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.

NASA Volcanobot: Geological Robot Explores Kilhauea Fissures

An active lava flow from Kilauea volcano in Hawaii. 

Credit: Reuters

Nasa is planning to explore volcanoes using robots being developed at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has already tested one robot, VolcanoBot 1, at the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii and is now developing a second, lighter and smaller robot, to find out how volcanoes erupt.

Carolyn Parcheta, from Nasa's JPL, and robotics researcher Aaron Parness are developing bots that can delve into crevices humans never could in order to gain a new insight into volcanoes.

"We don't know exactly how volcanoes erupt. We have models but they are all very, very simplified. This project aims to help make those models more realistic," Parcheta explained.

Two robots designed to explore volcanoes are pictured here. VolcanoBot 1 (right) has a length of 12 inches (30 centimeters) and 6.7-inch (17-centimeter) wheels. 

VolcanoBot 2 (left) is smaller, as it is 10 inches (25 centimeters) long and has 5 inch (12 centimeter) wheels.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

VolcanoBot 1 was 30cm long and 17cm wide. It was rolled down into a fissure (a crack that erupts magma) in the active Kilauea volcano in Hawaii in May last year.

VolcanoBot 1 explored the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii in May 2014. 

The robot is enabling researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to put together a 3-D map of the fissure.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The robot set about mapping the pathways of the magma, descending to depths of 25m to two locations.

VolcanoBot 1 allowed the researchers to develop a 3D map of the fissure, confirming that bulges in the rock wall seen at the surface are present deep underground as well.

"To eventually understand how to predict eruptions and conduct hazard assessments, we need to understand how the magma is coming out of the ground. This is the first time we have been able to measure it directly, from the inside, to centimetre-scale accuracy," Parcheta said.

Researchers now want to return to the site with VolcanoBot 2 to delve deeper into the volcano. The latest version of the robot has stronger motors and electrical communications, so more data can be returned. As well as being smaller and lighter, it can tip up and down and turn to look at features around it.

Carolyn Parcheta working with VolcanoBot 1 in Hawaii in May 2014

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

"It has better mobility, stronger motors and smaller (5 inch, or 12 centimeter) wheels than the VolcanoBot 1. We've decreased the amount of cords that come up to the surface when it's in a volcano," Parcheta said.

VolcanoBot 2will be tested in March 2015, Nasa said.

The researchers say their findings have implications for studying volcanoes on other planets and moons, including Mars, Mercury, Enceladus and Europa.

Parness said: "In the last few years, NASA spacecraft have sent back incredible pictures of caves, fissures and what look like volcanic vents on Mars and the moon. We don't have the technology yet to explore them, but they are so tantalising!

"Working with Carolyn, we're trying to bridge that gap using volcanoes here on Earth for practice. We're learning about how volcanoes erupt here on Earth, too, and that has a lot of benefits in its own right."

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 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

Astronauts See Mount Etna Volcano's Lava and Steam from Space

NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman shared this photo of the volcanoes Mount Etna and Mount Stromboli on Aug. 14, 2014.

Credit: Reid Wiseman/NASA

Two astronauts aboard the International Space Station have captured a one-two punch of incredible views from space of Mount Etna and another active volcano in Italy spewing steam and lava.

NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst managed to photograph both Mount Etna and Mount Stromboli from their positions on the space station earlier this month.

Gerst caught sight of the two Italian volcanoes and their lava flows at night, while Wiseman captured the mountains during daylight.

Both photos give viewers a different perspective of the massive volcanoes. The images were taken from the same angle, and thanks to that specific shot alignment, space fans can orient themselves to see the red lava flows in Gerst's photo.

Without the context provided by Wiseman's daytime image, the lava would be much more difficult to spot.

European astronaut Alexander Gerst uploaded this photo of two volcanoes, Mount Etna and Mount Stromboli, by night on Aug. 1, 2014. 

