Monday, February 22, 2016

Volcanoes erupting now

Bulusan Volcano is known for its sudden and sporadic eruptions.
Photo Rhaydz Narcia/Rappler

February 22, 2016 18:00 PM Advisory: BULUSAN VOLCANO, SORSOGON 

At 5:01 P.M today, two successive minor eruption events occurred at the west-northwest fissure of Bulusan Volcano summit that produced a grayish ash plume followed by a steam and ash plume approximately 500 meters high. Based on the seismic records, the eruption signal consisted of two (2) earthquake events, a rock fracturing event followed a few seconds later by an explosion-type earthquake, with a total duration of four minutes and twenty-one seconds. Prior to the eruption, the Bulusan seismic network detected no volcanic earthquake, although increased seismicity was recorded on 20-21 February. Ashfall was reported in the towns of Juban and Irosin.


Eruption of Momotombo volcano

February 19, 2016: Momotombo (Nicaragua): Activity at the volcano has been increasing. During the past days, explosions have become frequent, with intervals of only few hours. The largest on Wednesday evening at 20:50 local time showered almost the cone with incandescent ejecta and produced ash plumes up to 1 km tall. Unconfirmed reports suggest that some of the eruptions also have produced small pyroclastic flows.

Mild ash fall was reported in the communities of La Concha, Matuzán, Boca de Cántaro, Flor de la Piedra and Puerto Momotombo.

The Telica and Momotombo volcanoes are two stratovolcanoes in Nicaragua. 

On February 13, 2016 both erupted within two hours. 

According to the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies (INET) reported that microseismic activity remains high, suggesting that more eruptions are likely to occur in the near future.



February 14, 2016 - KAMCHATKA, RUSSIA - In Kamchatka, neighboring volcanoes Karymsky  and Zhupanovsky have been animated in recent days, and emit ash plumes detected by KVERT/Volcano Observatory Notification to Aviation (VONA).

In Zhupanovsky, a beautiful sequence shows a plume of ash and gas on February 10, amounting to 8,000 meters asl. The explosive activity continued on  the 13th in the morning, with a plume amount to more than 10,000 meters and dissipating about 300 km to the east.


Eruption at Semeru on February 13.  Credit: David P / Tempo.com 
February 14, 2016 - EAST JAVA, INDONESIA - A pyroclastic flow (hot avalanche of fragmented volcanic material) occurred on the volcano's southern side yesterday morning, reaching 4.5 km length and producing an ash plume that rose to 26,000 ft (8 km) altitude. Darwin VAAC raised the aviation color code to RED. 


Colima Volcano
February 12, 2015: Colima (Mexico): The volcano continues to produce intermittent explosions, but there might be something new in the making: weak, but continuous glow from the crater has appeared during the last night, something that hasn't been observed since the latest effusive eruptive phase in July last year


February 5-12, 2016: Sakurajima (Kyushu, Japan): The volcano continues to produce small to moderate vulcanian explosions at rates of a few per day, typically (watch video).