Mexico Volcano of Fire eruption caught on camera - Video

Dramatic video caught on webcam showed eruptions with clouds of smoke rising above the crater of the Volcan del Fuego (Volcano of Fire), set between the states of Colima and Jalisco.

Three separate bursts were seen on Wednesday (January 21), Sunday (January 25) with a nocturnal one on Monday (January 26). Webcams de Mexico.com captured the dramatic images.

The 9,939-feet above sea-level (3,860-meters) Volcan del Fuego, one of Mexico's most active, has frequent moderate explosions.

Activity at the volcano was also reported in January.

Icelandic volcano eruption: Researchers gather extensive dataset - Video

A team of researchers from Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences have recently returned from Iceland where, thanks to a bit of luck, they have gathered the most extensive dataset ever from a volcanic eruption, which will likely yield considerable new insights into how molten rock moves underground, and whether or not it erupts.

The team, led by Professor Bob White, has been monitoring activity near the Bárðarbunga and Holuhraun volcanoes since 2006, using up to 70 broadband seismometers.

Luckily, the seismometers and field researchers were still in Iceland at the time that this most recent volcanic activity began, as the team had recently finished recovering 25 seismometers from the Vatnajökull ice cap where they had been used for a study of small quakes caused by ice cracking.

Here, White and PhD student Tim Greenfield discuss their work, and what it's like to be up close to such a spectacular eruption.

Japan's Mount Ontake eruption: Fumes, smoke and ash hamper rescue efforts - video

Japanese rescue teams have spent a third day searching for survivors on Mount Ontake, trapped by Saturday's eruption.

Recovery efforts have been hampered by conditions as the volcano continues to shoot gas, rocks and ash into the air.

Hundreds of hikers were on the volcano when it erupted. At least 36 people are known to have died.

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes from BBC reports from central Japan.

Japan's Mount Ontake Volcano eruption 27th Sept 2014 - Video - UPDATE

Mount Ontake erupted late Saturday morning, sending a plume of smoke and ash into the sky, the Japan Meteorological Agency reported.

The bodies of 31 hikers have been found near the top of Japan's Mount Ontake a day after a sudden volcanic eruption.

The hikers were not breathing and their hearts had stopped. The search for a total of 45 for missing climbers has now been called off for the night. 

They have observed 17-20 inches (40-50 centimeters) of volcanic ash covering the ground.

Local authorities had said there were roughly 150 hikers in the area at the time, according to the agency, which raised the Volcanic Alert Level for Ontake from 1 to 3.

Japan is at a triple-plate subduction boundary between the Eurasian continental plate and the Philippine and Pacific oceanic plates.

As the denser oceanic plates dive below the low-density continental plate, water from the saturated sediments lowers the melting point of surrounding rock.

That magma feeds a range of volcanoes mirroring the plate boundary.

Twitter images taken on the volcano were released by hikers.

Left: Hikers evacuating after the eruption. 

Credit: @mori_mori. 

Right: Aerial view of the Mount Ontake eruption. 

Credit: NHK

The volcano is a popular destination for religious pilgrimages, and many hikers were out enjoying the beautiful start to the weekend when the eruption hit.

This photo was posted from near the volcano shortly before the eruption.

The public is advised to not approach the volcano, and police and firefighters have deployed to help hikers near the summit.

About 250 people living near the mountain have decided to remain in their homes, police said.

The volcano last erupted in 2007.

It is located about 155 miles (250 kilometers) west of Tokyo.

A second CNN Video report.

TerraSAR-X image shows spread of lava at Bardarbunga

The lava outflow on the Holuhraun field northeast of Iceland's Bardarbunga volcano continues unabated. 

The lava field has grown to cover an area greater than 25 square kilometres. 

In this satellite image, the extent of the lava field is revealed using different colours.

To create this image, three sets of data were acquired at different times, but from the same viewpoint, and then superimposed.

They date from 13 August, 4 September and 15 September 2014 and were acquired by the German radar satellite TerraSAR-X.

