As of December 24th, 2022, there are 40 volcanoes which are actively erupting. One
of these erupting volcanoes is the Heard Island volcano which believe it or not is considered
to be part of Australia. And this despite the fact that a section of France via the Kerguelen
Islands and continental Antarctica are closer to the volcano than any section of mainland
Australia. The Heard Island volcano consists of two primary volcanic peaks elongated along
a northwest trending chain of activity. Heard Island's ongoing eruption is largely effusive,
sending small lava flows down its southwestern flank, with prior recent lava flows being visible
from satellite. With this being said, here are this week's major volcano related news stories.
In Chile, the Lascar volcano is once again displaying heightened levels of seismic activity
in addition to heat signatures visible from satellite, meaning it could erupt once again.
Meanwhile in Hawaii, just in time for Christmas a storm dropped snow on both the Mauna Loa and
Mauna Kea volcanoes. And, in the Galapagos Islands, the Fernandina volcano is showing
greatly increased signs of volcanic unrest, meaning it could erupt in the near future.
For context, the Fernandina volcano is one of the 10 active volcanoes in the Galapagos Island
chain. All of these volcanoes, just like those in the Hawaiian Island chain exist due to an
underlying mantle hotspot which in the case of Galapagos volcanoes is known as the Galapagos
Hotspot. As seen by the sheer abundance of dark black lava flows and secondary volcanic features
known as tuff cones, many of these volcanoes are still incredibly active. For example,
Volcan Wolf produced an explosive later transitioning to effusive eruption for more
than a month during the beginning of 2022. In the weeks leading up to Volcan Wolf's eruption,
I had noted and reported on signs of ground deformation underneath the volcano,
indicating that magma was intruding into the crust. Well, I have now observed fresh signs
of ground deformation at a different volcano, Fernandina. Since December 1st it appears that a
dike intrusion of magma has pushed up a section of the volcano by at least 2 inches or 5 centimeters.
While this might not sound too significant, in the context of this volcano, it is significant. For
much of 2021 and early 2022, a magmatic intrusion was ongoing at Fernandina which for many months
made it look like the volcano was primed to erupt. Yet, the intrusion seemingly stopped,
while a shallow body of magma presumably remained underneath the volcano. Since it has seemingly
reactivated there is an even greater chance of this volcano now erupting than during its prior
intrusion. Any future eruption could be mildly explosive but is most likely to be primarily
effusive, sending lava flows down the slopes of Fernandina Island and possibly into the ocean.
In Chile, the towering Lascar stratovolcano has been showing elevated levels of seismic
activity since it produced an explosive eruption on December 10th. After producing only minimal
activity following this eruption, Lascar began producing heat signatures which on a near daily
basis became visible from satellite. Then, on December 19th Sernageomin noted a sudden
increase in earthquakes at shallow depths. In my interpretation of this news, it suggests that some
sort of fluids whether it be magma or heated water might be moving underneath the volcano. This could
lead to another volcanic eruption in the future. And, this Christmas while much of the United
States is quite cold, an unusual location has a White Christmas, albeit on a very small part of
Hawaii's Big Island. A strong storm system dumped an abundance of snow on the summits
of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea which became visible via satellite on December 20th. Due to the still
hot but cooling lava from Mauna Loa's 2022 eruption which ended more than a week ago,
snow was unable to accumulate on sections with recently deposited molten rock.
Here is a quick list of every volcano which is currently erupting. I want to
wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Additionally, I would like to
thank Cyn2K for increasing the level of their membership tier on this channel's patreon page!