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Seismic crisis at Piton de la Fournaise Volcano, Reunion

John Seach
Volcano News
Fri, 24 Sep 2010 09:01 UTC
Image
© Unknown
A seismic crisis occurred at Piton de la Fournaise Volcano, Reunion on the evening of 23rd September. Several tens of earthquakes were located at the base of the summit area, in Dolomieu crater.

The seismic crisis was associated with significant inflation (3 cm) of the volcano, especially near the summit. The data indicates that magma has moved towards the surface and an eruption is imminent.

Access trails to the summit of Piton de la Fournaise, either from Pas de Bellecombe or from any other trails have been closed to the public from 24th September 2010 until further notice.
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Bizarro Earth

Planchon Volcano Starts Spewing Rocks, Gases, Chile's Geology Service Says

Sebastian Boyd
Bloomberg
Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:23 UTC
The Planchon volcano, on the border between Argentina and Chile, started erupting in the last few days, spewing pyroclastic material and gases, Chile's National Geology and Mining Service said.

The plume yesterday reached as high as 1.2 kilometer (0.75 mile) above the crater, the geology service said on its website today. The volcano, 196 kilometers south of Santiago, has had a permanent plume of smoke for several years.

The geology service described the eruption as "minor." Geologists plan to fly over the area today. An erupting volcano in 2008 forced residents to abandon the Chilean town of Chaiten.

To contact the reporter responsible on this story: Sebastian Boyd in Santiago at sboyd9@bloomberg.net
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Newspaper

More People Flee Homes as Volcano Erupts in Indonesia


Xinhua
Mon, 30 Aug 2010 01:00 UTC
Image
© Xinhua/AFPMount Sinabung volcano spews smoke in the district of Tanah Karo outside the city of Medan, North Sumatra August 28, 2010.
The number of evacuees in volcano eruption in Indonesia climbed to over 21,000 on Monday and was expected to rise, spokesman of National Disaster Management Agency Priyadi Kardono said.

The rise of over 9,000 evacuees from that on Sunday has caused overload on shelters, the spokesman said.

Some of the evacuees have suffered from diseases, he said.

"The problems at the shelters now is overload and it may become severer as the people keep flocking on the refugee centers. Besides some of the evacuees have got disease, most of them have respiratory problem," Priyadi told Xinhua by phone.
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Phoenix

Volcano erupts on Indonesia's Sumatra after 400 years

Karima Anjani
Reuters
Sun, 29 Aug 2010 01:46 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Tarmizy HarvaMount Sinabung volcano spews smoke outside the city of Medan, North Sumatra August 28, 2010
A volcano erupted on the Indonesia island of Sumatra on Sunday for the first time in four centuries, sending smoke 1,500 meters (about 5,000 feet) into the air and prompting the evacuation of thousands of residents, officials said.

There were no reports of casualties so far and aviation in the area was unaffected.

Mount Sinabung in the north of Sumatra began erupting around midnight after rumbling for several days and lava was overflowing its crater, Surono, head of Indonesia's vulcanology center, told Reuters. The volcano had been placed on red level, the highest alert.
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Bizarro Earth

Update: Galeras Volcano in Colombia Erupts, Government Raises Alert

Angela Wang
Epoch Times
Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:44 UTC
Galeras Volcano
© Johana Gonzales/Getty ImagesThe Galeras volcano, Narino department, Colombia, on January 3, 2010. The Galeras volcano in southeastern Colombia erupted Saturday night, but there were no reports of deaths or injuries, authorities said.
The Galeras volcano, located 14,029 feet above sea level in southwestern Colombia, erupted at 4 a.m. local time on Wednesday.

A total of 278 people were evacuated according to an Associated Press report.

Hospitals close to the affected area were requested by the government to prepare medical resources and supplies to be ready to provide immediate help.

The eruption, which spewed gas and ash, has not caused significant damage in the surrounding area, said an official press release.

The government issued alerts to residents in surrounding towns recommending residents stay indoors, avoid panic, remove ash in residential areas, and avoid using bridges after the eruption.

Galeras is considered the one of the most active volcanoes in the country, according to the Global Volcanism Program.
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Bizarro Earth

Authorities Fear Eruption of Galeras Volcano


Colombia Reports
Tue, 24 Aug 2010 01:39 UTC
The Galeras Volcano
© EPAThe Galeras Volcano
Authorities and inhabitants in the south of Colombia fear an eruption of the Galeras volcano after four tremors shook the area on Sunday and Monday.

According to the volcanic observatory run by Colombia's Geology and Mining authority Ingeominas, the several tremors are related to the activity of the volcano and an eruption is likely within days or weeks.
The quakes took place in the area surrounding the active volcano just outside the city of Pasto.