Yellow shows the growth of the lava field between 13 August and 4 September; red shows the expansion between 4 and 15 September.

It is obvious that the area has doubled. A second eruption area can also be seen as a small red spot in the lower right corner of the image.

Researchers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Remote Sensing Technology Institute (Institut für Methodik der Fernerkundung; IMF) are continuing to monitor the area.

Radar images can be used to analyse changes to Earth's surface throughout the entire process.

The DLR Earth Observation Center also measures the emissions of sulphur dioxide on a daily basis.

Bardarbunga sulphur dioxide cloud

Stunning views as Bardarbunga volcano erupts

Lava spews from craters as molten rock flows into a river down the Bardarbunga volcano in Iceland.

The lava flow has caused frequent earthquakes in the region.

The dramatic pictures of the Holuhraun lava flow were taken from an altitude of 50-500m as lights from the Aurora Borealis, better known as the Northern Lights, flickered above.

Photographer Orvar Porgeirsson took the photographs at twilight earlier this week.

“It was impossible to fly over the lava river because of air disturbances caused by rising hot air."

"Ground access near the eruption is restricted because of the glacier melt flood risk and because of dangerous gases released from the eruption.” Porgeirsson.

The eruption at Holuhraun continues at similar intensity.

It appears that the lava output is now balancing the magma influx at depth, most of which seems to be draining from the reservoir underneath the Bárdarbunga caldera, which reacts by subsidence.

Lava flows from the main fissure expand east and north. The main lava flow now follows the river bed of Jökulsá á Fjöllum, but no explosive activity due to the lava and river water interaction has been observed.

IMO warns of high concentrations of sulphuric gases that reach dangerous (even life-lethal) levels near the eruption site and are likely to affect the downwind areas including the northern part of the Eastern fjords, Fljótsdalur, Hérað, Jökuldalur, and Vopnafjörður.

Earthquake activity in the caldera of Bárðarbunga remains similar to that of the last days.

Epicenters are distributed along the northern and south-eastern caldera fault.

An earthquake of M 5.3 occurred at 00:07 h. Earthquake activity at the dyke tip has decreased.

More than 30 events have been detected since midnight. Low frequency tremor is similar to what has been observed in the last few days. (IMO)

Sinabung: Indonesia volcano in deadly eruption

Mount Sinabung volcano has erupted on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, engulfing villages in ash and killing at least 14 people.

Sinabung spewed hot gas, ash and rocks 2km (1.5 miles) into the air in a series of eruptions during the morning.

Emergency official Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said three schoolchildren and a teacher were among the dead.

Thousands were evacuated in September when Sinabung erupted after being dormant for three years. Many were allowed back to their homes on Friday.

Officials fear there may have been more casualties, but they cannot get closer because of the heat from the eruption.

Pictures taken at the scene showed rescue workers recovering bodies that were buried in ash.

Saturday's eruption was the worst since Sinabung came back to life in 2010, after 400 years dormancy

When the volcano erupted in 2010, at least two people were killed and 30,000 others were displaced.

Before 2010, Sinabung had not erupted in 400 years.

It is one of about 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia.

Experts say the mountain is more difficult to predict than other more closely studied mountains.

Experts say Sinabung has been studied less than more active volcanoes, making it more difficult to predict.

The volcano has covered villages nearby in ash and debris

NASA Earth Observatory: Sarychev Volcano Eruption View from Space - Video

On June 12, 2009, the International Space Station happened to be passing over the Sarychev Volcano just as it was beginning to erupt.

A newly released video based on several stunning snapshots taken by astronauts reveals the beauty and power of the erupting volcano.

Sarychev Peak, which rises to a height of 4,908 feet (about 1,500 meters), is the tallest peak on Matua Island in the northern part of the Kuril Islands, a Russian archipelago in the northwest Pacific Ocean.

The volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in the Kuril Island chain, erupted in 1989, 1986, 1976 and 1946.

The new volcano animation reveals the plume of ash and steam rising from Sarychev. The plume appears to be brown ash capped with a head of white steam, a result of air rising quickly in a strong updraft, before cooling and condensing.

