This week, in Indonesia, the famed Ijen volcano, known for producing blue lava through burning
molten sulfur was recently confirmed to be experiencing uplift which many very well still
be ongoing due to a possible magmatic intrusion.
Meanwhile in Iceland, the Bárðarbunga volcano produced its largest earthquake in nearly
7 months, which registered in as a magnitude 4.8 and was followed by numerous aftershocks.
And, in what is this week's top story, the Trident volcano in Alaska had its alert level
raised on the exact same day that a massive 6 mile wide and more than 2000 foot deep caldera
volcano known as Aniakchak also had its alert level raised.
However there is more.
Adjacent to the Trident volcano, the Mount Mageik and Mount Martin volcanoes are also
displaying unusual activity as they are both producing an elevated number of earthquakes.
However, the quakes at those two volcanoes at least in my opinion appear to merely be
secondary in nature to the main event, which is a likely magmatic intrusion which is ongoing
underneath the Trident volcano.
This magmatic intrusion has been ongoing since at least August 24th 2022, when a series of
deep earthquakes at the expected depth of the crust mantle boundary.
Over time, these quakes got shallower and shallower until on August 29 2022 the likely
intrusion reached a shallow depth, perhaps interacting with the area's hydrothermal system,
causing quakes to suddenly branch out in a horizontal manner and also occurring at one
volcano to the northeast and two volcanoes to the southwest in what was a possible sill
intrusion.
Ever since then, earthquakes at Katmai have decreased from their peak while at the other
3 have remained high, although occurring in intermittent spikes of activity.
Thus, when another earthquake spike occurred at Trident on February 22nd of 2023, its alert
level was raised from green to yellow for the 3rd time in the last 12 months.
While it is unclear whether this latest activity will result in a volcanic eruption at any
of these volcanoes, if one was to occur it would most likely originate at Trident, probably
at its Southwest Trident cone as that last erupted in 1974.
A similar scenario may have been ongoing at Aniakchak unnoticed for several months, until
a sudden spike in earthquakes caused its alert level to also be raised from green to yellow
on February 22 2023 which in my opinion possibly represents that dike propagation has begun
at its shallow magma chamber.
Although, Aniakchak has not had its alert level raised since it last erupted in 1931.
Since 4 volcanoes in Alaska are at an alert level of yellow and 4 others are also showing
signs of unrest I have placed them on my opinion based volcanic unrest scale to help portray
the intensity of unrest at each volcano.
In Indonesia the famed Ijen volcano on the island of Java is famed for the sheer abundance
of sulfur it produces, so much in fact and adjacent to such heat that the sulfur crystals
melt into a liquid and parts of it ignite, creating what is referred to as blue lava.
Because of this level of sulfur deposition, it should not come as a surprise that this
volcano is still highly active.
Ijen has been at a raised alert level of yellow since January 7 2022 alongside an exclusion
zone of 1500 meters surrounding its large crater rim which holds its acidic crater lake.
This acid lake has continued to increase in temperature in recent days as in January it
was measured at 46 Celsius but as of February 19th was measured at 65.8 degrees Celsius.
Additionally, from February 1st through February 18th, the central crater of Ijen was uplifted
by 5 centimeters.
This suggests that a shallow magmatic intrusion is ongoing which could result in a phreatic
or phreatomagmatic eruption with little or no warning.
Thus, for now the exclusion zone and yellow alert level should remain in place.
On February 21st a magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck at shallow depths underneath the Bárðarbunga
volcano in Iceland.
While this would go on to cause more than a dozen aftershocks, these luckily did not
indicate anything truly unusual at the volcano.
Bárðarbunga is at the intersection of the spreading of the North American and Eurasian
plates, and the quake appeared to be tectonic in origin rather than volcanic. 6 similar
magnitude 4 events occurred at this volcano in 2022 and none of these resulted in a volcanic
eruption.
Here is a quick list of all of the world's volcanoes which are currently erupting.
Additionally, here are some volcanoes showing signs of unrest which are not erupting as
of the recording of this video on February 25th of 2023.
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