Headaches For South American Travellers As Puyehue Cordon-Caulle Continues To Erupt

BBC news and local websites are reporting that Argentina's airport in Bariloche, which was closed due to the eruption of Puyehue Cordon-Caulle volcano in Chile, had reopened three days ago after a 7-month closure due to volcanic ash, only to close again today as another wave of ash fell on the airport. I guess you can say this is the Southern hemisphere's Eyjafjallajokull moment. Airports as far as Melbourne, Australia have been forced to close due to the amount of ash in the air, as this volcano continues a strong eruptive cycle.

Chile's  Puyehue Cordon-Caulle volcano sprang back to life last year with major ash emissions coming from the Cordon-Caulle fissure system. The eruption has ejected many thousands of tons of ash into the atmosphere, and the ash cloud has recently circumnavigated the entire southern hemisphere. The current eruption has been characterized as highly explosive, with a VEI of 3, and has ejected pumice, effused lava down the flank, and has so far released enough energy equivalent to 70 nuclear bombs!

The eruption has forced closure of over 10 airports in the Southern Hemisphere, and has caused travel delays and chaos for months. However, like the Icelandic eruption of 2010, it is far better to be late, than to be dead, so I'm certain airlines are erring on the side of caution in this case.

Aside from the ashfall, and danger of lahars, the volcano has not caused any deaths or fatalities (directly) from the eruption. It has been erupting since April/March of 2011 and so far shows no signs of quieting down.

Eruptions from this volcano are somewhat rare, with many reports of historical eruption highly questionable, with the exception of the 1914, and 1960 eruptions.

Costa Rica's Turrialba Volcano Alert Level Raised To Yellow

Costa Rica's Turrialba volcano has been raised to alert level "Yellow" in response to reports of increased seismicity, and emissions. Residents and pilots reported seeing a gas plume (possibly containing ash), and some photos seem to confirm this (below). Turriabla has had several major explosive eruptions in the last 3200 years, with most historical activity being fairly small (some phreatic eruptions and minor explosive events). It is anyone's guess as to how this particular volcano will behave if it does decide to erupt.

Turrialba Volcano in Costa Rica (Credit not given from original website)

Increase emissions with ash and gas do not always lead to a major event. The volcano Cerro Hudson in Chile recently came out of 'hibernation' and gave a small 'burp' of ash and gas for a couple days, but then quieted down quickly. As the M.O. for Turrialba seems to be many brief, weak events, with the very occasional large event, this event will likely be small and brief. Time will tell.

Costa Rica has many active volcanoes, 5 of which are the typical repeat offenders (Poas, Irizu, Arenal, Rincon de la Vieja, and Turrialba) as far as frequent eruptions. Of the volcanoes in Costa Rica, only a few have little to no historical volcanic activity (Tenorio, Miravalles, Orosi, an Platanar). The four least active volcanoes doe however display hydrothermal or fumerolic activity, and were considered to be of Holocene age by the Smithsonian GVP, and their referenced volcanologists.

Costa Rica, like most Latin-American countries, the US, and Canada lie on the Pacific Ring of Fire. Costa Rica, is prone to frequent eruptions from Poas, and Arenal (very rare to see these volcanoes dormant).

Chile's Lascar Volcano Alert Level Raised

The Smithsonian GVP and Chilean media report that Lascar volcano has been raised a level on their alert scale due to increasing seismicity and volcanic tremor. There is a great article on Wired.com that details the latest unrest and provides plenty of great links to other info and a webcam for you volcano-voyeurs.

Lascar Volcano is one of Chile's most active volcanoes. Situated amongst many other young and old stratovolcanoes in the Andes range, many of them also considered to be active, it has produced some very large eruptions in our recent history, the largest of which occurred in 1993 when pyroclastic flows traveled more than 8KM from the summit, and ash fell as far away as Buenos Aires. Current activity would likely consist of explosive eruptions, although probably not as large as the 1993 event.

The volcano is located about 70KM southwest of the town of San Pedro de Atacama. The volcano, due to its remoteness, is not considered a threat to anyone, or anything (except perhaps aircraft due to ash), and is not close (within 20 miles or so) to any population centers.

You can read the article on Wired.com for yourself, and enjoy going down the rabbit holes (links). Its always fun to get to really know a volcano!

New Imagery Of Nyamuragira Eruption In Congo

The eruption of Nyamuragira in the Congo continues, and NASA has released new photos of the lava flow from space. The (infrared) image shows the heat coming off of the lava flow, as well as the red glow of the Nyiragongo crater to the West. The lava flow is South of Nyamuragira and has extended several miles from the fissure cone area. The volcano has now been erupting for several months.

Nyamuragira and its neighbor Nyiragongo are a couple of Africa's most active volcanoes, having had many historical eruptions. They are considered to be dangerous volcanoes, as lava lake drainage has destroyed villages and caused fatalities in the past. One of the most interesting things I have ever seen about this volcano is how it occasionally catches elephants off guard and creates a lava 'casting' of an elephant in its flow. The lava erupted from these volcanoes is very silicic pahoehoe, and has been known to flow at speeds up to 60mph (not a lava flow you would be able to outrun, like Hawaii volcanoes)!

The current eruption at Nyamuragira does not currently threaten any developed area, or the area where the famed and highly endangered mountain lowland gorillas live. For now, this is a great eruption for tourists, and the Congo has seen a marked increase in the number of eco-tourism to the embattled nation-state.

Enjoy the photo from NASA's Earth Observatory!
                                  

Quiet Week in Volcano World

This week has been so far pretty quiet as far as new or interesting geological events, but a few have occurred.

Indonesia suffered a 7.3 Mag Quake off the coast of Sumatra, prompting the government to issue a brief tsunami warning (even though the Pacific Tsunami Center stated that there was no tsunami... I'd be freaked out if I were them too!). The quake did not damage any buildings.

Chile's Callaqui volcano appears to have either never erupted as reported, or had a very brief, non-explosive event. It is now thought that the volcano was merely exhibiting vigorous fumerole steaming.

El Hierro is in a holding pattern, with tremor at a medium level, and the stain on the ocean surface persistent. Not a lot has changed since the last post.

The quake swarm that was occurring at Mono Lake in California appears to have subsided or ceased. If this was magma dike intrusion, it was a very small one.

The quake swarm at Sierraville, CA (which scientists do say is a magma dike intrusion event) is ongoing after taking a few weeks off.

The volcano Sakura-Jima in Japan broke its previous record for the most explosive eruptions in a year -- around 980! (This is one of Japan's most active volcanoes).

Jebel-Zubair off the Yemen coast is still erupting and building more land, however the eruption (at last glance) appears to be subsiding. Based on the size of the other islands in the area, it is reasonable to assume this will be a short eruption, with a lasting island (given the lava composition).

If anything new or interesting occurs, I will surely post about it! There has not been a brand-new eruption to report on so far this year, so I will update some other volcanoes I am monitoring. Stay tuned!