"The plume was so immense that it cast a large shadow on the island," according to NASA Earth Observatory.

Water Found on Dwarf Planet Ceres, May Erupt from Ice Volcanoes

An artist's impression of water outgassing from two sources on the dwarf planet Ceres, which is also the largest asteroid in the solar system. 

Credit: IMCCE-Observatoire de Paris/CNRS/Y.Gominet, B. Carry

Astronomers have discovered direct evidence of water on the dwarf planet Ceres in the form of vapour plumes erupting into space, possibly from volcano-like ice geysers on its surface.

Using European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory, scientists detected water vapor escaping from two regions on Ceres, a dwarf planet that is also the largest asteroid in the solar system.

The water is likely erupting from icy volcanoes or sublimation of ice into clouds of vapour.

Artist's impression of Ceres. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

"This is the first clear-cut detection of water on Ceres and in the asteroid belt in general," said Michael Küppers of the European Space Agency, Villanueva de la Cañada, Spain, leader of the study detailed today (Jan. 22) in the journal Nature.

The research has implications for how Ceres formed, and supports models that suggest the planets moved around a lot within the solar system during its formation, Küppers told reporters.

ESA Scientists have suspected that there is a substantial amount of water on Ceres for about 30 years.

An earlier study found hints of water in the form of hydroxide, a product of water's dissociation, on Ceres in 1991, but the finding wasn't confirmed by later observations.

Now, Küppers and his ESA colleagues have confirmed the finding, using the ESA Herschel Space Observatory's spectrometer to look for signals of water.

Clouds of water vapour around Ceres absorbed the heat that radiates from the dwarf planet, which Herschel's instrument detected.

The team found that Ceres produces about 2×10^26 molecules, or 13 lbs. (6 kilograms), of water vapour per second from its surface.

Read the full article on the ESA Herschel portal

More Information: 'Localized sources of water vapour on the dwarf planet Ceres': Nature 505, 525–527 (23 January 2014) doi:10.1038/nature12918

Supervolcano eruption mystery solved

Supervolcanoes like Yellowstone can explode without an earthquake or other external trigger, experts have found.

The sheer volume of liquid magma is enough to cause a catastrophic super-eruption, according to an experiment at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble.

Simulating the intense heat and pressure inside these "sleeping giants" could help predict a future disaster.

The study by a Swiss team from ETH Zurich appears in Nature Geoscience.

Lead author Wim Malfait, of ETH Zurich said: "We knew the clock was ticking but we didn't know how fast: what would it take to trigger a super-eruption?

"Now we know you don't need any extra factor - a supervolcano can erupt due to its enormous size alone.

"Once you get enough melt, you can start an eruption just like that."

There are about 20 known supervolcanoes on Earth - including Lake Toba in Indonesia, Lake Taupo in New Zealand, and the somewhat smaller Phlegraean Fields near Naples, Italy.

Super-eruptions occur rarely - only once every 100,000 years on average. But when they do occur, they have a devastating impact on Earth's climate and ecology.

When a supervolcano erupted 600,000 years ago in Wyoming, in what today is Yellowstone National Park, it ejected more than 1,000 cubic km of ash and lava into the atmosphere - enough to bury a large city to a depth of a few kilometres.

Lake Toba in Sumatra was formed during the eruption of a supervolcano 74,000 years ago

This ejection was 100 times bigger than Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1992 and dwarfs even historic eruptions like Krakatoa (1883).

"This is something that, as a species, we will eventually have to deal with. It will happen in future," said Dr Malfait.

"You could compare it to an asteroid impact - the risk at any given time is small, but when it happens the consequences will be catastrophic."

Being able to predict such a catastrophe is obviously critical. But the trigger has remained elusive - because the process is different from conventional volcanoes like Pinatubo and Mount St Helens.

One possible mechanism was thought to be the overpressure in the magma chamber generated by differences between the less dense molten magma and more dense rock surrounding it.

"The effect is comparable to holding a football under water. When you release it, the air-filled ball is forced upwards by the denser water around it," said Wim Malfait, of ETH Zurich.

