As of April 16th, 2023, there are currently 43 volcanoes which are actively erupting around
the planet.
One of these erupting volcanoes is the famous Mount Stromboli volcano in Italy which is
nicknamed the "lighthouse of the Mediterranean" as it has been almost continuously erupting,
albeit around 99% of the time, since record keeping began in the region more than 2,500
years ago.
Although it has produced some larger explosions, Stromboli has largely consisted of intermittent
strombolian type eruptions with this eruption type being named after this volcano, generally
occurring about once every 15 to 30 minutes.
And now, here are this week's top volcano related news stories.
In Alaska, it was finally confirmed that the Aniakchak volcano which is currently at a
raised alert level of yellow has an active intrusion of magma at a mere depth of 2 to
2.5 miles below sea level.
Also in Alaska, ash was seemingly emitted in the vicinity of the Mount Katmai volcano
yet no eruption actually occurred, with this sequence of events being surprisingly common
there.
And, for this week's main story.
In Russia, the Shiveluch volcano produced a powerful sub-plinian eruption on April 11th,
representing the planet's largest explosive volcanic eruption to occur in approximately
15 months which destroyed the majority of a large lava dome that had grown at the volcano
since 1964 and formed a 1,000 meter wide crater in its place.
This eruption consisted of a powerful explosion which was followed by long reaching pyroclastic
flows that traveled up to 19 kilometers or 11.8 miles distant, scorching approximately
110 square kilometers of terrain.
As the more than 6 hour long sustained eruption column occurred, ash was ejected to a height
of 54,000 feet or 16.5 kilometers.
Much of this ash drifted to the west, accumulating in areas such as the town of Klyuchi where
it was measured at 6 inches or 15 centimeters thick.
This VEI 4 explosive eruption likely ejected around 0.2 cubic kilometers of tephra, and
its ash plume caused some problems for those who lived in parts of the United States and
Canada.
This eventually caused around 7 dozen flight cancellations in Alaska in addition to some
other flight cancellations in the Northwest Territories, British Columbia, Alberta, and
Washington.
A viewer of mine ever reported that some trace particles of ash fell on their car in eastern
Washington.
Meanwhile, in Arizona I noticed that around the same time a section of the sulfur dioxide
plume was overhead, solar panel related power production on my roof during clear skies decreased
by 4%.
At the Aniakchak volcano in Alaska which produced two powerful VEI 6 explosive eruptions in
6300 BCE and 1541 BCE, it was finally confirmed that a magmatic intrusion is ongoing at a
depth of around 2 to 2.5 miles below sea level.
This magmatic intrusion may have begun all the way back in October of 2022, and has since
then resulted in an increasing number of presumably volcano tectonic earthquakes.
More notably, a section of ground within the caldera that is centered above an unnamed
vent was uplifted by about 4 inches a week between February and March of 2023.
This rate has since decreased to 3 centimeters a week between March 23th and April 4th of
2023.
The presence of this intrusion means it is somewhat likely that a volcanic eruption will
occur at this complex sometime in the next 5 years, although this is not a certainty.
Such an eruption could even reach the size of a VEI 4 although a VEI 3 eruption in my
opinion appears more likely to occur if an eruption does end up occurring.
In Alaska, an information statement was put out regarding the Katmai volcano which famously
collapsed into a caldera due to the voluminous explosive eruption of Novarupta in 1912.
This 1912 eruption created the so called "Valley of 10,000 Smokes" with up to 150 meters or
492 feet thick of ignimbrite and ash being deposited there during a VEI 6 explosive eruption
which was 24 times larger than the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens.
Despite being slightly more than a century later, a surprisingly large amount of this
material is still quite loose.
Thus, when high winds occur, some of this material can become resuspended, creating
a weak ash plume which can actually damage aircraft if they come too close even though
a volcano is not actively erupting when this occurs.
Such an event occurred on April 9th 2023 due to sustained winds of between 25 and 30 miles
per hour, with the hazard not occurring the following day.
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 April 15th of 2023.
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