In Guatemala, one of the nation's most active volcanoes is known as Fuego or "fire", frequently
ejecting bombs of lava, ash, and emitting pyroclastic flows at regular intervals.
Volcan Fuego has been near continuously erupting for the last 2 decades, and its activity has
been mostly consistent albeit with a few exceptions.
Sometimes, a brief albeit violent burst of activity occurs in what is known as a paroxysm,
marking eruptions which are an order of magnitude larger than what is typical and generally
last for less than 48 hours.
One such new paroxysm began on May 4th 2023 at 1:59 am local time, when Volcan Fuego's
tremor began to continually increase.
This coincided with an increasing amount of ash emissions at the volcano, eventually creating
a continuous eruptive plume.
Over the next several hours, this plume got higher and higher, eventually reaching a height
of 6200 meters or 20,300 feet.
As the eruption continued to get more energetic, sections of ejected material fell back to
the ground as superheated currents of gas, lava, and rock which are known as pyroclastic
flows.
These traveled down the volcano at speed of between 60 to 100 kilometers per hour, which
I was able to confirm traveled at least 3 kilometer distant along several drainages
which I have marked on screen.
However, in my estimation, some pyroclastic flows may have even travelled up to a distance
of 5,000 meters from Fuego's summit.
As the eruption's intensity peaked with a truly sustained vulcanian plume between 8:54
and 14:09 with the highest itensity occurring at 10:47, substantial amounts of ash drifted
50 then 100 kilometers distant, even falling in sections of the Pacific Ocean 150 kilometers
away!
However, after 14:10 the eruptive intensity slowly decreased, until the paroxysm ended
at 21:13 local time.
Then, right before midnight on May 4th 2023, the eruptive intensity dropped to levels about
a quarter of what it experienced in the hours leading up to the beginning of the paroxysm.
This paroxysm is now most definitely over, and what occurred could best be described
as a variety of vulcanian eruption, as best distinguished by the height of the ash plume
not being tall enough to be sub-plinian, the thick ash plume, and the formation of pyroclastic
flows.
More than 1,000 people were evacuated during this eruption, a 7 kilometer exclusion zone
was placed around the volcano, and a section of the RN-14 road on the eastern side of the
volcano was closed, preusmably temporarily.
This was the largest Paroxysm Fuego had produced since about 5 years ago, when an eruption
about 5 to 10 times larger occurred on June 3rd 2018 produced a 16 kilometer high eruption
plume and up to 12 kilometer long pyroclastic flows, scorching an area of 10 square kilometers
and causing numerous casualties.
No casualties so far appear to have occurred from the more recent eruption, and no it does
not appear that a veyr large pyroclastic flow is imminent.
As, in the years leading up to 2018, the Las Lajas drainage was slowly filling with highly
loose pyroclastic material and ash.
This eventually reached a critical point, causing it to collapse as part of a vulcanian
eruption and generate long reaching pyroclastic flows.
As you can see, it has not reached a similar depth witnessed before the June 3rd 2018 eruption
as it is still refilling.
Although the eruption might seem to be over, only the paroxysm is as for all intents and
purposes Volcan Fuego is still erupting.
However, now there is another hazard.
Because a moderate amount of ash fell on Fuego, when the next heavy rainfall occurs it will
likely generate small to medium sized lahars.
Lahars are sort of like flash flood but involve water and a mixture of volcanic products,
which you under no circumstances want to be swept into due to it acting like wet concrete,
and sometimes taking out regional bridges or overtopping regional river banks.
Thus, for those who live within 30 kilometers of Fuego, be careful on the next few days
rain is possible and do not be in any riverbeds which descend from the nearly 12,400 foot
volcano.
Thanks for watching.
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