Volcano Watch — Dramatic volcanoes of island archipelagos rock, roll, and erupt

As the islands of the south Pacific are typically of volcanic origin, the region has the highest density of volcanoes on Earth. Many of the older, extinct volcanoes sank below the surface, while reefs grew upward, forming beautiful coral islands or atolls.

There are, however, still a lot of active volcanoes in the south Pacific, many of them so recent that they have not yet broken the surface of the ocean. Some of the volcanic chains, such as the Marquesas, and Hawai‘i, trace the path of the Pacific Plate over a stationary "hot spot"—a place where magma wells up through the crust to erupt on the sea floor, building a volcanic edifice.

Other volcanic chains, such as the Mariana Islands and Vanuatu, are island arcs, associated with subduction zones--boundaries between tectonic plates where one plate, generally the older and denser of the two, thrusts down into the mantle beneath the other plate. Arc volcanoes form on the overriding plate, in this case the Pacific plate, roughly paralleling the plate boundary. This is the classic "ring of fire" volcanism.

Although Kīlauea is the Pacific volcano making the news recently by sending lava flows into inhabited areas and producing land-building ocean entries, there are volcanoes in the south Pacific, as well as elsewhere, that rival Kīlauea's "most active volcano" status.

For example, Yasur volcano in Vanuatu has been erupting almost continuously since at least 1774, when Captain Cook recorded seeing ash erupting from Yasur. Eruptions tend to be strombolian, ejecting incandescent material to altitudes of hundreds of meters, though vulcanian explosions of dense, ash-laden gas also occur. This past summer, ash clouds reached elevations of almost 2,000 m (6,500 feet), affecting flights in neighboring New Caledonia and contaminating local water supplies.
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Like Kīlauea, Yasur is a visitor attraction, though quite a bit farther off the beaten track. It is possible to hike to the summit area of Yasur (361 m, 1184 ft, high) and experience the eruptive activity from the crater rim. This can be a dangerous expedition, however, as lava bombs are sometimes ejected to the crater rim and far beyond. In the mid-1990s, several people were killed by falling volcanic bombs.

The small island nation of Vanuatu consists of about 82 islands whose total area is similar to Hawai‘i Island. Vanuatu has many active volcanoes, including Yasur. Ambrym, the most voluminous of Vanuatu's volcanoes, is also very active, with about 50 eruptions since 1774, most of them explosive, and two of them resulting in fatalities. It is also a source of vog and acid rain that affect the local population. Acid rainfall in 1979 was so intense that it literally burned some of the inhabitants, as well as contaminating water supplies.

Vanuatu is not only highly active volcanically, but also seismically, as is common in subduction zones, such as the one associated with the volcanic arc of Vanuatu. Just last week, a magnitude (M) 7.5 earthquake struck offshore. Only a small local tsunami was generated, and no one was reported hurt.

The previous large earthquake in the region, a M7.1, shook the islands less than 3 months ago. And just last year, in October 2009, two tremendous quakes, M7.8 and 7.7, occurred 15 minutes apart. After these events, an M7.4 aftershock struck approximately one hour later, and M 6.6 and M 6.8 aftershocks occurred on the following day.

Indeed, the Vanuatu region experiences many large earthquakes, with almost 50 events of magnitude 7 and larger having been recorded since 1973.

Although Hawai‘i is also seismically active, only the 1975 earthquake had a magnitude greater than 7 in the same period. Though we have a lower occurrence of large quakes in Hawai‘i, they are often generated at shallower depths. This, along with the greater population density of the Hawaiian Islands, tends to make them more damaging than those in Vanuatu.

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Volcano Activity Update

There were two short-lived breakouts close to the end of Highway 130 during the first part of the week. These breakouts posed no threat to the nearby Kalapana Gardens subdivision. By Thursday, August 19, however, a prolonged deflation at Kīlauea's summit caused nearly all surface flows to stall, and the amount of lava reaching the ocean at Puhi-o-Kalaikini decreased substantially. The ocean entry plume is expected to return to normal size, and surface flow activity may resume once the deflation ends and the volcano re-inflates.

At Kīlauea's summit, a circulating lava pond deep in the collapse pit within the floor of Halema‘uma‘u Crater was visible via the Webcam throughout the past week. The lava surface rose and fell slowly to match the series of deflation/inflation cycles recorded at the summit. In addition, the lava surface rose abruptly on several occasions. These periods of high lava level were short-lived, lasting only up to several hours, and ended with a sudden drop of the lava surface back to its previous level. Volcanic gas emissions remain elevated, resulting in high concentrations of sulfur dioxide downwind.

One earthquake beneath Hawai‘i Island was reported felt during the past week. A magnitude-3.8 earthquake occurred at 11:52 a.m., on Wednesday, August 18, 2010, H.s.t., and was located 7 km (5 miles) west of Kalapana at a depth of 10 km (6 miles).