World Volcano Activity UPDATE !!! MARAPI AGAIN!!! KATLA AGAIN!!! SWARM STARTING IN ICELAND DORMANT VOLCANO Bláfjoll!!!

I mentioned via Twitter over the weekend that after a M6.7 earthquake in the Philippines, three 50-meter cracks appeared near the crater area of Kanlaon on Negros. The volcano hasn’t erupted since 2006 but after this earthquake (that also triggered a landslide), PHIVOLCS officials wanted to check to make sure that new signs of a potential eruption hadn’t appeared. So far, helicopter availability has made it difficult to assess the entire volcano, but Antonia Bornas, chief of the PHIVOLCS Volcano Monitoring and Eruption Prediction Division, has said that these new cracks will not trigger an eruption of Kanlaon. However, they have declared the volcano off-limits to climbers until the cracks are fully assess and the risk of additional landslides subsides.

If Kanlaon were to start erupting again, we should expect fairly small explosive eruptions that could potentially generate lahars (mudflows) if the conditions are right (i.e., precipitation). The volcano has erupted frequently in historic times (going back to 1866). However, the Global Volcanism Program does mention a 33-km long avalanche deposit from Kanlaon – the largest in the Philippines. These volcanic avalanches don’t necessarily need to occur when the volcano is active – which makes any cracks appearing on the edifice of Kanlaon all that much more worrisome.

[link to www.wired.com]

Diana Barnes says:
February 22, 2012 at 09:21
[link to hraun.vedur.is]

Hekla deflating? I feel a song coming on…….
“Where has all the magma gone?
Long time passing
Where has all the Magma gone?
Not long ago.
Where has all the magma gone? Gone to chambers but which one?
When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?”

irpsit says:
February 22, 2012 at 12:20
What do you think you guys about Hekla deflation?

Just normal “breathing” or magma moving from one chamber to another?

Reply
Carl le Strange says:
February 22, 2012 at 12:23
I am going to write up a post about it. Let me just say that it is rather complex.
But, I want to get it really right, so I am going to think about it for a day.
On this one I want to feel really sure before opening my mouth since it is volcano that can potentially affect a lot of lives. Not least yours
But it is coming!

[link to volcanocafe.wordpress.com]

hey my friend,

Japan Monitors 6 PH Volcanoes


February 22, 2012, 7:46pm

TOKYO – What Philippine volcanologists lack in terms monitoring active volcanoes, their Japanese counterparts based here would complement by constantly watching their back.

Experts from the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said they, too, are monitoring at least six active volcanoes in the Philippines in a 24-hour basis as part of their function to ensure safety for the aviation sector.

Satoshi Harada, of the JMA-Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC), said that active Philippine volcanoes are just among the 400 volcanoes they are tasked to watch over as part of their anti-aircraft disaster measure.

“We are in constant communication with our counterparts in your country. Whatever information your Phivolcs (Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology) provide us is very essential on what we are tasked to do,” Satoshi told the Manila Bulletin in an interview...

ReadMore:
[link to www.mb.com.ph]

Do you see this Hekla deflaction? What do you think?

well, i guess like carl said

Dont wanna be a big mouth but we know hekla is connected to other chambers and it seems the magma moves to another chamber

finally its getting more and more interesting on iceland

while some of us spending attention to katla..even me^^ maybe some other wants the show

:stophating onisl:

Iceland is trully impressive, Grimsvotnum is continually inflating, and even with last year eruption don't stop to inflate, and Hekla now begin to deflate maby transfearing magma to other chambers... it's amazing, but this can create a biger eruption in simultaneous places? Iceland misteries...

Old rift zone in Iceland

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Jón Frímann

Here are two pictures of an old rift zone in Iceland. This rift zone was active until about 7 million years ago or so. This cliffs that I show here on this picture are from this old rift zone. It was volcanic long time ago. But not any more. This area however holds an good amount of unknown fissures and fault lines that might become active one day and create earthquakes in this area...
[link to www.jonfr.com]

[link to diariocorreo.pe]

Lokon volcano, located on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, recorded today two eruptions in a few minutes, although heavy rainfall in the area prevented that clouds of smoke and ash, create reported sources of the disaster management agency of the Asian country.

The authorities have pointed out that the eruptions were of medium intensity and have set the safety radius 2.5 kilometers from the crater.

The Lokon alert is located at level 3, a single step of the most dangerous, before the recent increase in activity that has led to recent eruptions, the last of them on 13 February.

The volcano, 1.580 m tall and located about 20 kilometers from the regional capital, Manado, has experienced a strong activity in the last two decades.