Credit: Alexander Gerst Twitter / ESA

Gerst has quite a bit of experience with volcanoes.

Before flying to space, he was awarded his doctorate for research he did investigating volcanic eruptions and active volcanoes.

While working toward his master's degree, Gerst also developed new techniques that could help scientistsbetter predict when volcanoes might erupt, according to ESA.

Mount Etna was actually the first erupting volcano Gerst climbed, according to a Twitter post sent out in July.

Mount Etna is the largest volcano in Europe, standing at 10,900 feet (3,328 meters) high.

It is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, but it hasn't had a major eruption since 1992.

The active volcano is almost always discharging gas, ash or lava.

This isn't the first time Mount Etna's active phase has been seen from space. NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg caught sight of the volcano from her post aboard the international Space Station in October 2013.

That same year, Canadian astronaut Chris Hatfield also snapped an amazing image of the active volcano's ash floating through clouds and out to sea.

Both Gerst and Wiseman are about halfway through with their first spaceflight. They launched to the space station in May and are expected to return to Earth in November.

Mars Arsia Mons volcano: Previously wet and habitable

Arsia Mons, the third-largest volcano on Mars may have been home to a habitable environment in Mars's relatively recent past. 

The rippled terrain in the foreground shows where a glacier once clung to the foothills of the mountain. 

Brown University researchers show that eruptions occurred under that ice sheet, which would have created lakes of liquid water. Where there was water, there's the possibility of past life. 

(Colours indicate elevation.) 


Credit: NASA /Goddard Space Flight Center /Arizona State University /Brown University

Heat from a volcano erupting beneath an immense glacier would have created large lakes of liquid water on Mars in the relatively recent past, and where there's water, there is also the possibility of life.

A recent paper by Brown University researchers calculates how much water may have been present near the Arsia Mons volcano and how long it may have remained.

The slopes of a giant Martian volcano, once covered in glacial ice, may have been home to one of the most recent habitable environments yet found on the Red Planet, according to new research led by Brown University geologists.

Nearly twice as tall as Mount Everest, Arsia Mons is the third tallest volcano on Mars and one of the largest mountains in the solar system.

This new analysis of the landforms surrounding Arsia Mons shows that eruptions along the volcano's northwest flank happened at the same time that a glacier covered the region around 210 million years ago.

The heat from those eruptions would have melted massive amounts of ice to form englacial lakes, bodies of water that form within glaciers like liquid bubbles in a half-frozen ice cube.

The ice-covered lakes of Arsia Mons would have held hundreds of cubic kilometers of meltwater, according to calculations by Kat Scanlon, a graduate student at Brown who led the work, and where there's water, there's the possibility of a habitable environment.

Kat Scanlon

"This is interesting because it's a way to get a lot of liquid water very recently on Mars," Scanlon said.

While 210 million years ago might not sound terribly recent, the Arsia Mons site is much younger than the habitable environments turned up by Curiosity and other Mars rovers.


Those sites are all likely older than 2.5 billion years. The fact that the Arsia Mons site is relatively young makes it an interesting target for possible future exploration.

"If signs of past life are ever found at those older sites, then Arsia Mons would be the next place I would want to go," Scanlon said.

A paper describing Scanlon's work is published in the journal Icarus.

Scientists have speculated since the 1970s that the northwest flank of Arsia Mons may once have been covered by glacial ice.

Jim Head

That view got a big boost in 2003 when Brown geologist Jim Head and David Marchant at Boston University, showed that terrain around Arsia Mons looks strikingly similar to landforms left by receding glaciers in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica.

Parallel ridges toward the bottom of the mountain appear to be drop moraines, piles of rubble deposited at the edges of a receding glacier.

An assemblage of small hills in the region also appears to be debris left behind by slowly flowing glacial ice.

The glacier idea got another boost with recently developed climate models for Mars that take into account changes in the planet's axis tilt.

The models suggested that during periods of increased tilt, ice now found at the poles would have migrated toward the equator.

