GVP Weekly Volcanic Activity Report for April 20-26, 2011: Pagan, Taal and Kamchatka

Only a brief post today as I’m off to Bowling Green State University to give a colloquium talk on my research in New Zealand (which does remind me, I promise I’ll have a post soon on my own paper that came out a few weeks ago).

Anyway, I just thought I’d post this week’sGlobal Volcanism Program Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, with some extra information gathering on my part. Let’s look at some of the highlights:

Mariana Islands: I know some of you noticed the change in status for Pagan in the Mariana Islands. In a bit of volcano monitoring that harkens back to the 19th century, a passing ship noticed incandescence at the summit of the volcano, however no other observations have been made since due to cloud cover. Pagan is a fairly volatile volcano, having erupted in both 2009 and 2010.

Philippines:Taal is still rumbling away, but little has changed at the restless caldera in the Philippines. The latest update from PHIVOLC has only 7 earthquakes in the last 24 hours, however the Crater Lake water on Volcano Island (remember, this is not the water in Taal Lake, but rather the lake on Volcano Island) was up to 31.8C from 30.1C. There is nothing new to indicate an eruption in coming very soon, but the US State Department has warned tourists to avoid the area around Taal. Meanwhile, at Bulusan, there were reports of multiple explosions over the last week that produced some small ash plumes.

Russia: Not surprisingly, there were a few updates from Kamchatka in Eastern Russia – mostly the usual ash plumes with thermal anomalies at the summit at Kizimen and Karymsky. There have been a few nice images of the Russian volcanoes, as captured from space, over the last few days, including Shiveluch and a great pair of images from Bezymianny showing new volcanic deposits, likely pyroclastic flow or lahar, on the flanks of the volcano.

Top left: Pagan in the Mariana Islands erupting in 1994.