GVP Weekly Volcanic Activity Report for August 3-9, 2011: Cleveland’s dome, Indonesian volcanoes and a busy Etna

I’m back in Ohio and will be for the foreseeable future … less than 3 weeks until classes start again here at Denison. Lots of things to get organized for me over the next few weeks.

Today, I thought I’d just quickly post on the latest Global Volcanism Program Weekly Volcanic Activity Report – thanks, as always, to the Smithsonian Institute, the USGS and Sally Kuhn Sennert.

Alaska: There has been some information in the news about the activity at the remote Alaskan volcano, Cleveland, and all of it seems to suggest a new dome at the summit. The USGS did have a Gulfstream III overfly the volcano to image the new dome via radar, but the results of this won’t be released for at least a few days. So far, the dome growth has not been accompanied by any significant explosive activity – a bit of a surprise at Cleveland.

Indonesia: The island nation is seeing its fair share of activity lately, and now Karangetang has come back into the fray. The volcano has experienced some small explosions over the last week that has caused villagers to flee. We also still have some activity at Lokon-Empung and Krakatau.

Italy: Last night, Dr. Boris Behncke mentioned that we might be heading towards a 10th eruptive event of the year at Etna – be sure to watch the webcams closely today. It definitely has been a busy summer at Etna and Stromboli. Check out some of Dr. Behncke’s images from a recent trip to Stromboli as well.

Top left: A thermal image of Etna as seen on August 12, 2011. The new Southeast Crater is the red area on the right side of the image.