As of July 24th, 2022, there are 48 volcanoes actively erupting on the planet.
One of these erupting volcanoes is Yasur in the nation of Vanuatu, which currently holds
the title for the world's longest eruption.
It has been continuously erupting since 1774, but this doesn't tell the full story as this
date was when Captain Cook first spotted the volcano.
In reality, Yasur may have been continuously erupting since as early as 1150 CE.
With this being said, here are this week's major volcano related news stories.
At Mount Baker in Washington State, the volcano produced a series of unusual earthquakes which
were detected by the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.
Meanwhile, in the Philippines, the Taal volcano produced a sudden spike in sulfur dioxide
emissions, nearly matching the amount it produced right before its most recent eruption.
And, in Italy, a change in activity occurred at the Campi Flegrei supervolcano which is
currently at a yellow alert level, as its state of unrest began in 2011.
The main two features of this heightened state of unrest have been abundant earthquakes and
dramatically increased levels of ground uplift.
Of the two, ground uplift is the most significant, as it indicates the intrusion of magma at
a depth of approximately 3 kilometers which pushed up overlying soil.
Along with other effects, this uplift has caused several regional docks to completely
dry out during low tide as they are now too far above sea level, having been pushed upwards
by as much as 88 centimeters since the uplift began around a decade ago.
During this uplift, volcanic earthquakes became increasingly common before reaching a 30 year
high in early 2022.
Then, in May of 2022, the rate of uplift dramatically decreased, marking its first change since
2013.
Interestingly, the total uplift stopped short of an important threshold reached in 1984;
a relative uplift of 3.5 meters.
Although still up for debate, 3.5 meters is generally considered to be a marker of the
minimum total uplift required for a volcanic eruption to occur at this volcano.
When this marker was reached in 1984, it led to more than 40,000 people being evacuated.
Although the threat of an eventual volcanic eruption has not yet truly passed, it is definitely
a good sign that the rate of uplift has suddenly dropped.
Of course, the 3.5 meters uplift does not guarantee an eruption will occur, as the last
eruption in 1538 only happened after 17 meters of relative uplift.
Since January of 2020, the Taal volcano has been the most active volcano in the Philippines.
This activity has consisted of 1 major eruption and several smaller eruptions confined to
its crater lake.
Throughout all of this activity, Taal has produced an unusually high level of sulfur
dioxide emissions, ranging from between 4,000 to 20,000 tons a day of the gas, which indicates
a large volume of shallow gas rich magma.
These gas emissions have been crucial for predicting activity at this volcano, as since
2020 around 80% of its eruptions have occurred on days where the volcano produced more than
10,000 tons of sulfur dioxide.
With this being said, after Taal's 2 hour long eruption in March, its overall gas emissions
dropped off a cliff, being consistently measured below 1,000 tons a day.
Initially, this suggested that the volcano might be entering a new dormant phase, as
Taal seems to produce sequences of eruptions in a relatively short timespan before becoming
dormant for a period of several decades.
Then, in the last week, sulfur dioxide emissions suddenly jumped.
This occurred alongside an increase in volcanic earthquakes, as until this week not a single
volcanic earthquake had occurred this month at Taal.
My interpretation of these events is that a new batch of magma is building underneath
the volcano, which could eventually result in a small scale phreatomagmatic eruption
although a future eruption in the short to medium term is not guaranteed.
At the glacier covered Mount Baker volcano in Washington State, a group of 2 earthquakes
occurred on July 15th and July 18.
While 2 magnitude 1 range earthquakes may not seem like much, this is interesting considering
that Baker is one of the most seismically quiet volcanoes in the US Cascade Range.
However, when I asked the US Geological Survey what caused these quakes, they stated that
they were not volcanic in origin.
Rather, they were so-called glacial quakes, which occur most frequently during the hottest
months during the highest rate of glacial retreat, removing pressure on underlying faults
which was beforehand preventing the fault from moving.
Thus, Mount Baker is remaining at an alert level of green.
Here is a quick list of every volcano which is currently erupting.
Also, here are some volcanoes showing signs of unrest which are not erupting but could
erupt in the near future.
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