As of October 31st, 2021, there are now 48 volcanoes which are actively erupting.
These include volcanoes such as Yasur in Vanuatu, Ebeko in Russia, Semisopochnoi in Alaska,
and La Palma in the Spanish Canary Islands.
Here are a few of this week's major volcano related news stories.
In Japan, pumice from a recent island forming eruption has begun washing up on beaches and
in ports, causing damage to several boats.
Also in Japan, a series of sunk world war II era ghost ships have turned up high on
the beaches of Iwo Jima.
The culprit?
Extreme volcanic uplift.
Meanwhile in Hawaii, the Kilauea volcano has now been continuously erupting for 1 month,
and we now know how much lava it has erupted so far!
Now for our top story, the ongoing eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island
of La Palma.
The first eruption on the island of La Palma in 50 years has now entered its 43rd day.
So far, strombolian style eruptive activity, that is intermittent ejection of bombs of
lava with occasional ash emissions, has output a total of 120 million cubic meters of lava.
In recent days, lava has increasingly expanded towards the south of existing flows via rivers
of molten rock, destroying additional structures.
As the total number of destroyed homes approaches 2,800, the overall damage from the eruption
now tops 1 billion euros.
This takes into account direct damage, lost revenue, and air traffic disruption.
In all matter of scales, this eruption is most definitely larger than historical eruptions
on the island, and is likely to continue for 4 to 8 more weeks at a minimum.
On the famous island of Iwo Jima, strange and eerie footage perfect for Halloween were
broadcast showing dozens of ghost ships, that is ships without a crew, seemingly emplaced
high on the beach of the overall island.
Although there was speculation that these shipwrecks were in fact Japanese warships
sunk in battle, this is not the case.
Rather, these ships are transports which was sunk immediately after the 1945 battle of
Iwo Jima in an attempt to artificially build a makeshift port for American troops.
As for why they are emplaced high on the beach, far above high tide, it relates to the entirety
of Iwo Jima being a volcanic feature known as a resurgent dome.
In 850 BC, a large explosive eruption completely destroyed a large section of the ancient Iwo
Jima island, causing it to sink into the ocean.
In the more than 2800 years since, lava has slowly crept back into the empty space of
the existing magma chamber, which has pushed the island upwards.
The same uplift continues at an impressive rate today, as the shoreline marines landed
on in world war II is now 17 meters or 56 feet above sea level.
Thus, wrecked ships which were up to 17 meters below the 1945 shoreline are now far above
sea level.
Across much of Okinawa and southern Kyushu in Japan, large amounts of pumice have begun
washing up across numerous beaches and more than 30 ports.
This pumice has caused damage to more than 40 boats, even creating situations where some
small boats are unable to move as they are surrounded in this light volcanic rock.
This pumice originated from the several week long eruption in August of the then submarine
volcano, Fukutoku-Okanoba which formed a brand new island.
In the 2.5 months since, a large grouping of this buoyant material, termed a pumice
raft, has drifted to the west and northwest, travelling more than 1,300 kilometers.
The pumice from this eruption will continue to wash up on several shorelines in the upcoming
weeks to months, due to residual ocean currents.
At Kilauea in Hawaii, the volcano's newest eruption has just surpassed 1 month in length.
This eruption has been completely confined to the summit caldera, and is not at risk
of damaging any structures.
Since the eruption began on September 29th, a single vent has output 6.1 billion gallons
of molten rock, totaling 23.2 million cubic meters of material.
This means that lava has been erupting at an average rate of just under 9 cubic meters
per second, thus representing low intensity eruptive activity.
This volume of lava has caused the overall lava lake to rise by 161 feet or 49 meters,
meaning that lava can be directly observed from public national park outlooks surrounding
the volcano.
Here is a quick list of every volcano which is currently erupting.
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