Volcano Discovery Tuesday Apr 02, 2013 11:04 AM |
White sandstone xenolith from the 16 Mar New SE paroxysm
Stromboli (Eolian Islands, Italy): Tremor and explosion signals have further increased today, but no significant new lava overflows have occurred.
Etna (Sicily, Italy): Closer inspection of the "white lava" reported in yesterday's news revealed that these were so-called xenoliths, i.e. no lava at all, but pieces of sedimentary rock from strata underlying the volcano brought up by the rising magma. In this case, they are pieces of barely compacted beach sandstone, similar to the xenoliths ejected during the flank eruptions in 2011 and 2012, which are believed to have trapped a different (so-called eccentric) shallow magma chamber beneath the volcano. To find such xenoliths as produces of eruptions from the SUMMIT craters is highly unusual and could (*speculation*) indicate that the latest, violent, eruptive episode has actually involved a different magma reservoir as well.
Fresh snow has now covered much of the bombs from the recent eruption.
El Hierro (Canary Islands, Spain): The seismic swarm has continued to decrease and activity is currently low. So far, IGN lists about 10 quakes above magnitude 1.5 for today, the largest a magnitude 3.3 at 02:32 GMT at 20 km depth.
Yesterday: 82 earthquakes between M 1.7 - 3.8.
Telica (Nicaragua): Seismicity has remained high. INETER has not (yet) published anything about unusual activity at the volcano, which suggests that they don't expect any eruption anytime soon.
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