As of August 6th 2023, there are currently 45 volcanoes which are actively erupting around
the planet.
One of these volcanoes which was erupting was Iceland's now famous Fagradalsfjall volcano,
which over three consecutive summers produced separate completely effusive fissure eruptions.
These eruptions were a huge draw, bringing in more than 425,000 tourists.
Yet, all eruptions must eventually come to an end, and this is exactly what occurred
around 5 am local time in Iceland on August 5th, ending Fagradalsfjall's 27 day long eruption.
With this being said, here are this week's major volcano related news stories.
On the Australian mainland, a sinkhole appeared at the Mount Gambier volcano.
Meanwhile, in Chile, magmatic uplift was confirmed to be ongoing at the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle
volcano.
And, in what is this week's top story, the Shishaldin volcano in Alaska produced another
powerful explosion, potentially alongside its tallest eruption column in its recorded
history.
This explosion occurred on August 4th at approximately 9 am local time, when a powerful vulcanian
eruption sent a plume of ash to a height of 30,000 feet or 9,144 meters.
As this ash plume drifted to the east-northeast, traveling up to 112 miles away, sections of
the plume gained another 1,000 feet in height.
While it is unclear exactly how much ash fell on the region just around the erupting vent,
it may have totaled more than a few centimeters.
Because of this, in my opinion, the eruption that occurred would rate on the 0 to 9 volcanic
explosivity index as a 3.
Satellite imagery seemingly also showed strong heat signatures in a 3 mile radius around
Shishaldin's peak, suggesting that pyroclastic flows reached that radius during the recent
explosive event.
There were warning signs that some form a major eruption was going to occur, specifically
caused by the temporary plugging and then eventual clearing of Shishaldin's summit vent.
As, since August 1st, the RSAM values which indicate the amount of average ground shaking
at the volcano had been continuously increasing from a value of 6 until it finally reached
1400 three days later.
This coincided with more and more magma and gasses trying to push upwards through the
plug until the pressure became too great and an explosion occurred.
More such vulcanian explosions that generate 15,000 to 35,000 foot high eruption plumes
are likely from Shishaldin a few times a week to a few times a month while its eruption
is ongoing.
Covering a wide swath of eastern South Australia and western Victoria is the active volcanic
complex known as the Newer Volcanics Province.
This complex consists of hundreds of basaltic vents formed over the last 7.9 million years.
The very last such eruption in this field created Mount Gambier and its several crater
lakes in 3,000 BCE.
While this specific vent will never erupt again in my opinion, it raised a few eyebrows
when a 12 meter wide hole in the ground which was 7 meters deep appeared in a section of
the city.
However, this hole is not volcanic in origin, but rather could be considered a type of karst
feature.
There is a thick limestone rock unit which underlies the region of Mount Gambier, and
over many millions of years cave growth occurred due to the dissolution caused by slightly
acidic rainwater which seeped into the ground.
One such cave eventually partially collapsed, but was then subsequently filled with ash
by Gambier's eruption in 3000 BCE.
It then took until this year for heavy rains to finally eat away at enough of the existing
ash layer that it finally caused the support to collapse at depth, creating the sinkhole.
In Chile, the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcano is known for the 10 month long explosive VEI
5 eruption it produced during sections of 2011 and 2012, which even left behind a highly
unique obsidian lava flow.
Well, sensors have recently confirmed that uplift caused by the intrusion of magma into
its underlying magma chamber is ongoing, but this is not a cause for concern.
As, while the current uplift of approximately 10 centimeters or 4 inches a year might seem
like a lot, this volcano has been experiencing uplift since 1996.
With this being said, its uplift did increase after its last eruption ended in 2012.
Thus, while this uplift could eventually result in another eruption within a few years to
decades time, there are absolutely no signs of an imminent eruption at this volcano.
Here is a quick list of all of the world's volcanoes which are currently erupting.
Additionally, here are some volcanoes showing signs of unrest which are not erupting as
of the recording of this video on August 5th of 2023.
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