But whether this buoyancy effect alone was enough was not known. It could be that an an additional trigger - such as a sudden injection of magma, an infusion of water vapour, or an earthquake - was required.

More Information: dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2042

NASA ISS Image: Ambrym volcano eruption, Vanuatu archipelago, Australia

Ambrym volcano erupting in the Vanuatu archipelago east of Australia

Credit: NASA

Mount Etna, Sicily: Ancient volcano continues to erupt - Video

Mount Etna on the Italian island of Sicily erupts again after exploding several times earlier this month. 

The caldera spewed out smoke and dust as lava poured from the most active volcano in Europe. 

It has been particularly active recently, after a new crater formed on the south eastern side of the mountain. 

Near-by residents were not in danger as this latest eruption continued. 

Report by Thomas Magill.

Chaparrastique volcano eruption, El Salvador: Villages evacuated

An area around the Chaparrastique volcano in El Salvador has been evacuated after the peak shot a cloud of gas and ash about three miles into the air.

Civil defence director Jorge Melendez said a yellow alert had been issued and investigators had been sent to the area to look for signs of fresh lava, but that none has been detected so far.

"We have implemented emergency measures to evacuate villages located within 3 km (1.8 miles) of the volcano," He said.

Shelters have been set up for the evacuees, but Mr Melendez said some inhabitants had been reluctant to leave their homes. "One has to leave for one's own safety," he said.

Assistant health minister Eduardo Espinoza said two people had been treated at hospitals for respiratory problems apparently linked to the eruption yesterday, "but we do not have any serious cases to report".

He said: "We are providing assistance to people evacuating, and we are asking them to protect themselves against the gases, which can affect the respiratory tract."

He also urged people living near the volcano to avoid drinking from local water sources.

The 7,025ft volcano is located about 90 miles east of San Salvador, the capital. Its last significant eruption was in 1976.

San Miguel is one of the country's largest cities and is located 30 miles from the volcano.

Yellowstone magma much bigger than thought

This graphic provided by University of Utah geophysicists shows the first large-scale picture of the electrical conductivity of the gigantic underground plume of hot and partly molten rock that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano. 

The plume of molten rock feeding the supervolcano under the surface of Yellowstone National Park is much larger than previously thought, according to University of Utah geophysicists whose findings will be published in Geophysical Research Letters. 

AP Photo/University of Utah

The hot molten rock beneath Yellowstone National Park is 2 ½ times larger than previously estimated, meaning the park's supervolcano has the potential to erupt with a force about 2,000 times the size of Mount St. Helens, according to a new study.

By measuring seismic waves from earthquakes, scientists were able to map the magma chamber underneath the Yellowstone caldera as 55 miles (88.5 kilometers) long, lead author Jamie Farrell of the University of Utah said Monday.

The chamber is 18 miles (29 kilometers) wide and runs at depths from 3 to 9 miles (5 to 14 1/2 kilometers) below the earth, he added.

That means there is enough volcanic material below the surface to match the largest of the supervolcano's three eruptions over the last 2.1 million years, Farrell said.

The largest blast—the volcano's first—was 2,000 times the size of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington state.

A similar one would spew large amounts of volcanic material in the atmosphere, where it would circle the earth, he said.

"It would be a global event," Farrell said. "There would be a lot of destruction and a lot of impacts around the globe."

The last Yellowstone eruption happened 640,000 years ago, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. For years, observers tracking earthquake swarms under Yellowstone have warned the caldera is overdue to erupt.

A large earthquake at Yellowstone is much more likely than a volcano eruption, Farrell said.

The 7.5-magnitude Hebgen Lake earthquake killed 28 people there in 1959.

Farrell presented his findings last week to the American Geophysical Union. He said he is submitting it to a scholarly journal for peer review and publication.

Brigham Young University geology professor Eric Christiansen said the study by Farrell and University of Utah Professor Bob Smith is very important to understanding the evolution of large volcanos such as Yellowstone's.

"It helps us understand the active system," Christiansen said.

