As of August 21st, 2022, there are 49 volcanoes actively erupting on the planet.
One of these erupting volcanoes is Chikurachki in Russia, which is located on the same Kurile
island as the erupting Ebeko volcano.
While Chikurachki has produced several recent large explosive eruptions, the last of which
occurred in 1986, its ongoing activity is several orders of magnitude smaller.
Its latest eruption began on August 22nd of 2022, sending a plume of ash to a height of
2 kilometers or 6,600 feet.
With this being said, here are this week's major volcano related news stories.
In the island chain of Comoros, the alert level was raised at the highly active Karthala
volcano.
Meanwhile in Alaska, another new volcanic eruption began at the massive island volcano
of Semisopochnoi.
And, in the Philippines, volcanic unrest is occurring at the Mayon volcano.
For context, Mayon has been the most active volcano in the Philippines since 1900.
Since then it has produced 27 eruptions, accounting for 26% of all eruptions in the Philippines
since then.
It has produced a wide range of eruption types, including strombolian eruptions which eject
bombs of lava around its summit, vulcanian eruptions which consist of intermittent larger
scale explosions, and deadly plinian eruptions with sustained towering eruption columns.
Two large scale eruptions occurred in 1814 and 1897, the latter of which ejected bombs
of lava 10 kilometers away from its summit into the city of Santo Domingo.
Mayon's last eruption ended in 2019, and now 3 years later, the alert level of Mayon was
raised from 0 to 1 on August 21st.
This occurred due to two reasons.
First, ground uplift was detected on the volcano due to either the intrusion of magma, or increases
in abundance or pressure of gas or fluids within the volcano's hydrothermal system.
Second, the morphology of Mayon's summit lava dome also recently changed.
During the last 19 months, the lava dome grew by 40,000 cubic meters.
This was not a symptom of ground uplift, but rather due to an increase in gas pressure
under the volcano which has pushed solidified magma in Mayon's conduit upwards and onto
the surface.
And, in the past several days a faint glow whether it be from shallow magma or melting
sulfur was detected at Mayon's summit.
For now, an eruption has an increased likelihood of occurring but is overall unlikely, at least
while earthquake numbers remain low.
Meanwhile, in Alaska, one of the most recently active volcanoes in the United States, Semisopochnoi,
produced a new volcanic eruption.
After a 70 day pause after its last eruption, an Alaska Volcano Observatory webcam detected
a new explosion from Semisopochnoi's North Cerberus Cone.
This sent a plume of ash several thousand feet into the air, although the true height
is unclear as the volcano was obscured by cloud cover.
This latest eruption was an example of a single "vulcanian" explosion, caused by the clearing
of a temporary plug on the volcano's magma conduit.
Although another explosion has not occurred since, it is quite likely that the single
explosion represents the beginning of a new eruptive phase and will eventually generate
dozens of explosions.
In Comoros, the island of Grande Comore consists of two volcanoes; the more active Karthala
to the south and the less active La Grille volcano to the north.
Both are examples of well defined shield volcanoes, although only Karthala has produced a documented
eruption in historic times.
On August 22nd, the alert level of Karthala was raised from green to yellow due to an
earthquake swarm on its western flank.
While the exact location of these earthquakes has not yet been published, it suggests that
magma could be moving underneath the volcano.
This could lead to a flank eruption adjacent to the highly populated area of Moroni, the
capital city of the country.
Eruptions at Karthala generally have an initial explosive component, and last a median length
of 7 days.
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.
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