Mayon Lava in Interesting Times!

Mayon Lava Flow Grows

Mayon at a ‘high level of unrest’ may experience  more dangerous explosions

Mt Mayon Spews Lava. Photo: Reuters. Image may be subject to copyright.

Mayon 5-level hazard alert raised to level 3 Tuesday after Mayon ejected ash and spewed lava.

According to Phivolcs, “Alert level 3 condition signifies magma is near the top of the crater and incandescent materials are now detaching. Mayon volcano is now at a ‘high level of unrest’ and may have more dangerous explosions.”

Quick fact about the latest episode of activity at Mt Mayon:

• Phivolcs Level 3 alert means an eruption is expected within days to weeks [Level 4 means an eruption is imminent, while level 5 means eruption is in progress.]
• Albay Governor Jose Salceda has declared “a state of imminent disaster” throughout the province, to allow the provincial government to access disaster funds needed to evacuate residents in Mayon’s danger zones.
• Phivolcs scientist, Alex Baloloy,  said, “a full blown eruption is expected to take place within weeks to days.”
• Baloloy said lava had cascaded down about 3 km from the crater summit of the volcano.
• By Monday Mayon had emitted about 800 tons of Sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas.

• The air in the region has been described as “hot and irritable” and “smelly.”
• After 23 volcanic quakes on Monday, 5 ash explosions occurred at the volcano generating a mix of brownish and grayish ash cloud.
• Phivolcs said it had recorded 78 volcanic earthquakes in the last 24 hours
• Philippines disaster management officials have now evacuated about 50,000 people from Tabaco City and the towns of Malipot, Daraga, Camalig, Guinobatan and Ligao near Mt Mayon, aiming for a “zero-casualty situation.”
• Schoolrooms within an 8-km radius of Mt Mayon have been suspended and used as evacuation shelters. [Let’s hope the schools are better built in the Philippines than they are in China.]

• Mayon has experienced more than 50 eruption in 400 years.
• The first recorded major eruption occurred in 1616.
• The most voluminous lava flow occurred in the 1766 eruption.
• Mayon’s most destructive eruption occurred on February 1, 1814. The volcano bombarded the town of Cagsa with tephra, burying all but the bell tower of the town’s church in about 9 m of ash. As many as 2,300 of Albay residents may have perished in the volcano’s deadliest eruption to date.
• Mayon erupted continuously for 7 days starting June 23, 1897. The village of Bacacay was buried in 15 m of lava. About 500 villagers were killed in the aftermath.

• In July, Fire Earth moderators said, “the Philippines should brace itself for major waves of seismic and volcanic activities in the coming weeks, months and years.”

Fire Earth Moderators believe more volcanic activities at other Philippines volcanoes are highly probable in the near future. The volcanoes located on the island on Mindanao are particularly liable to erupt in the next 12 to 36 months.

The moderators also believe a large eruption may occur at Taal volcano. For other related forecast, see links below and search blog contents.

Related Links:

• Mayon Volcano Oozes Lava
• Strong Earthquake Strikes Mindanao, Philippines
• VolcanoWatch Weekly [11 Nov 2009]
• Latest From TAAL and other Philippines Volcanoes

• Mount Mayon neighbors on evacuation alert
• Mayon Volcano Ejects Ash

• FEWW Volcano Links
• Volcanoes
• FEWW Earthquake Links

Nyiragongo Unrest

Plume from Nyiragongo

Nyiragongo Volcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo released a small plume on June 27, 2009, as the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite passed overhead.

NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors detected hotspots on six different occasions between April 10 and May 4, 2009.  The plume observed by ALI in late June may be a continuation of the low-level activity.

Nyiragongo is a stratovolcano—a steep-sloped structure made of alternating layers of solidified ash, hardened lava, and rocks released by previous eruptions. In contrast to the low profile of neighboring Nyamuragira, Nyiragongo rises to a height of 3,470 meters (11,384 feet) above sea level. Lava flows from Nyiragongo caused substantial casualties in 1977 and 2002.  NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using EO-1 ALI data provided courtesy of the NASA EO-1 Team. Caption by Michon Scott. [Edited by FEWW.]

