Livecam Fuego

Livecam of the Volcano Fuego in Guatemala. © Volcanological Society e.V.

The Webcam was installed by Marc Szeglat (vulkane.net) in cooperation with the Volcanological Society e.V.. To load a new image, please update the page.

The Livecam is located at the foot of the volcano Fuego, not far from the old golf course near La Reunion. Special thanks to Ulrich Schirmer, on whose property the camera is located.

Vulkaneifel: News from the hot spot

The Volcanic Eifel in the mid-west of Germany is home to a volcanic field that many volcanologists classify as active. The last eruption occurred here 10,900 years ago, exceeding the mark by 900 years from which a volcano is considered extinct. But recent studies show that volcanoes can erupt again even after a much longer dormant period.

For a long time, volcanologists puzzled over how the volcanism of the Eifel came about. 2 theories were put forward: The volcanoes are located on the shoulder of a divergent fault zone. This rift is marked by the course of the river Rhine. So the volcanism could be tectonically caused. But often volcanoes are formed in the middle of a continental plate by mantle plumes, which are often called hotspots. Such a hotspot has also been postulated for the Eifel and detected by seismic tomography. However, this did not tell us whether this hotspot was actually still active. Now a new study has shown that the ground in the area of the Volcanic Eifel is rising and the uplift covers a much larger area than previously suspected. Not only the area around the two volcanic fields of the Eifel is being raised, but also a part of the Rhenish Slate Mountains.

A science team led by Corné Kreemer of the University of Nevada, examined millions of GPS data from Europe collected over 20 years to track down possible ground deformations. In fact, in the Eifel region, the researchers discovered not only a vertical ground elevation, but also a zone of horizontal elongation surrounded by a radial pattern of shortening. This area is significantly larger than the Volcanic Eifel. If one corrects the uplift rates of the ground by the value of the isostatic rise, which is still caused by the melting of ice during the last ice age, one arrives at an uplift rate of about 1 mm per year. Scientists describe the rate of uplift as remarkable and assume that it is caused by the buoyancy forces of the mantle plume. Such uplift forces in a rock body can only occur if the rock is less dense than the surrounding rock, which is the case with a plume if at least part of the rock is in the form of melt. These conclusions suggest that the volcanoes of the Eifel could one day become active again. However, there are no signs of an imminent volcanic eruption.

(Source: https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggaa227)

 

Campi Flegrei

The Italian caldera volcano Campi Flegrei is located in the urban area of Pozzuoli and only 20 km away from Vesuvius. The name is derived from the Greek phlégein which means ‘to burn’. Freely translated, the name means “burning fields”. The name alone does not give a good idea! In fact, the Caldera volcano is often classified as a super volcano. The reason for this classification was a gigantic eruption about 37,000 years ago: ash deposits have been detected even at a distance of over 1000 km.

Sinabung on Sumatra

Sinabung is volcano in the north of the Indonesian island Sumatra near the city of Berastag iand about 50 km southwest of Medan. Sinabung lies 25 km northwest of Lake Toba . Its height is 2460 m. The stratovolcano consists mainly of andesite and dacite.

The eruption of Sinabung on August 29, 2010 was the first known eruption in the last 400 years. Since then the volcano has erupted several times, the last time on 8 August 2020.

The Pleistocene and Holocene stratovolcano shows numerous lava flows on its flanks. The mountain summit has an elongated shape, as previous eruptions formed several summit craters along a line running roughly in a north-south direction. It marks the course of a fault zone.

History of volcanic activity since 1920

In 1912 solfatars were observed in the area of the summit and the upper flanks.

2010
Following an eruption in August 2010, more than 18,000 people were evacuated. A second eruption increased the number of refugees to 27,000. Volcanic ash reached the megacity of Medan. In a third eruption on 3 September, the most violent since the new eruption, the volcano ejected an ash fountain several kilometres high into the atmosphere. The accompanying earthquake was still felt 8 km away.

2013
On the morning of September 15, 2013, the Sinabung erupted again. Until 18 September, four eruptions occurred. Thousands of people were evacuated from eleven villages within a radius of three kilometres. During another eruption on the morning of 3 November, a seven-kilometre column of smoke was observed. A zone of three kilometres around the volcano was evacuated. On November 14, 2013, a pyroclastic flow descended the volcano’s southeastern flank. On November 18, 2013, an ash cloud was ejected after an explosion, rising to a height of up to 11.3 kilometers. Further eruptions occurred during the night of 23 to 24 November 2013, following which the Indonesian Centre for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Control issued the highest warning level. Tens of thousands of inhabitants were evacuated.

2014
The series of outbreaks will continue in 2014. More than 50 outbreaks were observed on 4 January. The safety zone around the volcano has been extended from five to seven kilometres. On the night of 14 January, numerous volcanic flashes were observed in the clouds of pyroclastic flows. This phenomenon is relatively rare and often occurs only during much stronger volcanic eruptions. The ash precipitation caused the plants in the fields to wither. Numerous house roofs collapsed under the weight of the volcanic ash. The village of Sigarang Garang was particularly affected. On February 1 a stronger eruption occurred, which claimed 16 lives [10] among the population living nearby. More than 30,000 people had to leave their homes. [11] In October 2014 it erupted again several times. In the meantime the region around the volcano was covered with a layer of ash.

2015
From 13 June 2015 onwards, new outbreaks are reported with one to two kilometre high outbreak columns (plumes). The evacuation measures were therefore maintained or renewed.

2016

Sinabung eruption on 9 June 2019
On 22 May 2016, another outbreak occurred, killing seven people who were in the restricted zone in violation of the ban. They were caught in a hot avalanche of ash and debris.