"It's not at the point where we need to worry about an imminent eruption, but every piece of information we have will prepare us for that eventuality."

NASA Landsat-8: Sakura-jima volcano

Sakura-jima volcano emits a dense plume of ash over the Japanese island of Kyushu. 

Currently Japan's most active volcano, Sakura-jima explodes several hundred times each year. 

These eruptions are usually small, but the larger eruptions can generate ash plumes that rise 3,800 meters (12,000 feet) or more above the 1,040-meter (3,410-foot) summit. 

This true-colour image was collected by the Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8.

Two Indonesian volcanoes erupt, flights disrupted

Local residents watch as a giant plume of steam and ash rise and hot lava rolls from the crater of Mount Sinabung volcano, during an eruption seen from Karo district on Indonesia's Sumatra island, on November 5, 2013

Two volcanoes erupted in Indonesia on Monday, with one forcing flights to be rerouted and stopping thousands of people who had already been evacuated from returning home.

Mount Sinabung on western Sumatra island, which has been erupting on and off since mid-September, shot volcanic ash around 8,000 metres (26,000 feet) into the air, the Geological Disaster Mitigation and Volcanology Centre said.

"The transport ministry is redirecting flights away from a certain path because of Mount Sinabung's latest eruption," ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said in a statement.

It also meant that more than 5,000 people who had recently been evacuated from the area around Sinabung due to its eruptions were unable to return home.

On the main island of Java, Indonesia's most active volcano, Mount Merapi, spewed a column of ash and smoke some 2,000 metres (6,500 feet) in the morning, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, chief of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.

He said the eruption, which was triggered by small earthquakes, prompted around 600 families to rush to evacuation posts but they were returning home as there was no imminent threat.

This file photo shows the mount Merapi volcano in Sleman, Yogyakarta, during an eruption on January 30, 2011

Mount Merapi killed more than 350 people in a series of violent eruptions in late 2010 when it also destroyed entire villages.

Indonesia has dozens of active volcanoes and straddles major tectonic fault lines known as the "Ring of Fire" between the Pacific and Indian oceans.

In August five people were killed and hundreds evacuated when a volcano on a tiny island in East Nusa Tenggara province erupted.

Mount Etna eruption lights up the sky over Sicily

An eruption from Mount Etna lit up the night sky over much of eastern Sicily late on Saturday night and into the early hours of Sunday.

The latest lava flow did not endanger any houses, and no evacuation was ordered.

Credit: BBC Chris Eakin

NASA SDO: Solar Filament Eruption Creates 'Canyon of Fire'

A magnetic filament of solar material erupted on the sun in late September, breaking the quiet conditions in a spectacular fashion. 

The 200,000 mile long filament ripped through the sun's atmosphere, the corona, leaving behind what looks like a canyon of fire. 

The glowing canyon traces the channel where magnetic fields held the filament aloft before the explosion. 

In reality, the sun is not made of fire, but of something called plasma: particles so hot that their electrons have boiled off, creating a charged gas that is interwoven with magnetic fields.

These images were captured on Sept. 29-30, 2013, by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, which constantly observes the sun in a variety of wavelengths.

Different wavelengths help capture different aspect of events in the corona. The red images shown in the movie help highlight plasma at temperatures of 90,000° F and are good for observing filaments as they form and erupt. 

The yellow images, showing temperatures at 1,000,000° F, are useful for observing material coursing along the sun's magnetic field lines, seen in the movie as an arcade of loops across the area of the eruption.

The browner images at the beginning of the movie show material at temperatures of 1,800,000° F, and it is here where the canyon of fire imagery is most obvious.

By comparing this with the other colours, one sees that the two swirling ribbons moving farther away from each other are, in fact, the footprints of the giant magnetic field loops, which are growing and expanding as the filament pulls them upward.

Image Credit: NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory

Mysterious 13th Century eruption traced to Lombok, Indonesia

The caldera that is today Segara Anak Crater Lake, formed after the eruption

Scientists think they have found the volcano responsible for a huge eruption that occurred in the 13th Century.

