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US: Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano Lava lake sinks, spurring quakes

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© Hawaiian Volcano ObservatoryA large "skylight" in the Puu Oo lava field permits a view of a tube supplying lava to surface flows north of Royal Gardens subdivision. The tube, which heads southeast, is marked by the line of fume sources in the upper-right portion of the image.
Eight small earthquakes rocked Kilauea Volcano after the lava lake at the summit caldera dropped in elevation Sunday, U.S. geologists reported.

But that seismic shaking was actually below normal levels, they said.

The strongest quake was a magnitude 3.3 at 2:16 a.m. Sunday.

At Puu Oo, meanwhile, a "skylight" in the pahoehoe (smooth, ropy lava) field showed a tube transporting lava on the southeast flank to active flows about three miles to the south.

The active lava flows are within the Kahauale'a Natural Area Reserve, which remains closed to the public because of various hazards - including potentially lethal concentrations of sulfur dioxide - so they are visible only from the air.

But the glow from the vents and flows can be seen from the Hawaii County viewing area at Kalapana if weather conditions are right, said scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey.

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Congo Mount Nyamulagira Volcano: Tourists Invited To See Eruption

A national park in Congo best known for its endangered mountain gorillas is now inviting tourists to go on overnight treks to see a volcano spurting fountains of lava nearly 1,000 feet into the air. Mount Nyamulagira began erupting on Nov. 6 and could continue to do so for days, or even months. "Last night's was the most spectacular yet," spokeswoman LuAnne Chad said Monday from Virunga National Park.

Arrow Up

El Hierro Underwater Volcano's Eruption in Photos

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A brand new Canary island is emerging from the sea as an underwater volcano bubbles to the surface.

Magma off the Canary Island of El Hierro has been spewing 20 metres high as the sea boils with a smell of sulphur.

As it grows and gets closer to the surface, more and more debris such as stones start to shoot out of the volcano which, until now, has only shown its explosive power below the surface.

It is now just 70 metres from the surface and islanders are already trying to come up with a name for the new island. It is quite close to El Hierro and if it continues to erupt it could eventually meet up with the mainland.

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First Picture Emerges of Infant Underwater Volcano

New Volcano
© IEO/MICINNThis image was recently taken and shows the new volcano and its lava tongue that descends in the path of the old underwater valley.
It is rare that the birth of an island can be watched by humans in real-time, but that could be what is happening in Spain's Canary Islands.

Residents of La Restinga on the island of El Hierro were recently evacuated after weeks of earthquakes and the growing threat of an erupting underwater volcano that is making its presence known on the surface with an expanding, bubbling patch of dark debris.

The seismic activity off the coast alerted scientists to the fact that something interesting was happening under the sea. To get a better look, a team of researchers from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) went out on the water and were able to get a high-resolution picture of the volcano in less than two weeks.

The volcanic cone stretches nearly 330 feet (100 meters) above the seafloor, and is 2,300 feet (700 m) wide at its base. Lava is currently oozing out of a crater in the center that is about 390 feet (120 m) wide.

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Villages deluged with ash from Indonesia's Merapi eruption now fear for their lives

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© AntaraA local watches a makeshift bamboo bridge damaged from cold lava floods from the Merapi volcano on Wednesday
Sleman, Central Java - The arrival of the rainy season has triggered the time bomb experts have long feared: volcanic mudflows comprised of millions of tons of ash and debris blanketing Merapi's slopes after last year's eruptions.

The impact is spreading this week. Mudflows are affecting not just residents of Sleman's north and east, but those in the west as well as the Progo River threatens Kisik 1 village, which sits about 1.2 kilometers from its edge.

The river has experienced extreme shallowing due to the sedimentation of ash. Volcanic mud has repeatedly spilled over its banks and flooded residents' homes, gardens and rice fields.

Past experience has made Kisik 1 resident Samirin wary.

"If there's mudflow in the Putih and Krasak rivers, it is bound to end up in the Progo River," he said. "Almost all the levees are damaged or have been washed away. Even the east bank of the river, which was four meters high, has been washed out."

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Eruption continues unabated at Chile's Puyehue Cordón-Caulle volcano

Despite being classified as a "minor" (menor, in Spanish) eruption, Chile's Puyehue Cordón-Caulle Volcano continues to pump out large amounts of ash. This natural-color satellite image shows the pale plume blowing to the northeast of the active vent.
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© Earth Observatory / NASA
According to SERNAGEOMIN, the Chilean National Service of Geology and Mining, ash rose to a height of 5 kilometers (3 miles), and blew as far as 300 km (190 miles) from the volcano. Wide-area satellite images show the full length of the plume, and ash covering the Argentinian plains to the east of Puyehue Cordón-Caulle.

