Cracking Volcanoes

A selection of the large eruptions that Santiaguito has produced in 2016. Left: 11 April (Source: INSIVUMEH ). Middle: 19 May (Source: INSIVUMEH ). Right: 17 June (Source:  Stereo100Noticias ). Last week Anthony Lamur and I were back in Guatemala to collect more observations from Santiaguito volcano . The fieldwork was prompted by the occurrence of several very large eruptions at the volcano in 2016 (like those in the image above), a departure from the regular but relatively small explosions that are typical of the place. What we wanted to know was what mechanism is driving the much larger explosions? Our campsite on Santa Maria on the morning of June 13th. The shadow of Santa Maria (3,772 m high) stretches far into the distance.  Our task for the trip was simple: we would camp on Santa Maria and watch Santiaguito for a few days with optical and thermal cameras to record any explosions. We also deployed a temporary acoustic microphone to record the infrasound prod...

If you have been following myself or Liverpool Volcanology , you will probably know that the group has been carrying out an extensive amount of fieldwork around Santiaguito volcano in Guatemala. You can read about those trips in previous posts  here , by Felix on GeoLog , and an amazing article by Nathanial Hoffman . For this post, I'll be writing about the first of hopefully many articles to come out of our efforts, published in Geophysical Research Letters . A gas-and-ash plume rises from the Caliente vent at Santiaguito in November 2014. The article, put together by Silvio de Angelis , details how we used infrasound and infrared thermal data to characterise small explosions at Santiaguito. This analysis was also complemented by measurements of ash collected after the explosions.  What we wanted to know was: how much ash is in the explosion plume, and how fast and high is it being injected into the atmosphere? Silvio, Armando and Andreas  deploying a stat...

The fieldwork group with Santiaguito and Santa Maria in the background. From left: Yours truly, Silvio De Angelis, Andreas Rietbrock, Armando Pineda, Adrian Hornby, Anthony Lamur and Yan Lavallee. Last Thursday I returned to the UK after an amazing three weeks of fieldwork around the Santiaguito volcano in Guatemala. For this post I will write a little bit about the experience and what had to be done during the trip. For those interested, I've also added a section at the end about the activity that we witnessed during our time there. Quetzaltenango (also known as Xela), our base for the fieldwork. Photo taken from near the summit of Santa Maria. After negotiating the mazy and congested streets of Guatemala City, and finally getting our equipment through customs, we arrived in the lovely little city of Quetzaltenango. Guatemala's second largest city sits in the shadow of the Santa Maria volcano, at the foot of which is the volcano we had come to study. We had a tight s...

This wednesday, I will be starting three weeks of fieldwork in Guatemala. There I will be working with a group of fellow volcanologists and seismologists from the University of Liverpool. We are heading to the Santiaguito dome complex, one of the most active and fascinating volcanoes in the world. Santiaguito dome complex, with an explosion plume rising from the active Caliente vent. The older Santa Maria volcano forms the high peak on the far right. (Taken Dec. 2005. Source: photovolcanica.com)  I've introduced Santiaguito on this blog before , but I thought I would rewrite it with a little update on its recent activity. Santiaguito is a lava dome complex that has been growing non-stop since 1922; an exceptionally long eruption for any kind of volcano. It is forming inside a crater created during a massive VEI 6 eruption of the Santa Maria volcano in 1902. The dome eruption has been accompanied by regular vulcanian explosions, lava flows, pyroclastic flows, and lahars. In ...

For my first proper post on this blog, I thought I should follow up the post about my research  with some short introductions to the volcanoes that I'm studying. These volcanoes are: Volcán de Colima, Mt St Helens, Santiaguito, and Mt Unzen. Why have I chosen these volcanoes? One simple reason really, all of them have produced or are currently producing lava domes within the past 20 years. Instead of focusing on just one volcano or one eruption, I can compare and contrast my findings from multiple sources and hopefully gain a better understanding of the processes I'm looking at. Volcán de Colima View of Volcán de Colima from the north-west in August 2012. The large lava flow in the foreground was formed in 2004.  Volcán de Colima, located in mid-western Mexico is the most active volcano in North America and it is one of two volcanoes on this list that is erupting today. It has been erupting almost continuously since 1998, with the exception of an 18-month hiatus fr...