Volcanic activity world-wide 10-12 October 2012

Source: VolcanoDiscovery.com - By T, 10/12/12

View of the Santorini Caldera from the town of Fira.

A new eruptive phase began on Thursday, 9th October (or possibly the 8th October) at Paluweh volcano in Indonesia, the volcano has been dormant since 1985. The volcano has shown signs of revival since October 1st. (Thanks to Volcanism Bulletin for the update).
An eruption warning was issed for Sangeang Api volcano in the Banda Sea (aka "Etna of the Banda Sea"), Indonesia, based on increased seismic activity recorded by PVMBG. No surface activity has been detected so far, but a new eruption from the summit lava dome would not be a surprise.

During the (ongoing) VOLSAM comference on Santorini volcano on Santorini from 10-12 Oct where Tom has been taking part, new data and a broad view of current understanding on the seismic-volcanic crisis on Santorini during 2011-2012 (among other subjects) were presented and discussed in detail.
It was confirmed that seismic activity, inflation, increased volcanic gas emissions occurred during Jan 2011-Feb 2012, and then largely ceased, most likely caused by a shallow magma intrusion north of Nea Kameni. At present, the volcano is calm again and monitoring parameters are mostly back to pre 2011 levels. A more detailed summary of some key results will be presented here in the next days.

At Kilauea volcano on Hawai'i: After a short deflation period, inflation of the summit of the volcano has resumed. The summit lava lake in Halema'uma'u fell and rose, and the lava lake in the northeast pit of Pu'u O'o remains active. Lava flows southeast of Pu`u `O`o continued to pool on the coastal plain at the base of the pali, with one branch extending slowly seaward. Seismic tremor levels were low. Gas emissions were elevated. (HVO / USGS)

Popocatépetl volcano in Mexico has suddenly increased its activity since 9 Oct with a steep increase of weak to moderate explosions at a rate of 1-2 per hour. The larger ones produce ash plumes up to 1.5 km high and start to appear in Washington VAAC's messages. The alert level remains unchanged as this still falls into the range of normal fluctuations during the ongoing activity period.

Explosive activity from Fuego volcano in Guatemala has decreased in favor of effusion of a lava flow from the summit area, now reaching about 200 m length towards the Ash Canyon.

Santiaguito: No or very few explosions are happening, the dome is only steaming. Weak avalanches from the (stagnating) lava flows still occur.

Pacaya volcano is steaming at normal levels and continues to show some elevated seismic activity.

A large steam plume is rising Reventador volcano in Ecuador up to about 1.5-2 km from the volcano and sometimes contains ash, suggesting continuing intermittent explosive activity.

Nevado del Ruiz volcano continues to steam and occasionally vents some ash as well. Weak seismic activity has continued throughout the past days.

Nevado del Huila continues to show weak seismic activity and is steaming.

Seismicity at Galeras volcano remains at low energy levels overall with a slight increase against the previous week. Sometimes this seismicity is associated with gas and ash emissions.

Earthquake swarms continue at Cumbal volcano. A small swarm of earthquakes of low energy occurred on October 4th between 09:00 am and 12:30 pm local time when about 50 earthquakes were recorded under the volcano.

Seismic activity at Cerro Machin remains above background, but has been rather calm during the past days after the stronger quakes on 7 and 8 Oct with the following seismic swarm.

Weak seismic unrest continues at shallow depth under Sotará volcano, but is not much above background levels.

A faint red glow is sometimes visible from the summit craters of Etna volcano, probably from Bocca Nuova, where some minor activity might be going on, and a fumarole on top of the SE crater is glowing. Tremor is at very low levels, though.