2017
As a high ash column formed above the volcano on 25 October 2017, the authorities declared a radius of 7 km a restricted area. Thousands of people fled. From 26 December, the volcano began to emit ash again. The grey ash cloud rose to a height of 4600 metres.

2018
The series of outbreaks that had been going on for years continued on 11 January 2018. The volcano spewed ash and formed a column of smoke over a kilometre high. The eruption was accompanied by earth tremors lasting almost 5 minutes. Another eruption on 19 February 2018 caused an ash cloud five kilometres high. Nobody was injured.

2019
In 2019, a strong eruption occurred on 9 June, during which the volcanic ash reached a height of 12.2 km. During this eruption, pyroclastic flows of 3 to 3.5 km in length were formed, which flowed off towards the south and southeast.

2020
On 8 August 2020 the volcano erupted, and an ash column rose four kilometres into the sky. On 10 August, the column reached a height of seven kilometres.

Sources: WIKIPEDIA, GVP, vulkane.net

Ol Doinyo Lengai: Mountain of god

Ol Doinyo Lengai is a 2960 m high volcano in the East African Rift Valley. It is located in northern Tanzania, about 120 km northwest of Arusha at Lake Natron.

The volcano is for the Masai the seat of their god Engai and the volcanic eruptions symbolize the wrath of the god. In the language of the Massai Ol Doinyo Lengai means as much as Gottesberg. In times of need the Massai make sacrifices. Often only milk and cattle blood is sacrificed, but occasionally a goat is also exposed in the crater.

For volcanologists Ol Doinyo Lengai is of special interest for another reason: it produces the coldest lava in the world. Its temperature varies between 490 and 590 degrees. This makes it only about half as hot as ordinary lava. It is extremely low viscosity and can flow as fast as water. The lava is natrocarbonatitic that was erupted in historical times only at this unique volcano. Of course, only a small part is made of natrocarbonatitic, the greater part is made up of foidite and phonolite.

The Ol Doinyo Lengai is located in the East African Rift Valley. It lies above the so-called Tanzania Craton.

The Crater of Ol Doinyo Lengai

The eruptive activity takes place mainly in the central crater area, which is filled with the eruption products. The level of the crater filling is subject to constant change. Sometimes its possible to walk in. A few meters below its surface, a large magma reservoir bubbles and large cavities are formed. Above ground, the lava erupts mainly effusive. Lavaspattering causes hornitos to grow, which tend to collapse suddenly. This makes the volcano very dangerous.
On our expeditions, injuries have been frequent. A Masai porter had both legs amputated. He collapsed through a thin crust of solidified lava into the lava flow below.

The level of crater filling is subject to constant change.
After a major eruption in 2007, the former crater was filled and a new cone with a deeper crater was formed.

Mount Etna on Sicily

Mount Etna, or Etna is an complex-stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily in Italy. The volcanic edivice is located close to in the City of Catania. Etna the highest active volcano in Europe and the highest peak in Italy south of the Alps with a current height of 3,326 m. Etna covers an area of 1,190 km2 with a basal circumference of 140 km. This makes it by far the largest of the three active volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius. Only Mount Teide on Tenerife in the Canary Islands surpasses it in the whole of the European–North-African region west of the Black Sea.

Mount Etna is one of the world’s most active volcanoes and is in an almost constant state of activity. Due to its history of recent activity and nearby population, Mount Etna has been designated a Decade Volcano by the United Nations. In June 2013, it was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Etna lies above the convergent plate margin between the African Plate and the Eurasian Plate. Although for a long time the volcano was classified as good-natured, as it erupted predominantly effusive, it shows characteristics of different volcanic types. On the one hand it erupts effusively, but it can also erupt explosively. Thus Etna is known for large fissure eruptions, but also for violent paroxysmal eruptions. Indeed, several pyroclastic flows have already been observed. Volcanologists have found that Etna lava varies and contains more water in recent years. So the eruptions can become more and more explosive.

Sources: WIKIPEDIA, GVP, vulkane.net

Stromboli: lighthouse of the mediterranean sea

Stromboli is a small island volcano off the north coast of Sicily in Italy. The visible part of the volcano forms an island of only 12 square kilometers. Stromboli reaches a height of 924 m above sea level, but most of it is underwater. Measured from the sea floor, Stromboli is almost 3000 m high.
Together with 6 other islands, Stromboli forms an archipelago known as the Aeolian Islands (often called the Lipari Islands). It lies north of Sicily and west of Calabria in the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Stromboli is a rather young volcano. The current cone is only 40,000 years old. Its morphology has been shaped by at least two major collapse events: about 10,000 years ago the Vancori collapsed and 500 m further north a second stratovolcano erupted in the northeast-opening collapse of the first one. The Cima brought it to a height of 918 meters. It mainly produced andesitic magma.

At the beginning of the post-glacial period, the northwestern part of the Cima also collapsed. This created the “Sciara del Fuoco” slope, on the edge of which a ridge leads to the summit: the Cima. 200 m below and 300 m northwest of the Cima, a new crater was formed, consisting of several sectors. This crater has been erupting strombolian for more than 2000 years. Basalts and trachybasalts are the main components of the present eruptions. Some of the extracted cinders fall on the steep slope and roll down to the sea.
The strombolian activity is occasionally interrupted by phases with stronger eruptions. Paroxysms can occur, but also flake eruptions, in which lava flows are produced that occasionally reach the sea.
In this millennium there have been 3 flank eruptions and several paroxysms. The last of these eruptions led to the closing of the ascent of Cima in June 2018.