Here’s an interesting swarm just to the north of Kilauea.
[link to i230.photobucket.com]

islander says:
February 22, 2012 at 18:46
@Hekla´oholics: Suppose, alledged magma flowing within its many chambers/sills/mesh, is something that has happened before (often or always?) and is “one condition” for “successful” eruption, along with strong enough “transitient”. Thus mix of magmas creating the needed “explosivness” Can this be ? *This crossed my mind as microseisms seem ongoing / present on increase* see [link to hraun.vedur.is]

Reply
Carl le Strange says:
February 22, 2012 at 19:35
Yes, I do think that is in part what is happening. But we should remember that the magma is basically the same, but it might be more or less evolved in different chambers.

What has me surprised is the shear amount of magma that has moved with so little evidence of it. In any other volcano there would have been tremendous tremor really. Here it is almost silent as a whisper. But then, Hekla is the silent type. My take on it is that every little passage is allready open, and haven’t closed since the 1947 eruption.

[link to volcanocafe.wordpress.com]

For those who need a brusher up on Hekla I recommend reading the two posts that is linked below if you need a refresher. The first one is a rather traditional write up about Hekla; the second is a revision of how I interpret Hekla based on Papers by Sturkell and Carmichael respectively.

[link to volcanocafe.wordpress.com]

[link to volcanocafe.wordpress.com]

In short one can say that even if Hekla good at being hard to interpret she is rather consistent in her uplift between the eruptions. So far it has been smooth going from the 2000 eruption up until 2012-01-30.

Back then we had a period of activity in and around the Saurbaer area with small scale tremor, a few minor earthquakes ranging from 0.2M to 0.7M and some microseismic activity. That was then interpreted as hydrothermal activity in the area.

As that calmed down we then got an earthquake of 1.2M at shallow depth in the topmost part of the fissure at 0.1km depth. The focal point of the earthquake was exactly at the 1947 eruption center.

For being Hekla that is a lot of activity in a short time.

Deflation?

A few days ago I looked through the GPS-plots of the network that the Institute of Earth Sciences runs under the supervision of Sigrún Hreinsdóttir. Without the gracious release of that data publicly it would not have been possible to do the plot below. All copyright to the data used is held by the Institute of Earth Sciences and Sigrún Hreinsdóttir respectively.

[link to strokkur.raunvis.hi.is]

On the various GPS-plots I noticed that around the first of February a marked deflation started at several of the stations around Hekla. Due to the complexity and sheer number of stations I could not get a clear picture, so I enlisted the help of the master of plotting, GeoLurking. Any mistakes in the interpretation of the plot are entirely mine. GeoLurkings plot is a daily average trend line for the period 02-01 to 02-18.

“This is the daily linear trend based on the interpolated available data from 1 February to 18 February. It was then re-grided with a quadratic poly sheet at 255 x 255 in order to obtain the fill between stations points. Purple is -1.2 mm/day, red is 0.4 mm/day. Green is -0.26 mm/day.” (GeoLurking, 2012)

Result


Image by GeoLurking. Please click on the image to get a bigger version.

There is due west of Hekla a clear center of hard deflation (purple), there is also a marked deflation NNW that is deflating rapidly (dark blue). From the last spot there is a pale blue band running over the northern part of Hekla proper.

On the southern part of Hekla central volcano (green) there is a small deflation going on.

Regarding the parts with inflation (red 0,4mm daily) there is no surprise that the area up towards Búrfell is inflating, it has been doing that for a long time. What is though surprising is that this trend continuous even though all of northern Hekla is deflating. This inflation has been interpreted as being a dyke emplacement running from Hekla. That is starting to look a bit less likely with this data.

What is brand new is the well defined inflation hypocenter west of Hekla. This is an unusual spot for activity at Hekla since it would be outside of the regular fissure of Hekla.

The red part seen towards Vatnafjöll is equally surprising since Hekla and Vatnafjöll has never during the last 10 000 years erupted at the same time. When Vatnsfell is active, Hekla goes dormant. And do not make the mistake of believing them being the same volcano, or even volcanic field. Vatnafjöll is erupting magma normal for Iceland, and Hekla is erupting lava associated with subduction volcanoes. So the link is mechanical only, probably some kind of pressure release function. The inflation at Vatnafjöll might therefore be a sign that Hekla is nearing the end of its 1 000 year long cycle of high eruptive pace, but that is highly speculative at this stage.

Conclusion

Hekla is known to have more than one chamber, as many as nine major chambers has been suggested in various papers. Be that as it may, Hekla has complicated innards, and it seems like magma can run freely between the chambers. In any other volcano on Iceland a displacement of this large amount of magma would be associated by continuous large scale harmonic tremor and numerous seismic events and here almost nothing of that has been evident.

