As of August 14th, 2022, there are 50 volcanoes actively erupting on the planet.
One of these erupting volcanoes in the nearly 20,000 foot tall Sabancaya volcano in Peru
which has been erupting continuously since November 6th of 2016.
Its eruptions have largely consisted of vulcanian explosions where a temporary lava plug on
the volcano explodes, creating a several kilometer high plume of ash and ejecting boulders of
superheated rock over a wide area.
Due to the thick glacial cover this volcano has, a 12 kilometer or 7.5 mile exclusion
zone is currently kept around its summit.
With this being said, here are this week's major volcano related news stories.
In Iceland, the effusive eruption of the Meradalir volcano is continuing albeit at a decreased
rate, building an ever growing spatter cone.
Meanwhile, in American Samoa, a potential small scale tsunami may have struck one of
the islands in association with volcanic earthquakes at one of potentially two of the area's volcanoes.
And, in the Philippines, the Taal volcano is showing greatly increased signs of unrest,
meaning it could produce yet another eruption with little or no warning.
Between January of 2020 and March of 2022 the Taal volcano has been unusually active,
with its latest sequence beginning with a deadly sub-plinian VEI 4 explosive eruption.
After this eruption ended, the volcano began to mysteriously output absurdly high levels
of sulfur dioxide gas which are typically only seen at actively erupting volcanoes.
For example, the erupting Meradalir volcano in Iceland is outputting about 3,700 tons
of sulfur dioxide gas each day.
Yet, over the last 10 days the Taal volcano has consistently output an ever higher volume
of material.
While this does indicate that a large volume of shallow magma is present, the Taal volcano
is especially difficult to read and we aren't exactly sure why.
However, since 2020 the Taal volcano has produced 80% of its phreatomagmatic explosions within
its central crater lake on a day where it outputs more than 10,000 tons of sulfur dioxide
gas.
After continuously outputting less than 2,000 tons of the gas after its March 2022 eruption,
emissions spiked to a 4 month high of 17,141 tons a day.
This occurred alongside a slightly increased number of volcanic earthquakes, and a 1 to
3 kilometer high steam plume caused by changes within its crater lake.
Additionally, ground uplift was recently detected in the western portion of Taal's caldera.
In other words, short term signs are pointing towards another volcanic eruption, but if
or when it occurs is unknown.
If an eruption was to occur, it would likely produce another small to medium sized phreatomagmatic
burst like seen in July of 2021.
In Iceland it is now day 12 of the eruption of the Meradalir volcano northeast of Grindavik.
While this eruption began with a high rate of lava effusion of 32 cubic meters per second,
it later decreased to 18 cubic meters per second.
And, as of the writing of this video, this number has further decreased to 15 cubic meters
per second.
While eruptive activity has since largely stabilized, the volcano experienced a notable
decline in activity for around an hour.
While this drop in activity could indicate that the supply of magma to the surface has
decreased, it is more likely to indicate that additional fissure propagation could occur.
Thus, in the next several days new vents might open along the currently 360 meter long fissure.
On August 9th, 2022, a swarm of earthquakes began repeatedly striking the island of Ta’u
in American Samoa.
Then, residents on the island of Ofu watched the ocean begin to mysteriously recede.
Luckily, a far reaching tsunami did not occur, but earthquakes continued on for several more
hours.
The exact location of these quakes is unclear but were occurring at or between two active
volcanoes; Ta'u to the west and Vailulu'u to the east.
Since Vailulu'u has erupted 3 times since 1970 and has produced several earthquake swarms
unassociated with an eruption, it is a more likely culprit.
While the retreat of the ocean may have represented a rogue wave, it could have also indicated
that a small submarine landslide occurred within Vailulu's caldera or at its cone constructed
between 2001 and 2005.
Theoretically, a new volcanic eruption could be occurring at this volcano right now but
we are not quite sure yet as of yet.
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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