volcanodiscovery- Aug 20, 2013
Iliwerung (Lesser Sunda Islands): A submarine eruption has likely occurred this morning in Indonesia. VSI raised the alert level of Iliwerung volcano from 1 (normal) to 2 (watch) following increased seismic and visual activity from an underwater flank vent called Gunung Hobal.
Iliwerung volcano forms a peninsula on the south coast of Lembata (Lomblen) Island (East Indonesia). Mount Hobal (Gunung Hobal) is a submarine flank vent of Iliwerung located about 800 m from the coast. It has had several historic eruptions during which several temporary islands were formed.
The latest bulletin of VSI describes that the water around Hobal has recently shown significant color changes to yellow, intense bubbling and white steam plumes rising up to about 1000-2000 m from 7:14 local time this morning. Half an hour later, from 7:46 am, glow even began to be visible.
Strangely, no plume or other strong evidence of an eruption have been available so far from satellite data, except tiny spots visible on the latest images of the area which could be floating pumice (s. Culture Volcan's blog post)
White Island (New Zealand): A small phreatic or hydrothermal eruption occurred at in the active crater earlier today (10:23 on Tuesday 20 August 2013 NZ local time). The explosion lasted for about 10 minutes and produced a steam plume mixed with small amounts of ash that rose about 4 km a.s.l.
The activity at White Island has now returned to levels of high hydrothermal activity as before this morning's eruption.
The vent of the eruption was in the same active crater area that has been experiencing very small mud eruptions in recent weeks.
The eruption threw mud and rocks a short distance from the source, and produced large volumes of white steam. Weather radar observations show that a small proportion of volcanic ash was carried with the steam.
Read More: http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/volcanoes/today.html
