As of July 31st, 2022, there are 49 volcanoes actively erupting on the planet.
One of these erupting volcanoes is the often forgotten about Australian volcano known as
Heard Island.
Heard Island is a remote albeit fairly large glacier covered island which is 4,100 kilometers
southwest of the city of Perth.
It contains two separate large volcanic cones which are connected by a narrow isthmus.
The taller of these peaks is Mawson Peak, which represents the tallest point in all
of Australia and has been continuously erupting since September 5th of 2012.
Although it produces frequent minor explosive eruptions, the volcano most frequently produces
lava flows which flow out of its main crater and down its glacier covered slopes.
With this being said, here are this week's major volcano related news stories.
On the border of Ecuador and Colombia, magma is moving underneath a volcano which has not
produced a confirmed eruption in more than 10,000 years.
Meanwhile, in Indonesia, the Raung volcano produced a new explosive eruption, sending
a plume of ash several thousand meters above its caldera floor.
And, in Japan, the alert level at the Sakurajima volcano was raised to the maximum possible
alert level.
Sakurajima is the youngest vent of a massive supervolcano on the island of Kyushu known
as the Aira Caldera.
This supervolcano contains a 19 kilometer wide depression in the ground known as a caldera
which makes up the northern part of Kagoshima Bay and formed 29,000 years ago.
Sakurajima is found on the caldera's southern rim and has been erupting for the last 13,000
years.
While Sakurajima has produced very deadly eruptions during this timespan, what occurred
on July 24th was not very far reaching.
Sakurajima's eruptions have largely consisted of a series of so called "vulcanian" explosions,
where a small plug of lava or volcanic material is cleared once every few hours, generating
a large explosion and on occasion pyroclastic flows, while also ejecting boulders of rock
up to 2,000 meters distant.
Living around the volcano are approximately 4,500 residents, the closest of which would
be placed at risk if volcanic ejecta was ever thrown more than 2,400 meters from its active
crater.
If this threshold was ever to be passed, it would trigger automatic evacuations and a
raise to Sakurajima's maximum alert level.
This is exactly what occurred at 8:05 pm local time on the 24th, as large boulders of rock
were thrown 2,500 meters away from its active crater.
Due to the potential of similarly large explosions, 51 people were evacuated, and Sakurajima's
alert level was raised to 5.
Luckily, only smaller explosions followed over the next several days, and the volcano's
alert level was lowered back to 3.
In Indonesia, the Raung volcano in eastern Java rather unexpectedly erupted on July 27th
at 5:19 pm local time, sending a plume of ash to a height of 4,832 meters or 15,853
feet above sea level.
Over the next 9 minutes, a total of 4 phreatic explosions occurred.
Intermittent ash emissions then continued for the next several hours, and small amounts
of fine material fell on the city of Jember.
This eruption did not involve any lava but was triggered by a new intrusion of magma
at a depth of 2.9 kilometers beneath the volcano.
This intrusion could eventually reach the summit of Raung, producing a strombolian magmatic
eruption, or it might stall below the volcano.
Regardless, additional phreatic or magmatic eruptions are likely in the next several days
to months at Raung, which now has a 3 kilometer exclusion zone.
At the Cerro Negro-Chiles volcanic complex which straddles the border between Ecuador
and Colombia, there has been a worrying amount of recent volcanic activity.
As the name implies, this complex consists of two stratovolcanoes; Cerro Negro de Mayasquer
to the west and Volcan Chiles to the east.
Since May of 2022, the ground on the southern flank of Volcan Chiles and to the southeast
of it has been pushed upwards at an unusually high rate of 10.6 centimeters a year due to
the shallow intrusion of magma underneath the volcano.
This directly and indirectly generated more than 17,000 earthquakes, the largest of which
occurred on July 25th, registering in as a magnitude 5.6.
In addition to this quake, heightened levels of hydrogen sulfide gas have recently been
detected around several of the volcano's hot springs.
As the uplift continues, the chance of an eventual eruption is becoming all the more
likely.
However, similar albeit lesser intense earthquake swarms have occurred in previous years, and
none of these resulted in a volcanic eruption.
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.
You may have noted that I added a new category; "slight unrest".
This indicates unusual activity at a specified volcano which is generally not sufficient
enough to raise its alert level but still marks a deviation from normal volcanic activity
and marks the lowest tier on my list.
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