Ingeominas says it continues to be alert to the volcanic phenomena and will report changes.

The Galeras volcano erupted last in January, after which 8,000 people were forced to evacuate.
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Bizarro Earth

Activity At Sakurajima Volcano Intensifies


Space Daily
Sun, 22 Aug 2010 20:56 UTC
Sakurajima Volcano
© Space DailyRoughly 7,000 years ago Sakurajima erupted with a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 6, equivalent to the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo.
By mid-August, Sakurajima Volcano-one of Japan's most active-had erupted ash at least once every week during 2010.

On August 19, 2010, an ash plume was sighted at 9,000 feet (2,700 meters), according to the Tokyo Volcanic Ash Advisory Center.

This natural-color satellite image shows the gray plume moving west (towards image top) from the volcano's summit. Simultaneously, a pyroclastic flow descended the eastern slopes.

Although Sakurajima's activity since 1955 has been characterized by frequent small eruptions, the volcano still poses a danger to the densely-populated surroundings.

Roughly 7,000 years ago Sakurajima erupted with a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 6, equivalent to the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo.

The image was acquired by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) aboard the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite.
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Bizarro Earth

Quakes Due to Undersea Volcano, Expert Claims

Barbara Mae Dacanay
Gulf News
Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:09 UTC
Manila: Three major earthquakes that occurred in the south Philippines on July 24 were due to the eruption of Kawio Barat, a big underwater volcano rising 10,000 feet from 18,000 feet of water between Indonesia and the south Philippines, said an expert, whose analysis was challenged by a local scientist.

Three major undersea earthquakes with magnitudes of 6.8 and 7.1 on the Richter scale, occurred in the Moro Gulf off Mindanao on July 24, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) confirmed, adding the undersea quakes did not damage land areas.

The quakes, tectonic in origin, had nothing to do with the eruption of a recently discovered undersea volcano, the Kawio Barat, Mahar Lagmay, associate professor at the University of the Philippines National Institute of Geological Sciences, told the Inquirer.

However, Jim Holden, chief scientist for the US-Indonesia deep-sea expedition of Kawio Barat, said in a press release quoted by the Inquirer that the major earthquakes off south Philippines last month were due to the eruption of Kawio Barat, which was recently found by scientists under the seabed of Sulawesi Islands in Indonesia.
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Bizarro Earth

Indonesia's Mount Karangetang volcano spews lava, gas; 4 feared dead

Niniek Karmini
Bloomberg Business Week
Fri, 06 Aug 2010 11:21 UTC
Image
© USGS
One of Indonesia's most active volcanos erupted Friday, sending lava and a searing gas cloud tumbling down its slopes. At least four family members were swept away and feared dead, officials said, and several others were badly hurt.

"It happened so fast," said Surono, the director of the volcanology and mitigation agency. "There was no time for an evacuation."

Mount Karangetang, located on Siau, part of the Sulawesi island chain, burst just after midnight when heavy rains broke the volcano's hot lava dome, which spit out 1,110 degree Fahrenheit (600 Celsius) clouds of gas.

Ash and lava crashed down the mountain's western slope, destroying at least nine houses, a church and a school, said Priyadi Kardono, an official with the national disaster management agency. A road and a bridge also were badly damaged, leaving more than 2,000 people in the remote area completely isolated.

Kardono said four family members were missing and feared dead. Five others were hospitalized, one in critical condition.

Authorities were trying to evacuate residents living in at least one nearby village, said Tony Supit, a district chief.
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Bizarro Earth

Scientists Discover and Image Explosive Deep-Ocean Volcano


NOAA
Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:25 UTC
underwater volcano
© NOAA and NSFROV Jason gets a close view of magma explosions and lava flows on West Mata volcano (May 2009).
Scientists funded by NOAA and the National Science Foundation recorded the deepest erupting volcano yet discovered, describing high-definition video of the undersea eruption as "spectacular." Eruption of the West Mata volcano, discovered in May, occurred nearly 4,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, in an area bounded by Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.

Imagery includes large molten lava bubbles approximately three feet across bursting into cold seawater, glowing red vents explosively ejecting lava into the sea, and the first-observed advance of lava flows across the deep-ocean seafloor. Sounds of the explosive eruption were recorded by a hydrophone and later matched to the video footage.

"We found a type of lava never before seen erupting from an active volcano, and for the first time observed molten lava flowing across the deep-ocean seafloor," said the mission's Chief Scientist Joseph Resing, a chemical oceanographer at the University of Washington who collaborates with NOAA through the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean. "Though NOAA and partners discovered a much shallower eruption in 2004 in the Mariana Arc, the deeper we get, the closer the eruption is to those that formed most of the oceanic crust."
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