As of June 25th, 2023, there are currently 42 volcanoes which are actively erupting around
the planet.
One of these erupting volcanoes is the Santa Maria volcano in Guatemala, which has been
continuously erupting since 1922.
A 1902 ultra-plinian VEI 6 explosive eruption destroyed the southwest section of the volcano,
forming a large scarp but in its aftermath a lava dome complex to the southwest has grown
on its edge known as Santiaguito ever since 1922.
With this being said, here are this week's major volcano related news stories.
In Alaska, an intense earthquake swarm occurred at the Takawangha volcano, while signs of
ground deformation were finally confirmed at the Trident volcano, both of which are
currently at an alert level of yellow.
Meanwhile, in Hawaii, the Kilauea volcano somewhat abruptly ceased erupting, seemingly
ending a 13 day long eruption.
And in Peru, seismic activity has been increasing underneath the Ubinas volcano for the past
5 weeks.
This reached such a high level that on June 20th 2023, the volcano's alert level was raised
from green to yellow, marking the first time it was at a raised alert level since April
5th 2021.
These elevated rates of earthquakes were believed to be caused by the influx of a new batch
of magma into Ubinas's underlying magma chamber at a depth of 8 to 15 kilometers.
This raised alert level was then proven as being warranted, as on June 22nd 2023 at 11
minutes past midnight, a series of ash emissions were produced by the volcano.
A new eruption had begun, Ubinas's first since 2019.
This eruption was either phreatic or vulcanian in nature, and sent a plume of ash a kilometer
above the already impressive 5,672 meter or 18,609 foot tall stratovolcano.
More explosions occurred the following day at around 9:20 am local time, once again creating
a moderately sized ash plume.
Previous eruptions of this volcano have lasted anywhere from less than a week to a little
more than 3 years in length, largely consisting of intermittent explosions that eject ash
that mostly falls within a 20 kilometer radius.
Almost all of these eruptions are rated as either a 2 or a 3 on the volcanic explosivity
index, so it is quite likely that the current eruption will match this description.
In Hawaii, the Kilauea volcano ended its 13 day long effusive eruption on June 19th.
In much of the last week, eruptive activity had primarily occurred through a single spatter
cone on a section of its south-southwestern caldera wall.
This spatter cone repeatedly partially collapsed, but then rebuilt itself.
However, at 4:00 pm local time on June 19th, this vent's intensity quickly waned before
stopping altogether.
Now, no lava is currently visible, and seismic activity along with sulfur dioxide emissions
have greatly decreased.
However, it appears that once again magma is intruding into Kilauea's underlying magma
chamber, as shown by the upward ground deformation which has been ongoing at a low rate ever
since the eruption ceased.
Thus, while Kilauea could erupt again at some point in the next few weeks, for now it appears
that its eruption has truly paused and it could be a while before it erupts again.
A similar eruption pause at Kilauea occurred between December 10th of 2022 and January
4th of 2023.
In Alaska, the Trident volcano has intermittently been at a raised alert level of yellow ever
since August of 2022, when increased seismic activity that I presumed represented an intrusion
of magma occurred.
I interpret this intrusion to have eventually created a sill which moved in two directions,
one towards the Katmai volcano which quickly solidified, and one towards the Mageik and
Martin volcanoes which is still producing earthquakes.
Well, we finally got some form of confirmation that magma is moving at least underneath the
Trident volcano as it was confirmed to have produced 2 inches or 5 centimeters of uplift
in the last 12 months.
Elsewhere in Alaska, in the Aleutian island chain on an unpopulated island, a new earthquake
swarm occurred at the Takawanga volcano.
This volcano along with the neighboring Tanaga volcano was the site of hundreds of closely
spaced shallow earthquakes during the first two weeks of March of 2023, seemingly indicating
a shallow magmatic intrusion underneath Tanaga's Sajaka two cone.
Yet, this did not end up resulting in an eruption.
Earthquake activity at the two volcanoes had been declining ever since then until a cluster
of 20 volcano tectonic earthquakes occurred on Takawangha's southwestern flank on June
22nd.
The following day, 40 earthquakes occurred.
This seemingly suggests increasing pressure in its hydrothermal system, which although
highly unlikely in my opinion at the present, could theoretically trigger a phreatic eruption.
Here is a 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 June 24th of 2023.
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