As of August 13th 2023, there are currently 43 volcanoes which are actively erupting around
the planet.
One of these erupting volcanoes is Ethiopia's Erta Ale volcano, which is only one of two
shield volcanoes to be actively erupting within Africa.
Erta Ale's center was once located below sea level although this region is now buried beneath
2000 feet thick of black basaltic rocks from lava flows.
Erta Ale has been actively erupting since 1967, often effusively emitting lava through
one of its sometimes two active lava lakes.
With this being said, here are this week's major volcano related news stories.
In Costa Rica, one of the nation's most active volcanoes, Poas, produced its first eruption
in 16 months.
Meanwhile, in Italy, although Mount Etna is not actively erupting, it produced an unusual
series of smoke rings, providing a fascinating site for the many who live nearby.
And, in what is this week's top story, a significant earthquake swarm began at the Chiles Cerro
Negro volcano centered on the border of Ecuador and Colombia, where more than 3,000 volcano
tectonic earthquakes occurred in a single day.
As the name implies, the Chiles-Cerro Negro volcano involves two separate stratovolcanoes;
Cerro Negro to the west and volcan Chiles 3.5 kilometers to the east.
While these volcanoes have altogether not definitively erupted in a whopping 60,000
years, they still contain active hot springs which vent volcanic gasses.
But, more importantly, since the mid 2000s, a region centered 5 kilometers to the southeast
of Volcan Chiles has been experiencing an on and off magmatic uplift cycle where the
ground has risen by as much as 10.6 centimeters or 4.17 inches a year.
One such uplift cycle is currently ongoing, which began in May of 2022, being caused by
a moderate depth magmatic intrusion underneath this volcano.
This activity has not only resulted in an increased emission of hydrogen sulfide gas
at the volcano's hot springs, but also more than 176,000 volcano tectonic earthquakes
since the year began.
You might thus think that this complex was pretty close to an imminent eruption.
Yet, in my opinion, an eruption is still pretty far off and unlikely to occur anytime soon
as this complex has a history of producing more than 100,000 earthquakes in singular
earthquake swarms.
Yet, something is quite noticeable.
Since 2013, the frequency of earthquake swarms has increased, but these earthquake swarms
have also gotten shorter in duration.
Regardless, the most significant threat is not a volcanic eruption from Volcan Chiles,
but rather the possibility that another magnitude 5 earthquake could be triggered by the magmatic
intrusion, much like what occurred on July 25th 2022, when a magnitude 5.6 earthquake
occurred.
In Italy, while Mount Etna on the island of Sicily has not been erupting for several weeks,
it still put on a show of sorts when its actively degassing vents repeatedly produced a series
of so-called smoke rings.
These "rings" were produced on several occasions between August 3rd and August 9th, sending
a several hundred foot wide ring of rotating volcanic gasses into the sky.
Most of these rings were produced by Mount Etna's Bocca Nuova crater, and was made possible
by a series of mostly circular vents this complex crater contains.
These smoke rings are produced when rising volcanic gas gets compressed into a narrowing
vent.
A large gas bubble then develops, and significant water vapor which is present subsequently
rushes out to escape but is blocked by the gas bubble, causing the formation of a large
ring.
In Costa Rica, the Poas volcano erupted for its first time in 16 months when on August
2nd and August 5th, separate small volume phreatic eruptions ejected acidic lake water
which had a pH close to zero and minor ash to a height of 100 meters.
This event, which had either a volcanic explosivity index of a 0 or a 1 was surprisingly typical
of this complex.
As in the last century, Poas has produced more than 100 fairly unpredictable phreatic
explosions, although what just occurred was on the very lower end of what is possible.
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 12th of 2023.
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