Eruption Update for August 21, 2012: Cleveland, Tungurahua and More

The plume from Tungurahua in Ecuador as seen on August 19, 2012. Webcam capture by Eruptions reader Kirby. It is that time of year again - the summer is ending and classes begin within a week. Now, I am on leave for the fall, but that doesn't mean the pace of things isn't picking up. I spent the end of last week blasting zircons with a laser up at Michigan State in order to get some ages on those crystals and in about 2 weeks from now, I'll be headed back to California for a week of field excursions across the Sierras. So, busy indeed. Things have also settled down a smidge volcanically as well. After the New Zealand trifecta, we've had some rumblings around the globe ... so I thought I'd just use today's post to catch up with some news I've seen (or posted links to on Twitter). AlaskaCleveland has continued its 2012 pattern of explosive destruction of the summit dome - the volcano experienced yet another small explosion according to AVO. The volcano is remote, so the threat is mainly to air traffic, so Cleveland is watched via satellite for these explosions. Ecuador Another restless volcano was moved into a higher alert status after new explosions produced ash fall from a 1.5 km / 5,000 foot plume and pyroclastic flows from Ecuador's Tungurahua. Most of the english-speaking media on the activity seems to be a string of images from previous eruptions with no real information, but spanish-speaking reports tell of evacuations near the volcano due to the heightened activity. This renewed activity at Tungurahua has apparently caused significant damage to crops and livestock in the area surrounding the volcano. Global Volcanism Program Update If you want to catch up on all of last week's volcano news, check out the August 8-14 Global Volcanism Program Weekly Volcanic Activity Report. One volcano that was left out the the report was Sotara in Colombia, where the alert level was increased to Yellow III after a combination of an increase is earthquakes and inflation at the volcano. I'll keep my eyes peeled for more information, but that means that 5 Colombian volcanoes are on elevated alert (Galeras, Ruiz, Machin, Huila and Sotara).