The remote volcano in the northern Kuriles is probably in eruption, the latest SVERT report and satellite images suggest. A plume of gas and steam, and possibly some minor amounts ash was seen with the MODIS sensor onboard the NASA Terra satellite this morning. Satellite data also indicate that activity had likely already started in early May, because a small thermal anomaly can be traced back on archive pictures to 7 May. One should take into account that frequent dense cloud cover often prevents such observations, so activity could have started earlier than that. It is not known what kind of activity is occurring at the volcano. Possibilities include some minor explosive (strombolian ?) activity at the summit, or lava flows that might be reaching the sea and produce the steam plume observed. The last eruption of the volcano was (probably) in 2004. - Volcano Discovery

Eruption continues in Mexico

Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano unleashed another wave of powerful exhalations and explosions in the early hours of Thursday (May 23), officials reported. Hundreds of individual exhalations reaching up to 2.5 km (1.5 miles) of smoke and ash spewed out of Popocatepetl in the latest escalation in activity. An explosion at 02:54 local time (06:54GMT) also sent fragments out over 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles), Mexico's National Centre for Disaster Prevention reported. -WSBRADIO