Bezymianny, Cleveland and Tungurahua updates for 6/1/2010

Two volcanoes along the edge of the north Pacific had explosive eruptions over the weekend. We have some more details on both of the eruptions, so I’ll pass them on:

Bezymianny KVERT is excited because they claim to have predicted the explosive eruption of Bezymianny almost to the day. They had been closely monitoring the volcano and issued this statement on May 20:

According to satellite data by AVO and KVERT staff, a temperature of the thermal anomaly over the lava dome of Bezymianny volcano began increasing from May 19 (from -1 (9:49 UTC) to +18 (15:52 UTC) degrees of C). Possibly a new lava block extrudes at the lava dome of Bezymianny. And this stand for a preparation of new strong explosive eruption of Bezymianny volcano. Possibly this explosive eruption of Bezymianny volcano can occurs during May 21 – May 30 or May 21 – June 10.

Four days later, they upgraded the volcano’s status to Orange:

Kamchatkan and Northern Kuriles Volcanic Activity KVERT INFORMATION RELEASE 23-10 Monday, May 24, 2010, 02:20 UTC (14:20 KDT) BEZYMIANNY VOLCANO: 55°58’N, 160°36’E; Elevation 2,882 m CURRENT AVIATION COLOR CODE IS ORANGE PREVIOUS AVIATION COLOR CODE WAS YELLOW Activity of the volcano gradually increased. Possibly a new explosive eruption of the volcano is preparing. According to satellite data, a temperature of thermal anomaly over the lava dome continues to increasing from 18 degrees of Celsius on May 19, to 48.8 degrees of Celsius on May 23.

Sure enough, the volcano erupted, producing a 10 km (32,000 foot) ash column on May 31.

Kamchatkan and Northern Kuriles Volcanic Activity KVERT INFORMATION RELEASE 25-10 Monday, May 31, 2010, 20:45 UTC (June 01, 08:30 KDT) BEZYMIANNY VOLCANO: 55°58’N, 160°36’E; Elevation 2,882 m CURRENT AVIATION COLOR CODE IS RED PREVIOUS AVIATION COLOR CODE WAS ORANGE Strong explosive eruption of Bezymianny volcano occurred from 12:34 till 12:50 UTC on May 31, according to seismic data. Ash fall in Kozyrevsk village is continuing. The volcano obscured by clouds.

Not bad for an operation that almost lost all of its funding and only operates 8:30 AM until 6:00 PM.

Cleveland Meanwhile, Cleveland in the Alaska Aleutians did end up having an explosive eruption over the weekend as well. AVO issued a warning last week that the volcano was likely to erupt and upgraded the alert status to Yellow. On May 31, the volcano did end up erupting, producing a 4.8 km (16,000 foot) ash column. However, the volcano has gone quiet since this small event. (Of course, don’t believe all the news you read, like this article that starts with “A volcano in Cleveland, Ohio emitted on Monday night a small ash cloud.” Now, that would be news!)

Tungurahua Halfway around the planet, Tungurahua in Ecuador is still erupting (spanish) after prompting evacuations earlier last week. The latest reports talk about the volcano producing over 400 explosions an day, with incandescent blocks being thrown from the vent – helping to produce the 10 km (32,000 foot) ash plume. Seismicity is still increasing under the volcano, so there could be more explosive events on the way. You can see some video of the eruption over on Benjamin Bernard’s blog (french).