From the looks of it a possibility is that Hekla would be more likely to have a flank eruption this time, or even a new fissure opening up in parallel to Hekla. If so, it would be the first time that has been observed by humans. One should though note that the Litla Hekla Fissure is in that direction, and that the inflation center is right on top of yet another fissure. So I guess it is not totally out of the question.

All of this should be read with a large caveat in the back of the head, any interpretation of a volcano is most likely wrong in parts. This is the least reliable volcano on earth, so all of it might end up being wrong.

CARL

[link to volcanocafe.wordpress.com]

[link to volcanoes.usgs.gov]
Past 24 hours at Kilauea summit: A swarm of shallow earthquakes started after midnight last night about 5 km (3 mi) northwest of Halema`uma`u Crater that was ongoing as of this posting. Forty-eight earthquakes were strong enough to be located beneath Kilauea: 39 quakes within the swarm so far at a maximum rate of 6/hr (including a preliminary magnitude-3.4 quake at 6:56 am), two deep quakes beneath the southwest rift zone, two beneath the southeast summit caldera, one within the upper east rift zone, four on south flank faults. Seismic tremor levels were low and dropped slightly during deflation.

February 23, 2012

Active volcanoes in the world
15 volcanoes have shown signs of activity last week. New unusual activity has been noticed around 6 volcanoes (below).

TURRIALBA
Costa Rica 10.025°N, 83.767°W; summit elev. 3340 m
OVSICORI-UNA reported that while conducting field work at Turrialba during 2-3 February, scientists observed incandescence with temperatures between 600-700 degrees Celsius from the three main vents of the W crater. The vents are comprised of the 2010 vent (on the SW rim), the 2011 vent (on the N side at the bottom of the crater), and the 2012 vent (on the SE flank).

CLEVELAND
Chuginadak Island 52.825°N, 169.944°W; summit elev. 1730 m
AVO reported that during 15-18 and 20-21 February no observations of elevated surface temperatures or ash emissions from Cleveland were noted. On 17 February, AVO reported that partly-cloudy satellite observations over the past week revealed that the lava dome had grown to about 60 m in diameter. On 19 February an elevated surface temperature was detected in satellite images. The Volcano Alert Level remained at Watch and the Aviation Color Code remained at Orange. No current seismic information was available because Cleveland does not have a real-time seismic network.

KANAGA
Andreanof Islands 51.923°N, 177.168°W; summit elev. 1307 m
AVO reported possible explosive activity at Kanaga on 18 February. Volcanic tremor detected during 0623-0627 was followed by about an hour of numerous small seismic events. Satellite images showed a detached ash plume, 8 km in length, which drifted 39 km NE. AVO raised the Aviation Color Code to Yellow and the Volcano Alert Level to Advisory on 18 February. Elevated seismic activity continued on 19 February, and photographs taken by a local observer showed a small steam plume. Clouds prevented views of the volcano during 19-21 February.

REVENTADOR
Ecuador 0.077°S, 77.656°W; summit elev. 3562 m
IG reported that activity continued at Reventador during 15-21 February. Satellite images showed a thermal anomaly on the NE flank from the lava flow that was observed on 12 February. Clouds prevented views on 17, 19, and 21 February. Based on analysis of satellite imagery, the Washington VAAC reported an ash plume that drifted 19 km SE on 16 February. IG observed an ash plume that rose 100 m above the crater on 18 February.

TINAKULA
Santa Cruz Islands (SW Pacific) 10.38°S, 165.80°E; summit elev. 851 m
According to NASA’s Earth Observatory, thermal anomalies from Tinakula were detected in satellite data during 13-14 February and a gas plume with possible ash content rose from the volcano on 14 February.
Read also our in-depth article on Tinakula

TUNGURAHUA
Ecuador 1.467°S, 78.442°W; summit elev. 5023 m
IG reported continuing activity at Tungurahua during 15-21 February. Increased seismicity and constant harmonic tremor were detected on 16 February. Based on information from the Guayaquil MWO and IG, the Washington VAAC reported that during 17-18 February emissions rose to an altitude of 6 km (19, 500 ft) a.s.l. IG also noted that a steam plume with small amounts of ash drifted WSW on 19 February and W on 21 February.