Related Links:

• Earthquakes
• Volcanoes
• FEWW Volcano Links

Is Mt Nyamulagira Erupting?

Scientists in the DR Congo have reportedly recorded significant increased volcanic activity around the city of Goma

Mount Nyamuragira, Africa’s most active volcano, about 25km (16 miles) north of Goma, may soon erupt.

A large section of the city of Goma, located in the east of the country was destroyed in 2002 after  Mount Nyiragongo erupted.

Scientist Dieudonne Wafula told the BBC on May 8, if it did erupt, there would not be an immediate threat to Goma, but some key rural roads could be cut off.

A general view of the refugee camp at Kibati at the foot of Nyiragongo volcano in eastern Congo, November 14, 2008.  REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly. Image may be subject to copyright.

Volcano: Nyamuragira

Country:  DR Congo
Region: Central Africa
Volcano Type: Shield volcano
Last Known Eruption: 2006
Summit Elevation: 3058 m  (10,033 feet)
Latitude: 1.408°S   (1°24’30″S)
Longitude: 29.20°E  (29°12’0″E)
Source: Global Volcanism Program (GVP)

Lava fountains from the new cone of Mikombe on the lower NE flank of Zaire’s Nyamuragira volcano feed the lava flow in the foreground. This photo was taken from the SE on September 29, nine days after the start of the eruption. During the first week the new cone, whose name means “many bats,” grew to a height of 60-70 m. Lava flows had traveled 6-7 km NE by the time of this photo. The eruption continued until February 1993, by which time lava flows had traveled 19 km to the NE. Photo by Minoru Kasahara, 1991 (Hokkaido University). Caption GVP.

Depiction of the Nyiragongo and Nyamuragira volcanoes, based on data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission and Landsat. Vertical scale exaggerated (1.5x).  Image ID: PIA03337.  Date: February 2000 – December 2001. Image:Nyiragongo and Nyamuragira – PIA03337.png (high resolution) . NASA/JPL/NIMA

Depiction of the Nyiragongo and Nyamuragira volcanoes, based on data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, or Aster, and Landsat. Some lava flows (not all) from the 2002-01-17 eruption are shown in red. Date: February 2000 – January 2002. Image ID: PIA03339.  NASA/JPL/NIMA

The summit of Nyamuragira volcano is truncated by 2 x 2.3 km wide caldera whose floor is partially covered by unvegetated historical lava flows. This view from above the SW caldera rim shows a pit crater on the far side of the caldera at the upper left that was the site of a lava lake, active since at least 1921, which drained in 1938 at the time of a major flank eruption. Africa’s most active volcano, 3058-m-high Nyamuragira rises about 25 km north of Lake Kivu in the East African Rift Valley NW of Nyiragongo volcano.  Photo by Simon Carn, 2004 (TOMS Volcanic Emissions Group, University of Maryland, Baltimore County). CAption: GVP.

Major Volcanoes of the DR Congo

From: Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program Website, 2002

Africa’s most active volcano, Nyamuragira is a massive basaltic shield volcano that rises north of Lake Kivu across a broad valley northwest of Nyiragongo volcano. The volcano has a volume of 500 cubic kilometers and extensive lava flows from Nyamuragira cover 1500 square kilometers of the East African Rift. The 3058-meter-high summit is truncated by a small 2 x 2.3 kilometer summit caldera that has walls up to about 100 meters high. Historical eruptions have occurred within the summit caldera, frequently modifying the morphology of the caldera floor, as well as from the numerous fissures and cinder cones on the volcano’s flanks. A lava lake in the summit crater, active since at least 1921, drained in 1938. Twentieth-century lava flows extend down the flanks more than 30 km from the summit, reaching as far as Lake Kivu.