That would make Mars's giant mid-latitude mountains; Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons and Arsia Mons, prime locations for glaciation around 210 million years ago.

More information: Paper: www.sciencedirect.com

DKIST: Most powerful solar telescope atop Hawaiian volcano

Construction on the new observatory on the summit of the Haleakala Crater on Maui, Hawaii this February. 

The observatory is expected to be completed in 2019. 

Credit: National Solar Observatory / Ruth Kneale

Rising 10,000 feet above the sunburned faces of 2.2 million tourists a year, the largest solar telescope on the planet is under construction atop Haleakala Crater in Maui, Hawaii.

Never mind all those admonitions about never staring at the sun. Astronomers can't wait for the chance.

DKIST Enclosure Cladding

Named after the late Senator Daniel Inouye, the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) will be the world's premier ground-based solar observatory in the world.

With its 4-meter (157.5-inch) primary mirror, DKIST is capable of distinguishing features down to 0.03 arc seconds or just 20-70 km (12-44 miles) wide at the sun's surface.

To achieve such fantastic resolutions the telescope will employ the latest adaptive optics technology to cancel the blurring effects of the atmosphere using a computer-controlled deformable mirror.

Consider that the smallest features visible in large amateur telescopes are solar granules, columns of hot gas rising up from the sun's interior.

Each spans about 930 miles (1,500 km) and together give the sun's surface the texture of finely-etched glass.

McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope

DKIST will resolve features more than 60 times smaller. The current largest sun-dedicated telescope is the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope , which has kept a steady eye on the home star with its 63-inch (1.6-meter) mirror since 1962 from Kitt Peak, Arizona.

DKIST will focus on three key areas: What is the nature of solar magnetism; how does that magnetism control our star; and how can we model and predict its changing outputs that affect the Earth?

Astronomers hope to clearly resolve solar flux tubes – magnetic field concentrations near the sun's surface – thought to be the building blocks of magnetic structures in the atmosphere.

Observatory cutaway showing light entering the top of the dome and gathered by the primary mirror, which is reflected to a secondary mirror and from there through a series of smaller mirrors to the science gallery below. 

Inset shows the light path in greater detail including the deformable mirror that will cancel the blurring effects of atmospheric turbulence. 

Notice that the secondary mirror is offset with no obstructions between it and the primary mirror that would otherwise lessen the telescope’s ability to resolve fine detail. 

Credit: L. Phelps with enhancements by the author

We still lack a complete understanding of how energy in the sun's turbulent, churning interior is transferred to magnetic fields. Earth's magnetic field is about 0.5 gauss at the surface.

DKIST Mezzanine Floor Structure

Fields within sunspots can range from 1,500 to 3,000 gauss – about the strength of a bar magnet but across a region several times larger than Earth.

A better understanding of small scale magnetic structures, too tiny to be resolved with current telescopes, will help make sense of broader phenomena like sunspot formation, the heating of the solar corona and why the sun's energy output varies.

The solar constant, the amount of radiation we receive from the sun, increases with an increase in solar activity like spots and flares.

DKIST Coudé Rotator with dummy masses

Since the smallest magnetic elements are the biggest contributors to this increase, DKIST will be the first telescope able to image and study these structures directly, helping astronomers understand how variations in the sun's output can lead to climate changes.

DKIST will do its work on rapid times scales, taking images once every 3 seconds. For comparison, NASA's orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory takes pictures in 8 different wavelengths every 10 seconds, STEREO one image every 3 minutes and SOHO (Solar Heliospheric Observatory) once every 12 minutes.

The speedy shooting ability will help DKIST resolve rapidly evolving structures on the sun's surface and lower atmosphere in a multitude of wavelengths of light from near-ultraviolet to deep infrared thanks to the the extraordinarily clean and dry air afforded by its high altitude digs.

