Volcano Discovery Wednesday Mar 20, 2013 18:35 PM |
Seismic signal from El Hierro 19 Mar (IGN)
MODIS hot spot at the summit of Sheveluch
Thermal hot spots corresponding to Tolbachik's recent lava flows
El Hierro (Canary Islands, Spain): Activity has dropped progressively during yesterday and has been almost zero today. This probably means that the intrusion (or whatever caused the quakes) has already stopped, and formed just another couple of basaltic dikes deep (16-20 km) under the island.
Kizimen (Kamchatka): KVERT reports no changes: moderate seismic activity, continuing lava dome growth at the summit, visible incandescence, hot avalanches on the western and eastern flanks, and strong gas-steam activity.
Shiveluch (Kamchatka): The growth of the lava dome continues, accompanied by moderate seismic activity, and is visible as a large hot spot on MODIS satellite data.
Tolbachik (Kamchatka): No changes were reported by KVERT about the ongoing eruption: tremor accompanying the lava flow effusion and strong degassing remains strong. A big thermal anomaly on satellite images corresponds to the fresh lava flow field.
Sakurajima (Kyushu, Japan): After some days with less explosions, activity has once again picked up with no less than 6 explosions during the past 24 hours. The largest produced an ash plume rising to 3 km altitude.
Manam (Papua New Guinea): An important SO2 plume was detected on today's satellite image, suggesting a phase of increased lava emission. No ash plume have been alerted of (so far).
Batu Tara (Sunda Islands, Indonesia): An larger explosion again produced an ash plume rising to approx. 10,000 ft (3 km) altitude and drifting 60 nautical miles northwest today.
Paluweh (off Flores Island, Indonesia): The lava dome continues to grow and produce avalanches and explosions. Another ash plume was seen rising to about 3 km altitude (10,000 ft) and drifting 40 nautical miles to the northwest today.
Lokon-Empung (North Sulawesi, Indonesia): Just after we hadmentioned that there has not been an eruption for some time, the volcano erupted again this morning around 7am local time. An explosion produced an ash column rising 2 km above the crater, easily visible from Manado, the regional capital to the NE, and was heard in up to 6 km distance.
The description of the ash being dark brown and black in local news suggests that it contains fresh magma, i.e. a new batch of magma has just surfaced at the volcano. The official volcano alert level and aviation color code have been raised to orange.
White Island (New Zealand): Continuous volcanic tremor mixed with frequent earthquakes remains high, suggesting strong degassing and perhaps minor phreatic activity.
In addition, a magnitude 3.5 quake occurred yesterday at 16:33 local time 10 km east of White Island.
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