Last Week’s Tidbits

Cinder cones on Piton de la Fournaise (photo: Drone Visites)

These last six days were quite a treat for volcano watchers, unfortunately I was too busy to spend much time on the PC. But I made sort of a summary for those of you who have never much time (so as to conceal the fact that I hadn’t got my next volcano article finished in time… shhhh… 😉 )

COTOPAXI

More or less the same situation as last week with lots of ash, although seismicity has gone from continuous tremor to prolonged “hickups”. See the seismic amplitude graph below, showing the tendency for the last 40 days.

(src.: http://www.igepn.edu.ec/cotopaxi/actividad-sismo-acustica-cotopaxi)

I am glad that the volcano provides time for all concerned to do evacuation drills and get all preparations for a bigger event under way. – One official expressed his concerns about the elections of President and Assembly scheduled for 2017. Because, he said, “according to historical data, the eruptions of Cotopaxi last about two years“; this could hamper the preparation and polls… well, we’ll see if the statistics are right.
P.S. It looks as if just now, 15:11 UTC, a huge plume is blown out vertically, rising over the thick clouds all around…

INDONESIA
On the night to Sunday (30/08/2015 LT), Mt. Lokon, Sulawesi, erupted from its Tompaluan Crater. 13 eruptions threw “ash up to 2001 (!! 😉 ) meters into the air“, which reached several areas of Manado city. Its last eruption was in May 2015; increases in Mt Lokon’s volcanic activity had been recorded since Friday. There were no injuries reported, but Sam Ratulangi Airport in Manado had to close Sunday because of poor runway conditions (src.: from several local newspapers).
Generally, Indonesia had a busy time volcano-wise – seven more volcanoes had hot spots detected by the MODIS satellite cam over the weekend. Summarized for the last six days, plus Lokon on the webcam this morning:

There is one oddity about Raung: while so far all hot spots were found within its 500m-deep caldera, and AFAIK there is no possible outlet, recently the hot spots concentrate in a point north of the volcano, which should be the location of Mt. Suket. – ??? – I found nothing by googling. Any ideas?

 

 

 

GUATEMALA
Finally I’ve found the reports for FUEGO on their  CONRED website. Here is an abstract of the latest:
(01/09/2015) The Fuego volcano continued with high seismic activity, esp. internal vibration, likely to increase in the coming days. Monitoring in the last 24 hours indicates that one lava flow to the west has a length of 800 meters, while another one, to the south, is 1 km long.
Currently the eruption is accompanied by sounds similar to train locomotive degassing and explosions with gray ash columns up to 4700 m asl. This generates weak and moderate booms and a rain of fine ash in Panimaché, Morelia, Santa Sophia, a.o..
For the moment no evacuations are necessary but people near the volcano should stay prepared.
These are three images from the INSIVUMEH webcams, yesterday and today:

 

COLIMA
After an apparent lull in the activity, Colima shows mighty plumes again on the webcam. – University of Colima have published a photo of the Colima crater from 25 Aug. 2015, now without the massive dome that had grown inside and eventually over the rim of the crater, before it was blown out during a few weeks of violent activity in July.

Image via LCDV (Georges Vitton)

PITON de la FOURNAISE (REUNION, FR.)
From the activity bulletins Aug. 29 and Sept. 2, 2015
On 31 August and 1st September several recognition trips in the field were performed. The site activity remained at a sustained level: One vent continues to operate. This is a cinder cone of twenty meters and filled by a lava lake. Each exploding gas bubble makes a fountain (rhythmic) to 15-20 meters above the cone. At the end of a ~50 m long tunnel, lava escapes to the south for about 1 km. This thickens the existing lava field to and average of 2-3 m. The front of the flow is currently stalled.
The devices of OVPF recorded a further increase of seismic energy (MRS Rivals) for about 36 hours.

According to the various observations and measurements, it is believed that the observed increase in tremor is related to the construction of the cone and the narrowing of the supply duct which creates intense ground vibrations. The rate and intensity of lava fountains continue to fluctuate during the day.
The analyzes (optical imaging, luminescence and gas flow via satellite) show that the rate has been constant for several days. A large plume of gas rises from the vent up to about 3000 m altitude. The smell of SO2 is perceptible to the Maido. The degassing is strong from near​the vent to the Plaine des Sables (this varies depending on the wind) but the concentrations are more diffuse in distal areas (cf. ORA and OPAR).

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Enjoy! -GRANYIA

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