Paluweh volcano (Flores, Indonesia): first images of the growing lava dome

Source: Volcano Discovery - 12/03/12, by Tom Pfeiffer

Paluweh volcano on Palue Island north off Flores, Indonesia, continues to build up a new lava dome. Part of an expedition group of VolcanoDiscovery visited the small island and observed the volcano from close range during 30 Nov - 2 Dec.

During our stay, the dome was very active and almost visibly growing from all sides. At the time of departure the dome was still very active. It had reached an estimated height of 150 m and is now the highest point of the island. We estimated its basal diameter 200-250 m and its volume in the range of 2-4 million m3.
Incandescent rockfalls of all sizes were occurring from different areas of the dome nearly constantly. Even people from the north coast of Flores reported to see the "fire" at night.

A vent on the upper eastern part of the dome had phases of intense ash venting that often lasted several hours and produced a jet-like degassing sound similar to a turbine and created a plume rising several kilometers, mixing with the steam plume that was constantly towering above the crater.

Only some of the larger rockfalls turned produced small pyroclastic flows that barely surpassed the foot of the dome. Vegetation in the immediate surroundings of the dome was only slightly damaged by localized fires caused by hot blocks and ash fall. It appeared that for now, the extruded magma was relatively poor in trapped gasses,- otherwise, more pyroclastic flow activity would have been expected to occur.

According to local information, the dome started to grow next to the 1982 Rokatenda eruption dome from late October. In this area, vegetation kill and ground steaming had been detected since June. The chief of the village who had granted us permission for the visit after a ritual scarifying a chicken, baptized the new dome "Rerombola", meaning "the friendly one" in local dialect.

A selection of pictures and impressions from the expedition will follow on this website at a later stage.

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