From Reuters

• Eastern Congo volcanoes show eruption warning signs

From Reuters, Cnn

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo — A river of molten rock continued to pour from a volcano in Congo on Friday, a day after it erupted, killing 45, swallowing buildings and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee the city of Goma.

Hundreds of U.N. workers were also forced to flee in the 24 hours since waves of lava began forking from Mount Nyiragongo volcano through villages on its slopes, down through Goma itself and on to Lake Kivu on the Rwandan border.

Gaping holes opened up in Goma, normally a city of more than 500,000 but now virtually a ghost town, and molten rock reduced roads and buildings to fiery ash.

Fourteen villages in the path of the lava were said to have been incinerated.

“The smell of sulphur is everywhere, there are tremors every 10 minutes,” Desire Bukasa, a radio controller for a U.N. agency in Goma, told Reuters.

“I’m trying to work out how to evacuate the town. There are fissures opening up in the town which billow smoke. People are scared.”

Tens of thousands hurriedly left possessions behind and fled across the border into Rwanda as a two metre high surge of molten lava advanced from the 3,469-metre (11,380 foot) volcano, destroying everything in its path.

Related Links:

• Volcanoes, Santorini Eruption and Crops Failure in China
• Volcanoes
• Earthquakes

Redoubt could explode at any time

Redoubt Activity – Color Code ORANGE : Alert Level WATCH

Latest update from AVO:

An explosive event could occur at any time with little warning

Local time: May 06, 2009 0525 AKDT (May 06, 2009 1325 UTC)

2009-05-06 04:23:52
Seismic activity remains unchanged over the last 2 hours. Repeating seismic events continue. It is possible that an explosive event could occur at any time with little warning. Weather clouds have dissipated near the volcano. The volcano is once again visible from the Hut netcam, and has occasionally revealed glowing spots related to rockfalls from the growing dome.

Image of Redoubt’s dome and summit area, taken during gas / observation flight on May 4, 2009. Image Creator: Keith Labay ; Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

View of the north flank of Redoubt Volcano from the research hut where one of the webcams is situated. This zoomed image shows a minor block-and-ash flow advancing down the talus slope below the dome produced from hot debris shed off the dome. Hot debris collects in the gorge above the waterfall generating minor, secondary steam/ash clouds. Picture Date: April 30, 2009 14:14:39 AKDT –  Image Creator: Game McGimsey -Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

View of the growing lava dome during gas and observation flight on May 4, 2009. Note the tongue of blocky lava extending down the upper Drift gorge. A lighter gray slope of talus – rocky debris shed off the slowly advancing tongue of lava – fills the gorge downslope, nearly reaching the muddy waterfall. Small plumes of ash rise from rockfalls. Note the vigorously steaming margins of the dome, possibly caused by interaction of hot rock and water accumulating from melting snow and ice in the summit crater. Colleague Rick Wessels used a shortwave infrared (SWIR) image captured by a nighttime pass of Landsat 7 to show the dimensions of the dome – about 510 x 760 m (1700 feet x 2500 feet) and at least 150 m (500 feet) high. See image below. Picture Date: May 04, 2009 AKDT – Image Creator: Christina Neal – Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

Shortwave infrared (SWIR) image of the warm dome areas captured by a nighttime pass of Landsat 7 on May 02, 2009. The hot dome pixels have been placed over a WorldView image from April 16, 2009 and a topographic map from 1990. The SWIR image shows a hot central vent as well as areas of active rockfalls along the perimeter.

Picture Date: May 02, 2009 07:12:54 UTC  –  Image Creator: Rick Wessels – Image montage produced by AVO/USGS. Landsat data courtesy of USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS). WorldView Data, Digital Globe, Inc (copyright 2009)

Redoubt Volcano active lava dome taken from the north The top image is an oblique airphoto by Game McGimsey while the bottom shows the FLIR thermal image. Picture Date: April 16, 2009 12:48:50 AKDT – Image Creator: Rick Wessels – Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

Related Links

• U.S. Volcano Status Map
• Elevated Activity Page
• U.S. Volcano Webcams

• Volcanoes [FEWW Links]
• Earthquakes