The mystery event in 1257 was so large its chemical signature is recorded in the ice of both the Arctic and the Antarctic.

European medieval texts talk of a sudden cooling of the climate, and of failed harvests.

In the PNAS journal, an international team points the finger at the Samalas Volcano on Lombok Island, Indonesia.

Little remains of the original mountain structure - just a huge crater lake.

The team has tied sulphur and dust traces in the polar ice to a swathe of data gathered in the Lombok region itself, including radiocarbon dates, the type and spread of ejected rock and ash, tree-rings, and even local chronicles that recall the fall of the Lombok Kingdom sometime in the 13th Century.

"The evidence is very strong and compelling," Prof Clive Oppenheimer, from Cambridge University, UK, told reporters.

Co-worker Prof Franck Lavigne, from the Pantheon-Sorbonne University, France, added: "We conducted something similar to a criminal investigation.

"We didn't know the culprit at first, but we had the time of the murder and the fingerprints in the form of the geochemistry in the ice cores, and that allowed us to track down the volcano responsible."

The 1257 eruption has been variously linked with volcanoes in Mexico, Ecuador and New Zealand.

But these candidates fail on their dating or geochemistry, the researchers say. Only Samalas can "tick all the boxes".

Volcano Redoubt: Volcanoes 'scream' at ever-higher pitches until they erupt

Redoubt Volcano on March 31, 2009. View to the east of the summit crater of the volcano, heavily covered with deposits from recent eruptions, many of which were preceded by harmonic tremor.

Credit: Game McGimsey

It is not unusual for swarms of small earthquakes to precede a volcanic eruption.

They can reach a point of such rapid succession that they create a signal called harmonic tremor that resembles sound made by various types of musical instruments, though at frequencies much lower than humans can hear.

A new analysis of an eruption sequence at Alaska's Redoubt Volcano in March 2009 shows that the harmonic tremor glided to substantially higher frequencies and then stopped abruptly just before six of the eruptions, five of them coming in succession.

Alicia Hotovec-Ellis

"The frequency of this tremor is unusually high for a volcano, and it's not easily explained by many of the accepted theories," said Alicia Hotovec-Ellis, a University of Washington doctoral student in Earth and space sciences.

Documenting the activity gives clues to a volcano's pressurization right before an explosion.

That could help refine models and allow scientists to better understand what happens during eruptive cycles in volcanoes like Redoubt, she said.

The source of the earthquakes and harmonic tremor isn't known precisely. Some volcanoes emit sound when magma – a mixture of molten rock, suspended solids and gas bubbles – resonates as it pushes up through thin cracks in the Earth's crust.

But Hotovec-Ellis believes in this case the earthquakes and harmonic tremor happen as magma is forced through a narrow conduit under great pressure into the heart of the mountain.

The thick magma sticks to the rock surface inside the conduit until the pressure is enough to move it higher, where it sticks until the pressure moves it again.

Each of these sudden movements results in a small earthquake, ranging in magnitude from about 0.5 to 1.5, she said. As the pressure builds, the quakes get smaller and happen in such rapid succession that they blend into a continuous harmonic tremor.

"Because there's less time between each earthquake, there's not enough time to build up enough pressure for a bigger one," Hotovec-Ellis said. "After the frequency glides up to a ridiculously high frequency, it pauses and then it explodes."

She is the lead author of a forthcoming paper in the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research that describes the research. Co-authors are John Vidale of the UW and Stephanie Prejean and Joan Gomberg of the U.S. Geological Survey.

The pause in the harmonic tremor frequency increase just before the volcanic explosion is the main focus of the Nature Geoscience paper.

"We think the pause is when even the earthquakes can't keep up anymore and the two sides of the fault slide smoothly against each other," Hotovec-Ellis said.

Upward-gliding tremor immediately before a volcanic explosion also has been documented at the Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica and Soufrière Hills volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat.

"Redoubt is unique in that it is much clearer that that is what's going on," Hotovec-Ellis said. "I think the next step is understanding why the stresses are so high."

More information: Paper: DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1879