USGS/GVP Weekly Volcanic Activity Report for 8/25-31/2010

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A shiny new report of the week’s volcanic activity, brought to us by the Smithsonian, USGS and the Global Volcanism Program … and of course, Sally Kuhn Sennert.

Some highlights from this week’s report (not including Galeras and Sinabung):

I’m always astonished when yet another Kuril Island or Kamchatka Peninsula volcano that of which I am unfamiliar starts making noise. This week’s volcano is Ekarma, located in the Kuril Islands. The volcano is producing a steam plume and there is evidence of recent lahars on the small island that hosts Ekarma – the most recent significant (known) eruption was in 1767-69 with minor explosions in 1980.

Papua New Guinea’s Manam has been rumbling for years now and this week is no exception. The volcano threw incandescent lava bombs from the crater – some traveling hundreds of meters and produced a ~2.4 km / 8000 foot plume.

The alert status at Cleveland in the Aleutians was raised recently as well, from Green to Yellow, by AVO. This is due to a “persistent thermal anomaly” noted at the summit, but there is no seismic network near the volcano, so little else is known about its current status.

And almost never to be outdone by its Russian neighbors, Kliuchevskoi put on a show last week when it produced a 7.6-10.4 km / 25,000-34,000 foot ash plume, although most of the activity at the volcano recently has been strombolian explosions or lava flow extrusion.

Top left: A shot of the summit of Kliuchevskoi on August 5, 2010. Image courtesy of KVERT.

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people