The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) (formerly the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope) is being developed by a consortium led by the National Solar Observatory and comprising the University of Chicago, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, University of Hawaii, the High Altitude Observatory, NASA, the U.S. Air Force and others. For more details on the project, click here.

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.

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."

Volcano raises new island far south of Japan

Smoke billows from a new island off the coast of Nishinoshima, a small, uninhabited island in the Ogasawara chain, far south of Tokyo Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013. 

The Japan Coast Guard and earthquake experts said a volcanic eruption has raised the new island in the seas to the far south of Tokyo. 

The coast guard issued an advisory Wednesday warning of heavy black smoke from the eruption. 

AP Photo/Kyodo News JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT

A volcanic eruption has raised an island in the seas to the far south of Tokyo, the Japanese coast guard and earthquake experts said.

Advisories from the coast guard and the Japan Meteorological Agency said the islet is about 200 meters (660 feet) in diameter.

It is just off the coast of Nishinoshima, a small, uninhabited island in the Ogasawara chain, which is also known as the Bonin Islands.

The approximately 30 islands are 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) south of Tokyo, and along with the rest of Japan are part of the seismically active Pacific "Ring of Fire."

The coast guard issued an advisory Wednesday warning of heavy black smoke from the eruption. Television footage seen Thursday showed heavy smoke, ash and rocks exploding from the crater, as steam billowed into the sky.

A volcanologist with the coast guard, Hiroshi Ito, told the FNN news network that it was possible the new island might be eroded away.

"But it also could remain permanently," he said.

The last time the volcanos in the area are known to have erupted was in the mid-1970s. Much of the volcanic activity occurs under the sea, which extends thousands of meters deep along the Izu-Ogasawara-Marianas Trench.

Sicily's Mount Etna blows perfect steam rings in rare phenomenon

Molten lava erupts violently into the air from a crater on the summit of Mount Etna in Sicily, Italy. 

The volcano has been quiet over the summer, but dramatically sprang into life over the past few weeks. 

The eruptions also appeared to change the volcano's vent geometry, causing it to produce a series of perfect steam rings - a rare phenomenon. 

Credit: Director / Videographer: Dr. Tom Pfeiffer, Producer: Jack Fletcher, Editor: Josh Douglas.

Mount Sidley West Antarctica: Volcano discovered smoldering under a kilometer of ice

Mount Sidley, at the leading edge of the Executive Committee Range in Marie Byrd Land is the last volcano in the chain that rises above the surface of the ice. 

But a group of seismologists has detected new volcanic activity under the ice about 30 miles ahead of Mount Sidley in the direction of the range's migration. 

The new finding suggests that the source of magma is moving beyond the chain beneath the crust and the Antarctic Ice Sheet. 

Credit: Doug Wiens

It wasn't what they were looking for but that only made the discovery all the more exciting.

In January 2010 a team of scientists had set up two crossing lines of seismographs across Marie Byrd Land in West Antarctica.

It was the first time the scientists had deployed many instruments in the interior of the continent that could operate year-round even in the coldest parts of Antarctica.

Like a giant CT machine, the seismograph array used disturbances created by distant earthquakes to make images of the ice and rock deep within West Antarctica. There were big questions to be asked and answered.

The goal, says Doug Wiens, professor of earth and planetary science at Washington University in St. Louis and one of the project's principle investigators, was essentially to weigh the ice sheet to help reconstruct Antarctica's climate history.

But to do this accurately the scientists had to know how the earth's mantle would respond to an ice burden, and that depended on whether it was hot and fluid or cool and viscous.

The seismic data would allow them to map the mantle's properties.

In the meantime, automated-event-detection software was put to work to comb the data for anything unusual.

When it found two bursts of seismic events between January 2010 and March 2011, Wiens' PhD student Amanda Lough looked more closely to see what was rattling the continent's bones.

Was it rock grinding on rock, ice groaning over ice, or, perhaps, hot gases and liquid rock forcing their way through cracks in a volcanic complex?

