As of January 22nd of 2023, there are 44 volcanoes which are erupting across 7 continents.
One of the 9 actively erupting volcanoes within Indonesia is the Dukono volcano, which has
been continuously erupting during the entire 21st century so far.
Dukono produces fairly frequent vulcanian explosions, which eject ash and bombs of lava,
often throwing them beyond its currently active crater rim.
As a result, a 2 kilometer exclusion zone from the center of Dukono's active crater
is currently in place.
With this being said, here are this week's major volcano related news stories.
In New Zealand, another crater lake heating cycle is ongoing at the Ruapehu volcano, which
as a result has kept this volcano at an alert level of 1.
Meanwhile, in Indonesia, both the similarly named Merapi and Marapi volcanoes are actively
erupting.
Well, a third similarly named volcano known as Sorikmarapi is showing minor signs of unrest
through an increased number of volcano tectonic earthquakes.
And, in the Philippines, the Taal volcano has continued to produce an unusually high
level of daily volcanic tremor events.
While Taal's central crater lake within Taal Island has been regularly producing steam
plumes, it appears that something changed beginning on January 20th.
On that date, a person who presumably lived or worked within a 20 kilometer radius of
Taal Island suddenly notified me that a new steam plume was seemingly originating outside
of Taal's active crater.
Instead, a second plume was originating just to the northeast of the edge of this crater
rim on Taal Island, which in my opinion could be occurring along a small newly created fissure,
somewhat similar to those created during Taal's 2020 eruption.
Despite all of this, it appears that activity at Taal on January 21st was lower than it
was on January 11th due to a slightly lessened rate of volcanic tremor events.
Per a direct quote from a U.S. Geological Survey webpage, "Tremor is a continuous high-amplitude
seismic signal that can be caused by multiple processes, including long-lived resonance
due to extended flow of magma movement through cracks, continuous occurrence of VT or LP/LF
events that are so closely spaced in time that they can't be visually separated, and
explosions."
Based on the present observations at the Taal volcano, we can for the most part rule out
underground explosions as the source of the volcanic tremor events.
What will result of all of this activity is unclear, as perhaps nothing will happen, but
I am continuing to keep a close eye on the Taal volcano.
Meanwhile, in New Zealand the Ruapehu volcano which is the nation's most active volcano
on the north island proper continued another one of its crater lake heating cycles.
Since Ruapehu's summit contains an acidic crater lake, monitoring the temperature and
chemistry of it is quite useful to determine the overall activity at the volcano.
Thus, while a lower crater lake temperature means that not much is currently occurring,
a higher temperature generally correlates with a higher probability of an eruption eventually
occurring.
Ruapehu's crater lake produces cycles with high and low temperatures, and its latest
activity represents another heating cycle high point which began around 2 months ago.
The crater lake increased in temperature to 35.5 degrees Celsius on December 27th of 2022
but has since decreased to 32 degrees Celsius as of January 17th of 2023.
Volcanic tremor is currently weak at Ruapehu and there are currently no signs that magma
is interacting with the volcano's hydrothermal system.
Thus, Ruapehu's alert level remains at one which indicates minor volcanic unrest.
In Indonesia, the Sorikmarapi volcano is located on the western edge of the Great Sumatran
Fault on the island of Sumatra.
Although it has erupted several times during historical time, this volcano has not produced
a volcanic eruption in more than a decade.
However, despite remaining at an alert level of green, since the beginning of January of
2023 this volcano has experienced an increased number of volcano tectonic earthquakes.
In my opinion, these quakes are probably not simply occurring due to tectonic forces but
rather possible stirring of its at depth magma chamber.
With this being said, in my opinion it does not appear that Sorikmarapi will erupt anytime
soon given its current level of activity.
Here is a quick list of all 44 volcanoes which are currently erupting.
Additionally, here are some volcanoes showing signs of unrest which are not erupting at
the present.
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