Iceland Reykjanes Volcano
Volcanoes
Iceland Reykjanes Volcano
Weather satellites captured the climactic eruption.
It was far bigger than any 20th Century volcanic event, or indeed any atom bomb test conducted after WWII.
The assessment comes in a pair of scholarly papers in the journal Science that have reviewed all the data.
Of recent history, it's likely only the Krakatoa eruption of 1883 rivalled the atmospheric disturbance produced.
That catastrophic event in Indonesia is thought to have claimed more than 30,000 lives. Fortunately, the 15 January climactic eruption of the underwater volcano at Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai (HTHH) in the south Pacific resulted in very few deaths, even though it too produced large tsunamis.
"Tonga was a truly global event, just as Krakatau was, but we've now got all these geophysical observation systems and they recorded something that was really unprecedented in the modern data," Dr Robin Matoza, from the University of California, Santa Barbara, told BBC News. He is the lead author on one of the papers.
Big Ben
Also, in Yellowstone National Park, a magnitude 4.2 quake occurred which led some people to speculate that it was volcanic in origin. And, in Australia, the nation's most active volcano produced a new eruption, sending a lava flow 2.5 kilometers downslope.
This video will discuss these volcano related news stories, as told and analyzed by a volcanologist.
Gaua volcano
The swarm of 85,000 earthquakes was the strongest seismic outburst ever recorded in Antarctica.
A long-dormant underwater volcano near Antarctica has woken up, triggering a swarm of 85,000 earthquakes.
The swarm, which began in August 2020 and subsided by November of that year, is the strongest earthquake activity ever recorded in the region. And the quakes were likely caused by a "finger" of hot magma poking into the crust, new research finds.
"There have been similar intrusions in other places on Earth, but this is the first time we have observed it there," study co-author Simone Cesca, a seismologist at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, told Live Science. "Normally, these processes occur over geologic time scales," as opposed to over the course of a human life span, Cesca said. "So in a way, we are lucky to see this."
The swarm occurred around the Orca Seamount, an inactive volcano that rises 2,950 feet (900 meters) from the seafloor in the Bransfield Strait, a narrow passage between the South Shetland Islands and the northwestern tip of Antarctica. In this region, the Phoenix tectonic plate is diving beneath the continental Antarctic plate, creating a network of fault zones, stretching some portions of the crust and opening rifts in other places, according to a 2018 study in the journal Polar Science.
© Joseph Sohm; Visions of America via Getty Images
The swarm, which began in August 2020 and subsided by November of that year, is the strongest earthquake activity ever recorded in the region. And the quakes were likely caused by a "finger" of hot magma poking into the crust, new research finds.
"There have been similar intrusions in other places on Earth, but this is the first time we have observed it there," study co-author Simone Cesca, a seismologist at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, told Live Science. "Normally, these processes occur over geologic time scales," as opposed to over the course of a human life span, Cesca said. "So in a way, we are lucky to see this."
The swarm occurred around the Orca Seamount, an inactive volcano that rises 2,950 feet (900 meters) from the seafloor in the Bransfield Strait, a narrow passage between the South Shetland Islands and the northwestern tip of Antarctica. In this region, the Phoenix tectonic plate is diving beneath the continental Antarctic plate, creating a network of fault zones, stretching some portions of the crust and opening rifts in other places, according to a 2018 study in the journal Polar Science.
Karymsky volcano
In the last week, several major volcano related news stories broke. In Alaska, the Mount Edgecumbe volcano near the town of Sitka produced an unexpected swarm of several hundred earthquakes, suggesting that magma is on the move at depth.
Meanwhile in Australia, strong thermal signatures were detected on Heard Island, indicating that a new eruption may have begun. And, in Iceland, a series of earthquake swarms occurred near the Blue Lagoon hot springs, which may have been volcanic in origin. This video will discuss these volcano related news stories, as told and analyzed by a volcanologist.
A column of ash, gases and steam reached a height of 3300 meters.
A huge column of ash was visible from several cities in the center of the country, such as Manizales, Ibague and others.
The locals were frightened by this impressive phenomenon, which can be very dangerous.
Poas volcano
In Japan, the Kirishima volcano is continuing to show signs of unrest as a series of volcanic earthquakes expanded to a group of 2 vents.
In Indonesia, the Agung volcano was widely reported by news outlets to have erupted when in fact no such eruption ever occurred. Meanwhile, in Costa Rica, the Poas volcano produced its first eruption since 2019.
This video will discuss these volcano related news stories, as told and analyzed by a volcanologist.
Ebeko volcano eruption today Kuril Islands.