Uncertain at first, the more Lough and her colleagues looked, the more convinced they became that a new volcano was forming a kilometer beneath the ice.

The discovery of the new as yet unnamed volcano is announced in the Nov. 17 advanced online issue of Nature Geoscience.

Read the full article here in www.phys.org

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

ESA ISS Astronaut image: Smoke Plume from Mount Etna

ESA astronaut on the ISS, Luca Parmitano, took this picture of Mount Etna issuing smoke from a recent eruption.

ESA’s Mars Express Image: MARS Olympus Mons by the High Resolution Stereo Camera

A portion of the southeastern flank of Olympus Mons as imaged by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express on 21 January 2013 (orbit 11524), with a ground resolution of approximately 17 m per pixel. 

The image centre is located at approximately 14°N / 229°E. North is to the right. 

The image highlights the stark contrast between the hundreds of narrow, individual lava flows on the flanks of the volcano, and the smooth lava plains that surround it. 

Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

Hundreds of individual lava flows are seen frozen in time on the flanks of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the Solar System.

The images, taken on 21 January 2013 by ESA's Mars Express, focus on the southeast segment of the giant volcano, which towers some 22 km above the surrounding plains. This is more than double the height of Mauna Kea, the tallest volcano on Earth at 10 km, when measured from its oceanic base to summit.

Like Mauna Kea, Olympus Mons is a shield volcano, with gently sloping sides that extend outwards at low angles. But unlike other shield volcanoes, it has an abrupt cliff edge, or scarp, separating it from the surrounding plains.

The scarp circles the entire volcano, in places reaching 9 km high. It was likely formed during a number of catastrophic landslides on the flanks of the volcano, during which the resulting debris was transported several hundred kilometres beyond the extent of these images.

Lava flows cover the base of the volcano, punctuated by a handful of pointy and flat-topped blocks that were either rotated or uplifted during the collapse. The transition from the towering heights of the volcano down onto the flat lava plain at the base of the scarp can be easily seen in the colour-coded topography image.

Lava once flowed down the flanks of the Olympus Mons volcano, spilling out onto the surrounding plains.

Here, the paths of numerous individual lava flows can be seen curving around natural obstacles and cascading like waterfalls over cliff edges. 

Random pointed and flat-topped blocks protrude from the flank edges, rotated or uplifted as the sides of the volcano collapsed. 

Only a few very faint traces of ancient lava channels can be seen in the surrounding plain, which was flooded by a later outpouring of lava.

The image was taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express on 21 January 2013 (orbit 11524), with a ground resolution of approximately 17 m per pixel. 

The image centre is located at approximately 14°N / 229°E. 

Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

In the leading colour image and perspective views, extensive networks of narrow, overlapping lava flows are proof of an extremely active volcanic past.

The lava, long since solidified, once spilled down the natural contours of the volcano, spreading out into broad fans as it reached the scarp and plains below.

Flows that ended before reaching the scarp did so with rounded tongues, as the lava cooled and crept to a stop.

Some lava flows are bounded by steep channel walls, while others were contained in lava tubes. Zooming in to the top left portion of the flank in the leading image reveals one example of an ancient lava tube, its winding track partially exposed in channel segments where the roof of the tunnel has since collapsed.

The chaotic lava flows on the flanks provide a stark contrast to the smooth plains seen surrounding the volcano.

Alert after eruption of Alaskan volcano Mount Pavlof

Mount Pavlof, one of Alaska's most restless volcanoes has shot an ash cloud 15,000 feet into the air in an eruption that is visible for miles.

An air traffic controller in the region said small planes have flown around the ash plumes.

The ash would have to rise to tens of thousands of feet to threaten larger planes.

The eruption began on Monday, and photographs show lava spraying out from the summit of the volcano, located 625 miles from Anchorage.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory said clouds of ash, steam and gas have occasionally reached the 20,000-foot level and have been visible from the nearby communities of Cold Bay and Sand Point.

Onsite seismic instruments have detected an increase in the force of tremors from the 8,262-foot volcano.

