As of June 12th, 2022, there are 47 volcanoes actively erupting on the planet.
One of these erupting volcanoes is Ambae in Vanuatu, which is a complex shield volcano
that has a highly explosive history.
Its summit contains three caldera lakes, which are enclosed in a complex series of explosion
craters and within two massive calderas.
With this being said, here are this week's major volcano related news stories.
In Indonesia, there is now a greatly increased chance that Mount Awu will erupt in the next
several weeks due to the detection of harmonic tremor underneath its edifice.
Meanwhile, in Russia, a volcano known for containing one of the planet's rarest minerals
unexpectedly began showing signs of unrest through increased sulfur dioxide emissions.
And, in the Philippines, the Bulusan volcano unexpectedly produced a large phreatic eruption,
sending a large plume of ash to a height of 2,743 meters or 9,000 feet.
This eruption began at 10:37 am local time on June 5th when a loud explosion was heard
originating from Bulusan's peak.
Over the next 17 minutes continuous explosions occurred from its summit, and small pyroclastic
flows raced outwards and advanced several hundred meters over the landscape.
Despite how populated the area is around the volcano, no one was harmed.
This eruption occurred due to an intrusion of shallow magma underneath its edifice which
heated underlying groundwater.
The groundwater subsequently flashed to steam, built in pressure, and exploded upwards.
These explosions pulverized more than a million cubic meters of rock, causing heavy ash laden
particles to drift to the west.
Over the next 2 hours, up to 5 millimeters of ash fell on homes, roads, and bridges in
an unusually narrow strip of land.
As a result, Bulusan's alert level was raised from 0 to 1.
Its eruption this week was almost completely unexpected as typically eruptions do not occur
during the lowest alert level at a volcano.
However, this phreatic eruption, which likely had a volcanic explosivity index of a 1 or
2 was preceded by a series of 77 earthquakes.
After decreasing for several days, the number of earthquakes spiked once again to 149 on
June 10th.
Along with sulfur dioxide emissions that are currently higher than those witnessed at Taal,
this volcano is in danger of producing more phreatic explosions in the immediate future.
In the Kuril islands of Russia, there are many scenic yet poorly known volcanoes.
One of these volcanic complexes is known as Medvezhia, and consists of a group of stratovolcanoes,
lava domes, two calderas, and a caldera lake.
This volcano is quite unusual because its active fumaroles have produced unusual quantities
of one of the world's rarest elements.
I am not referring to gold, but rather a platinum group element known as rheniium, which is
20% rarer than gold.
Within its fumaroles, quantities of gray white rheniite have been collected, suggesting that
this volcano has an unusual geochemistry.
Of its four stratovolcanoes, each volcano further to the west appears to be progressively
younger in age.
The youngest of these is called Kuriavy and has erupted 5 times since 1770, with its last
eruption being in 1999.
It appears that an uptick in activity has recently occurred at this volcano, as its
fumaroles unexpectedly produced a sudden burst of sulfur dioxide which contained 750 tons
of material.
This suggests that a small phreatic eruption may have occurred or that a shallow intrusion
of magma is present.
We cannot be sure which is the case as this volcano does not have any direct monitoring
equipment on its edifice.
In Indonesia, the Mount Awu volcano has been at a raised alert level of orange since May
12th of 2022.
In the past several weeks intermittent seismic swarms have occurred due to the movement of
magma within the volcano's central magma conduit.
On several occasions this even produced strong steam plumes from its central lava dome which
typically is absent of fumarole related plumes.
Then, on June 8th, 3 harmonic tremors were detected underneath Awu's edifice, which were
caused by the rapid movement of magma within its main conduit.
This is an unusual type of seismic activity almost exclusively found before a volcano
produces a new eruption.
The last time similar harmonic tremors were recorded at Awu was in 2004 right before it
erupted.
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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