Ongoing activity was noted among the following volcanoes : Bezymianny, Central Kamchatka (Russia) – El Hierro, Canary Islands (Spain) – Karymsky, Eastern Kamchatka (Russia) – Kilauea, Hawaii (USA) – Kizimen, Eastern Kamchatka (Russia) – Popocatépetl (México) – Puyehue-Cordón Caulle (Chile) – Sakura-jima, Kyushu (Japan) – Shiveluch, Central Kamchatka (Russia)

[link to earthquake-report.com]

Mt. Hood ?
[link to earthquake.usgs.gov]

nice catch


a report days ago


Volcanic Mt. Hood oozes — no blasts

Researchers at Oregon State University think they have figured out why Mount Hood doesn't erupt with the same bang and violence as other Cascade volcanoes...

ReadMore:
[link to www.statesmanjournal.com]

Ahh, nice, so he´s the shy and quiet one, oozing his Magma Zit and then shuts tfu for some time, thanks for the Info

Lascar volcano (Chile): increased seismic activity, yellow alert

A significant increase in seismic activity has been registered at Chile's Lascar volcano during during the first half of February, SERNAGEOMIN reports:
Between 1-15 Feb, a total of 350 seismic events...

ReadMore:
[link to www.volcanodiscovery.com]

Tyler Mannison says:
February 24, 2012 at 04:27
An interesting swarm of quakes at Mount Hood, Oregon today. Wonder what this could mean.

[link to www.pnsn.org]

Reply
Diana Barnes says:
February 24, 2012 at 07:29
Good morning Tyler. Mt Ranier looks pretty active below too. ! Quakes all about 5 – 3 km and all centred within the Cone!

[link to volcanocafe.wordpress.com]

Carl le Strange says:
February 24, 2012 at 12:26
Brief update, after talking on the phone a little while ago with the ARGV (Antenna for Geophysical and Volcanological Research) regarding Mount Cameroon I have some up to date news.
The explotion on the 4th of February was a hydrothermal explosion, not an eruption. I was most likely caused by water hitting an emplacement of Magma. The explosion caused an earthquake registered at 2.2M on the upper flank of the mountain.
No eruption is expected in the near future (3 months), the mountain is though building up towards an eruption according to GPS measurments.

[link to volcanocafe.wordpress.com]

Earthquake
4 minutes ago
Magnitude: 4.1
DateTime: Friday February 24 2012, 07:02:24 UTC
Region: Island of Hawaii, Hawaii
Depth: 5.2 km
Source: USGS Feed

Carl le Strange says:
February 24, 2012 at 12:52
And the answer seems to be Eyjafjallajökull…
While people have been guessing about Godbunga, Hekla, Katla, Tindfjallajökull and Torfajökull, the answer seems to have been Eyjafjallajökull all along.
Smjörgil SIL is currently recording a harmonic tremor spike that started a few minute before an 1.8 Earthquake occured at Eyjafjallajökull. During the last 2 months there have been a few asymptomatic Earthquakes inside the volcano. And also there have been on and off harmonic tremoring for a week now.
Todays activity is magmatectonic to magmaseismic in nature. This is pretty much the first signs of life sine the 2010 eruption ended. The earthquakes during the last two months have centered around the crater, or inside the Fimmvörduhals area.
Please note that there is high wind in the area, but the level of harmonic tremor far succeds the energy levels during tonights storm.

[link to hraun.vedur.is]
[link to en.vedur.is]

[link to volcanocafe.wordpress.com]

Friday
24.02.2012 12:53:53 63.669 -19.370 5.8 km 2.2 32.49 5.5 km E of Básar
Friday
24.02.2012 12:33:30 63.716 -19.371 1.1 km 1.0 35.42 6.9 km NE of Básar
Friday
24.02.2012 12:04:34 63.590 -19.549 3.3 km 1.8 40.8 7.2 km NNW of Skógar

Malaysian island region inundated with massive volcanic mud flow
Posted on February 24, 2012 by The Extinction Protocol


February 24, 2012 – Borneo, MALAYSIA - Volcanic mud has been spewing at least twice to three times more actively than normal since last week. This has created an overflow of the sulphuric substance that has spread over an area as big as a football field. Apart from excited guests at the nearby Tabin Wildlife Resort, the number of wild animals, too, appears to have increased at the mud pool. Volcanic mud is believed to contain curative properties with iodine, bromine, calcium and magnesium. According to Wikipedia, since the mud solution has no significant toxic substance, it is used as a curative agent for mud baths at spas. Mud baths have existed for thousands of years and can now be found in high-end spas in many countries of the world. The mineral-rich pool serves as a salt lick for animals at the Tabin Wildlife Reserve, including endangered species such as the Sumatran rhino and the pygmy elephants. On a normal day, mud would continuously spew from within the pool and dry up in a day or two once it spills over. Last week, however, according to a wildlife ranger who declined to be named, it was rather active judging by the overflow. “Earlier last week, we saw it to be more active and when we returned a few days later, the mud had flowed over a big area,” he said, adding that people and animals had suddenly started coming to the reserve in droves. Nestled amid 120,500ha of dipterocarp rainforest and tropical plants, some of which are rich in medicinal and therapeutic values, the reserve is a popular haunt for bird watchers and wildlife enthusiasts. Besides the rhinoceroses and elephants, it is also home to the clouded leopard, sambar deer, exotic wild birds and the orangutan. –Strait Times
[link to theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com]

