The latest news from the world of volcanoes , brought to us by the Global Volcanism Program, USGS and the Smithsonian Institution. They are also brought to us by Sally Kuhn Sennert – and if you have a question for her about her job at the GVP preparing the Weekly Volcanic Activity Report and all things volcanic (and hopefully it won’t end like another recent volcanically-mitigated interview).

Some highlights (not including Gorely and Sakurajima):

  • Ioto (aka Iwojima) in the Volcano Islands of Japan produced an ash plume of unknown height. The volcano has frequent phreatic eruptions and abundant fumarolic activity.
  • Colombia’s Nevado del Huila has been experiencing increased seismicity and sulfur dioxide emissions from the volcano and there may have been some ash explosions. The INGEOMINAS elevated the alert status to Orange.
  • Batu Tara in Indonesia produced a 3 km / 10,000 foot ash plume – the volcano erupts highly undersaturated lavas such as basanites and tephrites thanks to its position north of the main volcanic arc.
  • Kilauea continues to impress, with activity at the summit lava lake producing tephra and fresh spatter downwind from the vent.
  • Soufriere Hills on Montserrat produced a number of pyroclastic flows produced from the collapse of the summit domes. There was also a lahar generated during the week’s activity.