As of May 1st, 2022, there are 51 volcanoes actively erupting on the planet.
One of these erupting volcanoes is Kilauea in Hawaii, which has been near continuously
erupting since 1983.
Much of this eruptive activity has occurred within its central caldera where small lava
fountains and minor lava effusion are almost always ongoing.
With this being said, here are this week's major volcano related news stories.
In the Portuguese Azores, the island of Sao Jorge is once again displaying signs of recent
volcanic uplift, suggesting that magma might once again be on the move.
Meanwhile, in Indonesia, the Batu Tara volcano produced a sudden and unexpected eruption,
representing its second eruptive episode of 2022.
And, west of Jakarta, the Krakatau volcano produced a large parxoysm; that is a short
yet violent burst of activity.
This eruptive episode ejected numerous bombs of lava, representing the island's largest
eruption since April of 2020.
This latest eruptive phase began on April 17th, which at first was not very notable
as it only created a small plume of ash and ejected new molten rock at a low rate.
Then, on April 22nd at 5:00 pm local time, the data on the RSAM instrument which measures
overall seismic activity suddenly spiked.
This correlated to a sudden and dramatic increase in volcanic activity at Krakatau's central
vent, leading to a series of phreatic explosions due to the interaction of groundwater with
shallow magma.
Soon after, dramatic lava fountaining began, sending a near continuous column of lava and
ash several hundred meters into the air.
This material eventually fell back to the ground, creating a series of lava flows which
moved down Krakatau's slopes.
By noon of April 23rd, one of these lava flows reached the western portion of the overall
island, constructing a large new lava delta out of basaltic andesite at the site of the
volcano's summit collapse in 2018.
When eruptive activity ceased on April 25th, the Anak Krakatau island now had a brand new
120 meter tall cinder cone which beforehand was merely the site of a vent just above sea
level.
Despite speculation suggesting otherwise, there is currently not a high danger of another
volcanic collapse caused tsunami.
There simply is not an oversteepened edifice which is likely to collapse at this time.
As for the spectacular rate of rapid lava effusion witnessed, it suggests that more
similar episodes of activity might occur in the next several years.
The overall island of Krakatoa is quickly regrowing after its latest collapse.
In the Azores, the volcano on the island of Sao Jorge has been continuing to show signs
of unrest through a series of earthquake swarms.
These earthquake swarms have been ongoing since March 19th of 2022, and since then more
than 30,000 earthquakes have occurred, largely in two clusters centered north and northwest
of the island's airport.
After two days of seismic activity, significant uplift was detected, indicating the movement
of magma at depth.
However, over time the number of daily earthquakes above magnitude 2 dropped, from 128 on March
20th to 36 on March 27th and then 7 on April 3rd.
New uplift was subsequently not detected between April 8th and April 20th, reflecting that
magma was likely solidifying at depth.
Since then, however, the number of earthquakes has remained relatively constant, and magmatic
uplift was once again detected.
Although the rate of earthquakes is still quite low, the implication is that a small
section of the original batch of magma is once again rising through the crust.
However, due to the lack of shallow earthquakes, an imminent eruption still appears unlikely.
On April 26th, a group of fishermen were passing by the uninhabited island of Batu Tara.
Suddenly, a boom was heard, and a plume of ash rose into the atmosphere.
Although the details of this report are difficult to corroborate, it appears that a small phreatic
eruption occurred at this island volcano.
This marks the first eruption at this volcano since January 31st of 2022.
More small eruptions are likely in the next several weeks to months, as there is clearly
some shallow magma present.
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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