As of October 16th, 2022, there are 50 volcanoes that are actively erupting around the planet.
One of these volcanoes is Yasur in Vanuatu, which holds an interesting title.
It is producing the longest known eruption of any volcano in recorded history, as it
has been definitively continously erupting since July of 1774.
However, this eruption may have even began further back potentially during 1200 CE, when
the Byzantine Empire still existed.
With this being said, here are this week's major volcano related news stories.
In Iceland, the Grimsvotn volcano produced a glacial flood known as a jökulhlaup meaning
that in the short term future it has a greatly increased chance of erupting.
Meanwhile, in Chile, the Nevados de Chillan volcanoproduced a series of unusually powerful
explosions, sending plumes of ash several kilometers into the atmosphere.
And, in Italy, part of Mount Stromboli's active crater collapsed, producing an unusually energetic
eruption.
This eruption occurred on October 9th, and caused a moderate volume of highly pressurized
magma and volcanic gas to escape, and since the gas was released quite violently, it fell
back to the ground as what is known as a pyroclastic flow.
Over the next 100 seconds, this pyroclastic flow raced towards the ocean at high speeds
and caused a plume of superheated material to rise into the atmosphere.
As more pyroclastic flows were generated, it continued to carve a small ravine into
Stromboli's northwestern slope.
Then, a magnificent river of lava emerged, which quickly flowed towards the Mediterranean
Sea.
Despite producing a pyroclastic flow, what had just occurred was another example of a
strombolian eruption which this volcano is known for, as the eruption type was named
after this volcano.
Since 1558, Mount Stromboli has been actively erupting 98.5% of the time.
This pattern has continued into the 21st century, with Stromboli's latest eruption having begun
all the way back in 1934.
Mount Stromboli has a highly distinctive eruption type, where a mild explosion ejects bombs
of lava to a modest height over the timespan of a few seconds which releases minor amounts
of ash.
These explosions occur over variable periods of time but generally occur about once every
15 minutes.
Meanwhile, in Iceland, the glacier covered Grimsvotn volcano had its alert level raised
from green to yellow on October 11th.
This change was made due to the fact that a section of its ice cap had begun to rapidly
subside as of October 5th and as of the writing of this video had sunk more than 7 meters
or 23 feet.
This subsidence indicated that a glacial flood was about to occur or was already underway
which is known as a jokulhlaup.
While the exact relationship between these jokulhlaups and volcanic eruptions is still
debated, it is widely accepted that on several occasions a jokulhlaup preceded or coincided
with a volcanic eruption.
This occurred at Grimsvotn in 1922, 1938, 1954, and most recently in 2004.
Although jokulhlaups occur around the planet for varying reasons, when they originate from
the Grimsvotn volcano, they almost certainly are volcanic in origin, often due to its abundant
fumaroles underneath its ice sheet.
These fumaroles regularly release volcanic gasses at above the boiling point of water,
which melts sections of the overlying glaciers, creating a thick subglacial lake which can
have on the order of several cubic kilometers of water.
All of this water eventually floods at a path of least resistance, creating a jokulhlaup
that floods distant drainages of the volcano.
The removal of this water and ice reduces pressure on the magma chamber, occasionally
triggering an eruption.
However, in this case the jokulhlaup was rather small, having a flow rate of 300 cubic meters
per second, and has not caused significantly increased seismic activity at the overall
volcano.
In Chile, the highly active Nevados de Chillan volcano has been continuously erupting since
January of 2016.
In the past week, this volcano produced a series of unusually powerful vulcanian explosions
on both October 8th and October 9th, sending a plume of ash 1,700 meters and 2,500 meters
above the volcano respectively.
The earlier large eruption was preceded by a long period earthquake, indicating in that
case an influx of shallow magma.
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.
As a final note, here is a brief overview of several volcano news stories which occurred
but did not make it into this week's video.
Thanks for watching!
If you would like to request a specific topic, please leave a comment below.
Additionally, I would like to thank my new patron matt howard for supporting this channel!