As of January 1st of 2023, there are 40 volcanoes which are actively erupting.
One of these erupting volcanoes is the Kaitoku Seamount, which is a shallow submarine volcano
145 kilometers north of the volcanic island of Iwo Jima.
Although Kaitoku's ongoing eruption is unlikely to generate a new island due to its presumed
low intensity, it has created magnificant and colorful light blue plumes which are easily
visible from satellite.
With this being said, here are this week's major volcano related news stories.
This week's stories will emphasize volcanic activity within the United States.
In Alaska, 3 volcanoes are continuing to display minor signs of unrest through intermittent
earthquakes.
Meanwhile, in Hawaii, the summit of the Kilauea volcano is continuing to be uplifted, suggesting
that magma is still filling its underlying magma chamber.
Also, in Alaska, a new volcano produced another explosive eruption, bringing the number of
actively erupting volcanoes in the state from 1 to 2.
Throughout 2022, there were 3 volcanoes in Alaska which were erupting the majority of
the year.
These volcanoes were Semisopochnoi, Great Sitkin, and Pavlof.
However the Semisopochnoi volcano stopped erupting on November 7th and the Pavlof volcano
ceased its eruption on December 7th.
Thus, between December 8th and until an earlier portion of this week, only the Great Sitkin
volcano was erupting in the state of Alaska.
However, seismic activity continued to occur at the Semisopochnoi volcano, which is a large
volcanic island with a central caldera, even producing an explosion type signal on December
24th.
Then sometime around December 27th, Semisopochnoi erupted once again, depositing an amount of
ash on an active volcanic cone.
Whether more intermittent explosions will occur in the next several weeks or this explosion
was simply an isolated event like witnessed at the volcano on November 7th remains to
be seen.
Meanwhile in Hawaii, it is unusually quiet when compared to recent months as not a single
volcano on the Big Island is actively erupting at the present, since the eruptions of both
Mauna Loa and Kilauea ended around the same time.
However, since November 28th the U.S. Geological Survey has noted a minor inflation trend indicating
an influx of new magma at Kilauea.
Due to this influx, a minor earthquake swarm occurred, with 25 earthquakes with a magnitude
of less than 2 striking the volcano between 18:00 and 21:00 local time on the Big Island
on December 30th.
Per a direct quote from the U.S. Geological Survey, "The swarm seems to be diminishing
at this time, but activity may pick up again.
These earthquakes are typical as the summit of Kīlauea repressurizes after the end of
the last eruption.
There is no indication that resumption of eruptive activity is imminent and there are
no signs of significant activity in either of Kīlaueaʻs rift zones or on Mauna Loa."
In Alaska, three volcanoes are at a raised alert level of Yellow.
These are the Cleveland, Pavlof, and Takawangha volcanoes.
The Pavlof volcano is at this alert level due to a combination of a natural consequence
of its eruption ending on December 7th and a raised level of earthquake activity.
Meanwhile, the Cleveland volcano has been at a raised alert for several months due to
occasional satellite detection of heat signatures on the volcano alongside a level of earthquakes
which is slightly above normal background levels.
The most notable of the three volcanoes currently at a raised alert level in Alaska is Takawangha
which produced an unusually strong earthquake swarm that began on November 19th of 2022.
Although these earthquakes at Takawangha continued at an elevated rate for more than a month
after the swarm began, in the last several weeks they have drastically reduced in abundance.
Here is a quick list of every volcano which is currently erupting.
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