Volcanic Activity
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Hundreds evacuated as Indonesia’s Karangetang volcano violently erupts in N. Sulawesi
Posted on May 9, 2015
May 2015 – INDONESIA – At least 465 people were evacuated from their houses in Siau Tagulandang Biaro district in North Sulawesi province on Friday following eruption of Karangetang volcano, a senior official at Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said here. Impact of the active volcano’s eruption has flattened several houses in Kora village in the region, BNPB Spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said, adding that in the afternoon the volcano was still erupting lava, rocks and hot materials as far as several kilometers from the crater of the volcano.
Costa Rica’s Volcano Turrialba spews black ash cloud 6,000 ft into air
Posted on May 9, 2015
May 2015 – COSTA RICA – Costa Rica’s Turrialba volcano belched a column of gas and ash upwards of 6,000ft into the air on Monday (May 4th). An explosion on Monday afternoon lasting 28 minutes emanated from the volcano in central Costa Rica and ash reached parts of the capital San Jose some 30 miles away. Costa Rica’s international airport was reopened on Tuesday morning after the eruption of the nearby volcano blanketed runways with ash, forcing its closure overnight. Ash can affect the safety of flights during take-off and landing as well as damage engines.
Volcano overdue for large eruption
: The province of Sorsogon is preparing for a major Bulusan Volcano eruption, a probability bolstered by the volcano’s eruption pattern in recent years, said its disaster risk management chief. Raden Dimaano, head of Sorsogon’s Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said Bulusan is “due for an eruption.” “If you look at the frequency of its previous phreatic explosions, they do not reach 3 years [without an eruption]. Now, it’s overdue so we are really preparing ourselves.” He explained that the last major eruption happened in 2011. Before that, there was one in 2009 and, previously, in 2007. “That span of time seems to be when it gets clogged and then it suddenly blows up,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino.
Hundreds flee Philippines’s rumbling Bulusan volcano, typhoon
Posted on May 9, 2015
May 2015 – PHILIPPINES – Hundreds of people fled their homes on the slopes of a rumbling Philippine volcano on Friday as authorities warned of rain-driven mudflows from an approaching typhoon that could bury them alive. Around 500 residents of farming villages around Bulusan volcano in Sorsogon province, many of them children and elderly women, boarded army trucks clutching sleeping mats and bags of clothes as Typhoon Noul (local name: Dodong) bore down on the area. Trucks sent by the local government of Irosin town in Sorsogon and by the army and police on Friday started fetching residents living within the 4-km danger zone of Mount Bulusan. “I have no choice but to evacuate. I may not be strong enough to outrun the mud flows,” 66-year-old housewife Dolores Guela told Agence France-Presse. Officials said she and her meningitis-stricken nine-year-old granddaughter would be among about 1,000 people taken to temporary shelters to wait out the wrath of Noul, which was forecast to bring heavy rains in the Bicol region from late Friday.
Expert warns Japan has entered ‘era of great quakes and eruptions’ – volcanoes stirring across Japan
Posted on May 9, 2015
May 2015 – JAPAN – Mt. Fuji is located only about 25 kilometers from Mt. Hakone. While Mt. Fuji is also an active volcano, will the increased volcanic activity of Mt. Hakone have any effects on Mt. Fuji? “The magma chambers located beneath Mt. Hakone and Mt. Fuji are not connected, so there is no effect on Mt. Fuji,” said Toshitsugu Fujii, who chairs the Japan Meteorological Agency’s Coordinating Committee for Prediction of Volcanic Eruptions. The agency has not observed any signs of impending eruption in Mt. Fuji and therefore has not raised the eruption alert level for the mountain. However, since the magnitude-9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake occurred in March 2011, volcanoes in the country have shown signs of increased activity. Currently, a Level 2 eruption alert, which restricts access around the volcanic vent, is in effect for 10 volcanoes, while a Level 3 alert, which restricts approach to the volcano, has been issued for three volcanoes.