Eruption Update for March 30, 2012: Alaska and Hawai'i

Some brief updates to take us to the weekend - if you want to see the all the week's volcanic action, be sure to check out the USGS/Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program's Weekly Volcanic Activity Report. Alaska Two volcanoes dominate the news from Alaska these days: Cleveland and Iliamna. Both have jumped back and forth from Yellow/Advisory to Orange/Watch status over the past few months. Right now, Cleveland has returned to Orange/Watch status after new observations showed a dome forming at the summt. This, of course, increased the likelihood of explosive activity as the dome may trap gases in the volcano, creating overpressure, or the dome could collapse, releasing pressure rapidly. Both of these mechanisms can prompt an explosive eruption. Iliamna is back onto Yellow/Advisory status from Orange/Watch after elevated seismicity continues, albeit at a lower level. Hawai'i Kilauea's activity marches on, although now it appears that the volcano is inflating, at least at the summit. Since October 2011, the summit has been inflating at a rate of ~1 cm/month at the same time that lava flows continued from other parts of the volcano (see above). The most recent HVO status update also mentions "the gas plume continued to include a small amount of ash-sized tephra that was deposited on nearby, downwind surfaces." The lava lake at the summit is still quite active as well - the USGS released a time-lapse video of the lava lake taken between March 23-29, showing the lake slowly fill as the lava convects in the Halema'uma'u Crater. Remember to watch summit and Pu'u O'o webcams to see if activity changes at Kilauea. N.B. This isn't Alaska or Hawai'i, but Boris Behncke mentioned that there are some signs that Etna might have yet another paroxysm soon - be sure to keep an eye on the Etna webcams to see the action.