As of April 24th, 2022, there are 51 volcanoes actively erupting on the planet.
One of these erupting volcanoes is Manam in Papua New Guinea, which is a reddish brown
to gray colored stratovolcano located in the Bismarck Sea.
It has produced frequent and powerful vulcanian explosions, including one on April 18th which
sent a plume of ash to 13.7 kilometers or 45,000 feet.
With this being said, here are this week's major volcano related news stories.
In Alaska, part of the Aleutian Islands received poor air quality due to a powerful volcanic
eruption from the Karymsky volcano in Russia.
This caused large volumes of ash to drift to the east and south, covering a large segment
of the Kamchatka peninsula in a thick layer of ash.
Also, in New Zealand, the Ruapehu volcano is continuing to show signs of unrest, and
has now been continuously producing volcanic tremor for the longest period since 2002.
For context, its last eruption occurred in 2007.
And, in Washington State, a new earthquake swarm occurred underneath the state's most
potentially dangerous volcano, Mount Rainier.
For context, the US Geological Survey considers an earthquake swarm in the context of Mount
Rainier to be a day with three or more earthquakes.
This earthquake swarm began on April 16th at 5:22 am local time.
Throughout the day, a series of 13 quakes occurred which were all centered underneath
its glacier covered summit.
The next day, earthquake activity continually declined, bringing the total number of events
during the swarm to 15.
These quakes were all incredibly small, ranging from a magnitude 0.0 to 1.6 at a depth of
1 to 3 kilometers, all of which were too small for any person to feel.
And, contrary to popular belief, a magnitude 0 quake is not the same as background or no
seismic activity.
Although the 15 earthquakes may have been caused by the expansion of groundwater to
ice, another theory is much more likely.
Mount Rainier's magma chamber is located at a depth of between 8 and 24 kilometers, where
the material is 30% molten at the present.
Above this region, amounts of groundwater are heated which causes it to expand.
Eventually the expansion becomes too great that it causes pressure to build, triggering
the movement of a fault.
In other words, hydrothermal activity caused this week's earthquake swarm.
Earthquake swarms of this size occur about twice a year at Mount Rainier, and this latest
occurrence does not indicate anything unusual at depth.
In New Zealand, Mount Ruapehu has been at a raised yellow alert level since March 21st
of 2022.
This change was initially made due to an ever increasing number of earthquakes on the volcano
alongside an increase in the temperature of its acidic crater lake.
This heating trend began on March 13th, when the crater lake had a temperature of 28 degrees
Celsius.
By March 21st, it increased to 31 degrees.
This temperature kept increasing until reaching a peak of 38 degrees in mid April.
However, in the last week, the temperature has actually declined slightly, although earthquake
activity has remained essentially constant.
This is slightly worrying as the crater lake temperature should still be increasing.
This suggests that a partial blockage exists underneath the lake.
Given sufficient time, enough heat and combustible gasses could build at this blockage until
it becomes too great, exploding upwards in a new volcanic eruption.
In Russia, the Karymsky volcano has been continuously erupting since April of 2020.
This has been largely defined by strombolian to vulcanian explosive activity at its 5,000
year old volcanic cone, which is entirely situated in an older caldera.
Most of the vulcanian explosions produce small ash columns which reach a height of 5,000
to 10,000 feet.
However, about once every 20 months an even larger explosion occurs, sending a plume of
ash to more than 20,000 feet in height.
One such explosion occurred on April 20th, sending a plume of ash to a height of 10 kilometers
or 32,800 feet.
This represents Karymsky's largest volcanic explosion since April 18th of 2011.
More explosions are quite likely in the following days but are not likely to be quite as large.
Here is a quick list of every volcano which is currently erupting.
Also, here are some volcanoes at raised alert statuses which are not erupting but could
erupt in the near future.
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