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Eruption continues off the coast of El Hierro

The submarine volcanic eruption that began in mid-October in the Canary Islands continued in early November 2011. The volcanic island of El Hierro sits on a tectonic hot spot in the Atlantic Ocean off of North Africa and Spain.

The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite acquired this natural-color image of El Hierro and a plume of volcanic material in the surrounding waters on November 2, 2011. The waters south of the island have been bubbling and fizzing with heat, sediment, bits of volcanic rock, and minerals for weeks, with the plume stretching tens of kilometers.

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© NASA, Jesse Allen and Robert SimmonALI data from the EO-1 Team, November 2, 2011.
The eruption is believed to be venting about 50 to 100 meters below the water surface, and it is warming the waters by as much as 10 degrees Celsius, according to geologist and blogger Erik Klimetti. The temperature of erupting basalt can be as hot as 1100 to 1200 degrees C, he notes.

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Nyamuragira volcano erupts in the Congo

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© USGS
According to volcanologists, the people of Goma, are not directly threatened by the eruption of this volcano because the lava flows are directed towards the Virunga National Park (Virunga National Park).

However, had he added, people should be held in compliance with the rules of hygiene to protect against such volcanic ash released by the volcano.

During the last eruption of this volcano in January 2010, the lava had burned over 11 hectares of the forest of the Virunga Park, which extends over 790,000 ha. World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 1979, the Virunga National Park is home to various species of mammals (hippos, gorillas ...), reptiles and birds.

The eruptions of Nyamulagira May 2004 and November 2006 had made the most active volcano in Africa.

Nyamulagira and Nyiragongo volcanoes are two of eight active volcanoes that make up the Virunga chain, located in the Virunga National Park in eastern DRC.

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Sea boils near El Hierro: submarine volcanic activity continues off El Hierro Island

A 3.8 magnitude earthquake occurred at 13.41 hours, in latitude 27.7886, longitude -18.0469 with an estimated depth of 21 kilometers, in line with those that occurred during late Thursday night and Friday morning. In this way, and during the day Friday, El Hierro has produced a total of 24 earthquakes- the 3.8 that has been the strongest. Fear of new and powerful earthquakes continues to spread in El Hierro. This morning, the island has recorded twelve new earthquakes, which have ranged from 2 to 3 degrees of intensity, as reported Canarias 7 citing National Geographic Institute.


Meanwhile, on Thursday, the direction of Civil Protection Plan for Volcanic Risk said Border seismic events correspond to the stage of La Restinga underwater eruption, which began on 10 October. Specifically, there have been twelve new earthquakes that have had an intensity of 2 to 3 degrees as reported by sources of IGN Canarias 7 newspaper. On Thursday, officials of the Civil Protection Plan for Volcanic Risk assured the public that the latest seismic events, which have intensified in recent days, corresponds to the scene of the submarine eruption of La Restinga, which began on 10 October.

Bizarro Earth

Zombie Volcano or New Supervolcano?

Uturunca Volcano
© Noah FinneganUturunca volcano in southwestern Bolivia.

A broad swath of the Altiplano plateau in southwest Bolivia is inflating like a giant balloon, presumably as magma builds up deep underground. This aggressive rise hints that a new supervolcano could be awakening in South America, geologists say, and so they are keen to learn more about the underlying cause.

So far, they know the inflation is surprisingly fast: the center of the patch has risen 7.9 inches (20 centimeters) in the past 20 years. What is more, the uplift extends about 43 miles (70 kilometers) across -- similar in size to the caldera that formed in the wake of the latest eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano, which blanketed half of the U.S. in ash 640,000 years ago.

At the center of all recent intrigue is Uturuncu, a nearly 20,000-foot (6,000 meter) ancient volcano long given up for dead. Based on the spewage from its last eruption, 300,000 years ago, it would not qualify as a supervolcano on its own. (Its peers are far tamer, including Mount St. Helens in Washington state). But Uturunca could be drawing magma from a dense swarm of nearby volcanoes, many of which are currently active.

The big question is how much magma has accumulated so far. Based on Uturunca's rate of inflation, scientists calculated the magma chamber has been growing by about 27 cubic feet (1 cubic meter) per second. But for how long? Amassing magma at that rapid clip for thousands of years would make for a serious amount of fuel for an eruption. Or maybe its only just begun gathering steam. The rate measurements are based on satellite data the go back only 20 years.