a few hours and the volcano was recently lowered from a volcanic alert status.

Similar to Kilauea, the volcano mainly produces lava flows, although the lava at Piton de la Fournaise is less viscous that at Kilauea thanks to the higher alkali content (sodium, potassium, calcium) in the lava.

Sources

http://www.wired.com/2015/02/new-eruption-started-piton-de-la-fourn...

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/piton_fournaise/news/50872/Piton-de...

[Howard]

Volcanic activity for Feb 3:

Bardarbunga (Central Iceland): The eruption, now going on for more than 150 days, continues with little changes. Although it has started to decrease, very slowly, in intensity, it remains impressive and magma discharge is still an impressive approx. 100 cubic meters per second. Caldera subsidence and seismicity continue as well, but a slow decreasing trend of subsidence rate - from initially 50 cm a day to now about half of that now - is visible as well and seems to correlated with the decrease in magma effusion. Icelandic scientists think therefore that subsidence (and hence, the eruption,) might go on for another 5 to 16 months.

 Fogo (Cape Verde): Mild intermittent explosive activity continues at the volcano accompanied by effusive activity. A new lava flow, smaller than the ones in the first weeks, but still well alimented, has been active in the Cha caldera over the past days and advanced slowly approx. 1500 m west-southwest passing between Monte Beco and Monte Saia cones.

 Shiveluch (Kamchatka): The explosion on 1 Feb left a large crater on the lava dome, from where persistent incandescence can now be seen. This and occasional glowing rockfalls originating there indicate that magma continues to arrive at the dome.

Shishaldin (United States, Aleutian Islands): A small eruption was seen last night from a ship, VAAC Anchorage reports. Aviation color code remains orange. According to the Alaska Volcano Observatory, elevated surface temperatures at the summit continue and small steam emissions are visible on clear webcam images, as well as "a wispy, low-level ash emission from the summit drifting west-southwest" on one image.
 
Santiaguito (Guatemala): Activity has remained similar to the previous months. Occasional small explosions from the dome and a continuing active lava flow on the southeast side of Caliente dome continue.

Pacaya (Guatemala): New ash emissions and explosions, up to 40 per day, have occurred last week, indicating the volcano could be heading towards a new eruptive phase of strombolian activity. So far, the emissions were small and seem to be related to the opening of a new central crater, estimated 40-50 meters wide with unknown depth. Elevated tremor accompanies this activity.

Fuego (Guatemala): Activity has been at the higher end of the scale recently. Strong explosions occur frequently, ejecting plumes that reach 1-1.3 km height and causing constant avalanches on the volcano's upper slopes, often causing bush fires in the vegetation below. Shock waves rattle ceilings and windows in the villages of Panimache, La Rochelle, Morelia.

Source

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/volcano-activity/news/50857/Volcani...

[Howard]

Powerful Eruption at Mexico's Colima Volcano (Jan 21)

 A powerful blast at about 9:13 a.m. Wednesday morning local time has been captured on video.

The ash column rose to approximately 29,000 ft (9 km) altitude and was drifting northeast.

A lava flow descended the steep slope of the volcano was during the explosion and ash fall occurred in Tuxpan, Zapotiltic and Ciudad Guzmán in the Jalisco district. 

Sources

http://mashable.com/2015/01/21/webcam-mexico-volcano/

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/colima/news/50519/Colima-volcano-Me...

[Howard]

Eruptions at Kamchatka's Klyuchevskoy Volcano Intensify (Jan 20)

The eruptions at Klyuchevskoy volcano have intensified over the past 24 hours.

A sustained ash plume, generated by near-continuous strombolian explosions or lava fountains, is rising 1.5-2 km from the volcano's summit, reaching approx. 24,000 ft (7.2 km) altitude, and drifting WSW.

Eurasia's highest volcano disgorged a red-hot blast to the elevation of 200 meters above its crater.

A stream of lava about 1,000 meters long was descending down the southeastern slope at the time of reporting and the eruptions continue.

A lava flow is also descending on the upper western flank.

Sources

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/klyuchevskoy/news/50451/Klyuchevsko...

http://www.panorama.am/en/society/2015/01/20/volcano-kamchatka/

[Howard]

Powerful Eruptions at Indonesia’s Mount Soputan (Jan 18)

Mt Soputan has erupted in northern Indonesia, releasing molten lava, hot ash, and thick smoke and leaving local residents in panic.

Mount Soputan in Indonesia’s North Sulawesi Province produced a 20,000 ft ash plume with strong pyroclastic flows.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said the volcano erupted at 11.38am (0338 GMT).

A viscous lava flow lobe is active on the western flank of the summit cone. Spectacular incandescent rockfalls accompany this effusive activity.

The eruption, similar to Sinabung's ongoing one, is entering a potentially very dangerous phase.

A safety radius of 6.5 km around the volcano's summit is in place.

The volcano has been showing signs of increased volcanic activity since January 14.

Sources say spewed ash was being blown to the south-west Mount Soputan, which erupted twice on January 6 and has been showing increased activity since then.

Sources

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/01/18/393639/Volcano-erupts-in-N-...

http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1299502

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/soputan/news/50414/Soputan-volcano-...

[Howard]

Iceland's Bardarbunga Lava Field Now Bigger Than Manhattan (Jan 17)

Lava originating from the Bardarbunga volcanic system now spreads for 30 miles over an area bigger than Manhattan.

The Holuhraun is the country's biggest basaltic lava flow since 1784, creating a lava field more than 32 square miles in size.

NASA captured an aerial view of the lava field last Jan. 3, showing newly formed basaltic rock and fresh lava. A lava lake was also visible on the lava field's western portion, with steam rising along the field's eastern borders where the lava flow meets the river Jökulsá á Fjöllum. Where much of the lava flow back in September was in surface lava rivers, activity has shifted to a closed channel on the eastern side in January.

Researchers from the Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Iceland estimate the lava field to be 33 feet thick on the eastern end, 39 feet thick at the center and 46 feet thick at the western portion using surveillance flight data. With lava volume at 1.1 cubic kilometers, the Bardarbunga eruption was classified as a flood basalt.

Volcanologists have predicted the Bardarbunga's eruption will continue for years.

The public is banned from approaching the lava flow because of the high risk of a fissure erupting under the glacier. If this happens, a great flood will ensue, bringing a different kind of problem to Iceland.

Sources

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/27139/20150118/erupting-since-aug...

http://en.cihan.com.tr/news/Lava-of-Iceland-volcano-spreads-to-85-k...