Typically, Pavlof eruptions are gas-rich fountains of lava that can shoot up to a few thousand feet, but its ash clouds are usually less dense than the plumes of more explosive volcanoes that pose a greater hazard to aircraft, scientists say.

This image shows a pyroclastic flow (superheated fluid mix of gas, lava and melted snow) racing down the slopes of Alaska's Pavlof volcano after it erupted May 13, 2013. 

CREDIT: NASA Earth Observatory

Pavlof is a 5,675-foot peak and among the most active volcanoes in the Aleutian arc, with nearly 40 known eruptions, according to the observatory.

The Aleutian Islands are about 625 miles (1,000 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage, Alaska

The volcano last erupted in 2007 and during the 29-day eruption, Pavlof emitted mud flows and erupting lava, as well as ash clouds up to 18,000 feet.

In early May, Cleveland Volcano, on an uninhabited island in the Aleutian Islands, experienced a low-level eruption.

Satellite imagery shows the volcano has continued to discharge steam, gas and heat in the past week.

New analysis of earlier images showed a small lava flow going over the south east rim of the summit crater, the observatory said.

Cleveland's most recent significant eruption began in February 2001 and sent ash clouds up to 39,000 feet above sea level. It also produced a rocky lava flow and hot debris that reached the sea.

The Aleutian Islands have long been  a source of volcanic activity as the Nasa image below shows.

Cleveland Volcano, Aleutian Islands

Image credit: NASA

At 3:00 p.m. Alaska Daylight Time on May 23, 2006, Flight Engineer Jeff Williams from International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 13 contacted the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) to report that the Cleveland Volcano had produced a plume of ash.

Shortly after the activity began, he took this photograph.

This picture shows the ash plume moving west-southwest from the volcano’s summit. A bank of fog (upper right) is a common feature around the Aleutian Islands.

The event proved to be short-lived; two hours later, the plume had completely detached from the volcano.

The AVO reported that the ash cloud height could have been as high as 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) above sea level.

Cleveland Volcano, situated on the western half of Chuginadak Island, is one of the most active of the volcanoes in the Aleutian Islands, which extend west-southwest from the Alaska mainland.

It is a stratovolcano, composed of alternating layers of hardened lava, compacted volcanic ash, and volcanic rocks.

Philippines Mayon Volcano erupts suddenly killing climbers

One of the Philippines' most active volcanoes spewed huge rocks and ash, killing at least five climbers and trapping more than a dozen others near the crater in its first eruption in three years.

Rescue teams and helicopters were sent to Mayon volcano in the central Philippines to bring out the dead.

At least seven were injured from a group of about 20 mountaineers who were caught by surprise by the sudden eruption, Albay provincial governor Joey Salceda said.

Joey Salceda

Clouds have cleared over the volcano, which was quiet later in the morning.

The climbers who died were struck by huge rocks, guide Kenneth Jesalva told ABS-CBN TV network by mobile phone from a camp near the crater. They included a German, an Austrian and a Filipino.

The injured included foreigners and Filipino guides. Some were in a critical condition, said the chief of the national disaster agency (NDRRMC), Eduardo del Rosario.

Gen. Eduardo del Rosario

Mr Jesalva said he was in the group that spent the night on the picturesque mountain, known for its almost perfect cone, when the volcano rumbled back to life early in the morning and rocks "as big as a living room" came raining down on them. He rushed back to the base camp to call for help.

Renato Solidum

The head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Renato Solidum, said the eruption was normal for the restive Mayon, about 212 miles south east of Manila. It has erupted about 40 times during the last 400 years.

In 2010, thousands of residents moved to temporary shelters when the volcano ejected ash in an five-mile zone surrounding the crater.

Indonesia’s Mount Lokon volcano erupts spewing ash over villages

The Mount Lokon volcano in Indonesia's Tomohon City has erupted, spewing ash up to 2,000 metres into the air.