As of November 21st, 2021, there are 49 volcanoes which are actively erupting.
These include volcanoes such as Shiveluch, which is the northernmost of the 49 to be
erupting at the present, being located in Russia.
It also includes Mount Stromboli in Italy, which has been now continuously erupting since
1934.
With this being said, here are a few of this week's major volcano related news stories.
In the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador, the alert level was raised at the Fernandina shield
volcano, as a significant increase in activity was detected near its summit, meaning that
an eruption is likely to begin soon.
Off the eastern coast of the island of Mayotte, magma is intruding into the caldera which
partially collapsed during the world's largest submarine volcanic eruption.
Meanwhile, in the Philippines, the most dangerous volcano on the planet, Taal, produced a new
volcanic eruption.
On November 15th, at 11:39 pm local time, the Taal volcano which is located south of
Manilla erupted at its main crater lake, producing an explosion which generated a 2400 meter
tall plume of ash.
Two more explosions followed approximately a day later on November 17th at 1:46 am and
2:54 am, but due to the time they occurred at the lake monitoring cameras were unable
to pick up any not grainy footage.
To understand what these 3 explosions would have looked like had they occurred in the
daytime, here is footage from July 6th of a similar magnitude explosion, termed a phreatomagmatic
eruption.
A phreatomagmatic eruption occurs when intruding magma heats adjacent groundwater, causing
it to flash to steam.
The steam eventually expands in volume until the pressure is too great, generating a volcanic
explosion which contained small fragments of molten rock.
The inclusion of these fragments of lava indicates that magma is directly underneath the central
crater lake of Taal, meaning that more such small eruptions in the next several days to
weeks are quite likely.
During the previous July eruptive episode, 17 such explosions occurred.
The largest of the explosions from that 9 day long eruption was significantly larger,
as it produced a kilometer long pyroclastic flow.
Although a larger explosion has yet to occur, the amount of sulfur dioxide emitted from
the shallow body of magma is about 10% higher than it was during the aforementioned July
eruption.
This indicates a comparatively larger volume of shallow magma.
In recent days, this abundant shallow magma has uplifted the overall Taal volcano as it
slowly intruded into shallower depths in the crust.
This magma could be leading towards another major eruption, but only time will tell.
On the famed Galapagos islands of Ecuador, the island of Fernandina is building towards
a new volcanic eruption.
This shield volcano with its massive and steep central caldera is the most active of the
12 active volcanoes which make up this island chain, as it has erupted 30 times since 1814,
primarily due to it being the closest volcano to the current location of the underlying
Galapagos Hotspot.
Since February of 2020, the center of the volcano has been uplifted by more than 40
centimeters as a new intrusion of magma emerges underneath its caldera, thus pushing the ground
upwards like a mole in a grass yard.
This uplift, although notable, only caused increased interest in recent days when fumaroles
within Fernandina's caldera suddenly activated, hinting that a new eruption will likely occur
with short notice.
The vast majority of eruptions from this shield volcano are effusive and occur from fissures
resulting in long lasting lava flows which slowly travel towards the coastline and expand
the overall island.
If a new eruption was to occur, it would be relatively harmless, as the island is uninhabited,
while being a boom for tourists who can explore the soon to be erupting volcano.
At the island of Mayotte northwest of Madagascar, the world's largest recorded submarine volcanic
eruption constructed a 762 meter or 2500 foot tall edifice which did not exist beforehand.
This eruption emplaced 5 cubic kilometers of lava and resulted in a caldera collapse
of another adjacent submarine volcanic edifice.
Although the eruption has since ended, a swarm of earthquakes were recently detected in the
caldera, indicating the intrusion of fresh magma.
Although this intrusion is unlikely to result in a volcanic eruption, a close eye needs
to be kept on these earthquakes, as it could result in another submarine volcanic eruption
or although less likely, even an eruption on the island of Pamanzi.
Here is a quick list of every volcano which is currently erupting.
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