Magma Plume: Is Hawaii’s most active volcano about to enter a more violent phase?
Posted on February 24, 2012 by The Extinction Protocol
February 24, 2012 – HAWAII - A magnitude 4.1 earthquake rattled the summit of Kilauea tonight, continuing a swarm of small tremors that shook the region Wednesday. The latest quake, which hit at 9:11 p.m., was the strongest of the swarm so far and was centered 5 miles west of Volcano at a depth of 3.2 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The shaking was felt up to 75 miles away in Waikoloa, according to the USGS. A flurry of small temblors were recorded after the 4.1 magnitude quake. On Wednesday, USGS officials said a swarm of more than 60 small, shallow quakes — the strongest measuring magnitude 3.2 — were recorded in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Swarms of small quakes have been recorded before in the area and sometimes signal a shift in the eruption of the east rift of the volcano, they said. –Star Adviser
Seismic tremors increasing: On Friday, February 24th, 2012, a 4.3 magnitude earthquake, the strongest in the swarm series thus far, struck the region near the volcano. On January 24, 2012, the volcano was rattled by a 4.7 maganitude earthquake. Clearly, Kilauea is entering a more violent phase of eruptions. Like El Hierro in the Canary Islands, like Italy’s Mt. Etna, and Icleand’s volcanic fields, the planet’s magma plumes are seen an inordinate rise in activity- a sign of more trouble to come. We began sounding the warnings back in December of 2011, when a profuse lava flow from Kīlauea breached the West Ka‘ili‘ili ocean for the first time in 4 years. A scientist then warned the volcano was capable of very violent eruptions. Meanwhile, the earthquake swarm continues. -The Extinction Protocol
[link to theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com]

Magma is leaving the underwater volcano and moving to El Julan
February 18, 2012 by Jose Luis Barrera Morate

“The eruption of La Restinga has not ended. Nor has the seismic crisis. For several days, the underwater volcano emitted fewer gases and fine pyroclasts, thereby showing signs of depletion. However, seismic activity has moderately increased, to more than 20 earthquakes some days, and more worrying, with hypocenters at shallow depths and in the area of weakness N-S of the volcano Tanganasoga and the slopes of El Julan (los Garañones).

The magma is moving below the Sea of Las Calmas but it is migrating towards El Julan, abandoning the virtually inactive eruptive vent (or vents). There is a tendency for magma to concentrate in the area of los Garañones where there has been post landslide volcanism on the surface and under the sea [see image in original post]. It is therefore not surprising that the subterranean magma would flow along these coordinates (Julan-El Golfo), as it has been doing for hundreds and thousands of years, which, in geologic time, is very little time. By comparison there is the pre-eruptive situation that existed before the 10 October 2011 eruption. A possibility that cannot be excluded would be an eruption on the slopes of El Julan if the seismic crisis increases and the magma continues to exert pressure below.

The new bathymetric images of the Ramón Margalef sufficiently define the situation of the submarine volcano [see image in original post]. There is a main cone with a crater 120 meters in height (it was already assumed to be shallower than 130 m) and another, recently emerged, adventitious minor cone with the crater at 200 m depth. Note the large volume of material emitted that slid down the slopes to 2,000 meters on the ocean floor. With this inclined position of the base of the main structure, vertical growth does not appear possible, and even less so the possibility that the volcano could emerge.

What is missing is the petrological data for the samples that periodically rise to the sea surface, and that have been collected through the maritime salvage operations. It has been several months and the data that the CSIC must provide is not yet available; we do not know the reasons for the delay that prevents knowing the composition of the magma that emerges and therefore the geochemical evolution of the eruption. Also we still do not know the composition of the gases emitted. When we will have that data?

We are left without a resolution in regard to the new seismic crisis; this crisis could give us more information and concern.

These are my impressions, but we still cannot say that the submarine volcano will never return to ejecting magma.”

[link to blogs.elcorreogallego.es]

carl seems right...have a look luis
[link to en.vedur.is]

Yes this is so interesting... and at the same time very funny! It's like a ping pong magma game between two teams, Katla-Eyjafjallajökull / Torfarjakull-Hekla!!!

yep haha, well said!

By the way what's your bet? Wich one will be the first and when?