Impressive Explosive Eruptions from Colima Caught on Video

Rocky Planet iconRocky Planet
By Erik Klemetti
Jan 31, 2013 3:19 AMNov 20, 2019 4:35 AM
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A video capture of the explosive eruption last night (January 29, 2013) at Colima in Mexico that produced a 3 km ash plume. Activity at Mexico's Colima appears to be entering a more explosive phase based on some video from last night. Webcam footage showed an impressive explosive eruption (helped look more impressive by the night's darkness) that threw glowing material quite a distance down the side of the volcano, along with producing an ash plume that reached ~ 3 km / 10,000 feet. The noise from the explosion was heard over 32 km / 20 miles from the volcano as well (note: I'm not convinced the audio on the video I've linked is actually from this eruption or was added for effect) A number of surrounding communities had some ash fall from the explosion and Mexican officials from Civil Protection say that more explosions such as these should be expected from Colima -- although they called last night's activity a "small explosion". UPDATE 9:00 PM EST 1/30/2013: John Stevenson of Volcan01010 (who has firsthand experience with Colima) thinks the video linked above has been doctored -- likely sped up from the actual events. He also agrees with my hunch that the audio isn't authentic either. In both cases, it really frustrates when media decides they can do nature better than nature can. Like many composite volcanoes around the world such as Soufriere Hills or Unzen, Colima goes through cycles of lava dome growth and more explosive activity. This eruptive period at Colima started almost 14 years ago with repeated periods of dome growth and explosions, producing (so far) ~0.04 cubic km of lava and 0.003 cubic km of tephra (volcanic debris from explosive activity). You can watch Colima on the webcam pointed at the volcano.

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