Volcano viewing: the rise and fall of lava lakes

Remarkably, the same sequence of events also occurred on another Pacific island in 2018. Ambrym volcano, a very active volcano in the South Pacific country of Vanuatu, experienced historic changes in 2018 that coincided with those on Kilauea.

Prior to 2018, the caldera summit on Ambrym volcano hosted five lava lakes. In the weeks leading up to the eruption, at least one of the lava lakes showed a significant elevation, similar to what happened before the 2018 Kilauea eruption.

Earthquakes began at the summit on December 14, and magma quickly broke through along the southeastern rift zone of the Ambrym, creating a large-scale landslide fault. Within two days, all five lakes had dried up and craters collapsed inland, with ash plumes rising from the summit.

On December 17th, the magma migration stopped. Soon after, residents noticed a pumice drift ashore, indicating that the submarine eruption had occurred far away in the rift zone. At the summit, a water lake soon replaced one of the lava lakes in the crater of a collapsing volcano.

Although Ambrym’s landslide caused damage to buildings in 2018, the eruption could have been more dangerous if it had occurred ashore. In 1913, a similar pattern of activity occurred at Ambrym, resulting in a volcanic eruption on the beach that destroyed a hospital.

A recently published study on the 2018 Ambrym eruption, written by an international team of scientists, highlighted that the lake level rise prior to the eruption was a possible sign of building pressure in the magma chamber.

The authors note that this pattern has been documented in detail in Kilauea, which has a more extensive monitoring network. In essence, lava lakes are giant pressure gauges of the primary magma chamber, similar to a liquid gauge.

Analysis of the lava chemistry showed that the molten dam at Ambrym intersected with an isolated terminal pocket of ancient magma en route along the rift zone. This mixing of new and old magma also occurred during the 2018 outbreak of the Lower East Rift Zone at Kilauea, with implications for eruption rates and risk.

The observations of Ambrym and Kilauea indicate that the rise of fast-rising lava lakes may be a common harbinger of upcoming volcanic eruptions. Taken together, the eruptions at Kilauea and Ambrym have some important lessons for predicting hazards.

This process has implications for hazards in another volcano known for lava lake activity. Nyiragongo, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, hosts a large lava lake that has been sporadically active for decades.

The rise in lake levels was preceded by the large flank explosions of 1977 and 2002 at Nyiragongo. An eruption in 1977 produced unusually fast pyroclastic flows, killing dozens of people. Lava flows from the 2002 eruption covered a large part of Goma City, leaving 120,000 people homeless and more homeless.

Currently, Lake Nyiragongo has risen to a high level, roughly similar to that before the volcanic eruptions in 1977 and 2002. Another recent study, by a different international team of scientists, speculated that this could lead to a new eruption of the wing in several years.

It should be noted that the current lava lake in Kilauea, which began forming in December 2020, is fundamentally different from the lake that existed before 2018. The current lake is passively lava collects at the bottom of the Halema’uma’u crater, and no It is located directly above the channel that rises from the magma chamber. This means that lava level changes cannot be used as a pressure gauge in the same way.

Over the years, the communities in Kilauea, Ambrym, and Nyiragongo have been devastated by eruptions fed by magma that drained from their peaks. Our hope is to develop a better understanding of these side-swept eruptions and their precursors, and to use this knowledge to reduce risks and improve expectations in the future.

Visit https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/hawaiian-volcano-observatory for past articles on Volcano Watch, Kilauea and Mauna Loa updates, volcano photos, maps, recent earthquake information, and more. Questions emailed to [email protected].

Volcano Watch is a weekly article and activity update written by the scientists and affiliates of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory of the US Geological Survey.

Volcano activity updates

Kilauea volcano erupting. USGS Volcano Alert Level at WATCH (https://www.usgs.gov/natural-hazards/volcano-hazards/about-alert-levels). Kilauea updates are released daily.

Lava activity is limited to Halema’uma’u with lava erupting from a vent hatch on the northwest side of the crater. Laser rangefinder measurements on April 29 indicate that the lava in the western (active) part of the lake was 744 feet deep, with the eastern part of the lava lake solidifying at the surface. The top tilt gauges have recorded little change in the past 24 hours. The sulfur dioxide emission rates measured on April 25 were 375 tons / day. Earthquakes remain stable, with higher tremor. For the most recent information on the eruption, see https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/current-eruption.

Mauna Loa does not erupt and is still at Volcano Alert Level. This alert level does not imply that a volcano eruption is imminent or that progression to an eruption from the current level of turbulence is a certainty. Mauna Loa updates are released weekly.

Last week, about 150 small-scale earthquakes were recorded below Mauna Loa, most of them at the bottom of the summit and at depths of less than 5 miles. Recent GPS measurements have shown diverging crest deformation patterns, as they have gone from contracting to stretching slightly over the past week. Gas concentrations and fumarol temperatures both at the summit and in the sulfur cone in the southwest rift region remain stable. Web cameras do not show any changes to the landscape. For more information on the current monitoring of Mauna Loa volcano, visit https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mauna-loa/monitoring.

There have been two events with three or more reports on the Hawaiian Islands over the past week: a 3.4-magnitude earthquake 18 miles southwest of Hawaii Ocean View Estates on April 26 at 6:18 a.m. and a 2.8-magnitude earthquake 8 miles south Honokaa on Apr 26 at 2:09 am

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