Soufrière Hills volcano's dome growth continues, now focused towards the east, with a lava lobe growing in that direction and the majority of rockfall and pyroclastic flow activity occurring in the SE to NE sector. The largest pyroclastic flows during the past week have travelled up to 2km down Tar River valley.

Smoke rising from Meakandake volcano and a mud flow travelling from the summit through a ravine. (AP Photo/Kushiro Local Metrological Observatory via Kyodo News)

Meakandake volcano in Hokkaido, Japan, erupted shortly on Tuesday afternoon, March 21, 2006. The volcano spewed a small amount of ash and caused a short lahar travelling through a ravine on the upper slopes of the snow-capped volcano.

After the 17 March eruption at Green Lake on Raoul Island, no new eruptions occurred and seismicity declined through 24 March. New Zealand scientists found that many new craters had formed in and around Green Lake and that pre-existing 1964 craters had eactivated. The main steam columns were derived from Crater I, Marker Bay, and Crater XI. The eruption blew over mature trees as far as 200 m from the eruption site and deposited dark gray hydrothermal mud and ballistic blocks.

Pacaya volcano is in mild strombolian activity, with lava flows extending  ~100-150 m down the volcano's S and SW flank.

Fuego volcano continues its weak strombolian activity, ejecting incandescent material ~50-75 m high and producing gas plumes to ~300 m above the volcano (13,300 ft a.s.l.). Short pyroclastic avalanches occur on the upper flanks. On 28 March, lava flowed ~450 m S and avalanches occurred from the lava-flow fronts. ->More on Fuego

Colima continues its mild activity with occasional ash emissions (a few per day); the highest plume during the past week reached 6.1 km (20,000 ft) a.s.l. on the 26th of March 2006.

Small phreatic eruptions began at Poás on 24 March 2006. The eruptions originated from the bottom of the volcano's Caliente Lake. Witnesses described a sudden emission of water and sediments S of the lake. Roaring was heard in a nearby tourist area and weak earthquakes were felt.
OVSICORI-UNA visited the E side of the volcano on 25 March and confirmed that water, blocks, and sediments from the bottom of the lake had been ejected.Several dozens of impact craters were seen with diameters between 15 and 60 cm, extending E as far as 700 m. Blocks were found that ranged in diameter from a few to 50 cm wide. During 22-27 March, harmonic tremor was recorded. On the 27th, there was a reduction in seismicity and it returned to normal levels. No deformation was measured at the volcano. A news article reported that the area around the volcano was closed to visitors.

Galeras has been showing an increase in tremor since the morning of 28 March, as INGEOMINAS reports. The Alert Level was raised from 3 ("changes in the behavior of volcanic activity have been noted") to 2 ("likely eruption in days or weeks"). In addition to the tremor, seismic instruments detected very shallow low-energy hybrid signals, similar to ones recorded during 1991-1993 when dome emplacement occurred on the main crater's floor.

Poás volcano erupted after 12 years of dormancy with two small steam and ash eruptions on 25th of March 2006 from the crater lake known as Laguna Calients. Authorities consider closing the easy-to-access crater rim to the public.

The dome growth of Soufrière Hills volcano is now focused in the summit area and towards the east and northeast. The northern side of the lava dome has shown little change during the past week, as MVo reports. Rockfalls and pyroclastic flows have been restricted to the Tar River Valley and they were particularly numerous on 19-20 March. The largest pyroclastic flows have travelled up to 2km down Tar River valley.

Ash plume from Anatahan volcano on 19 March 2006 (NASA).

Anatahan volcano shows new activity. The volcano emitted a moderately large plume of ash on March 19, 2006 as was detected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard the Aqua satellite.

Strong strombolian activity continues at Karymsky volcano with no significant changes. The volcano emitted frquently over the past week, and satellite imagery showed debris, most likely ash, draped along the sides of the mountain. When the skies were clear over the volcano, satellites also observed a thermal anomaly at the summit. In late March 2006, the USGS placed Karymsky at alert code orange, the second-highest level of concern. ->More on Karymsky

Bulusan volcano in the Philippines came back to life on Tuesday 21st of March 2006. At around 23h00 local time (16:00 GMT) the volcano spewed a column of ash nearly a mile (1.5 kilometres) into the sky. The Philippine Institute of Seismology and Vulcanology (Phivolcs) said the ash was unlikely to cause any harm, but warn that the volcano may be about to erupt more powerfully. A four-kilometer (2.4-mile) exclusion zone is already in place around the 1,565-meter (5,133-foot) volcano, which is 600 kilometers (370 miles) southeast of Manila. The institute will be closely monitoring the volcano for further activity. Bulusan had a series of similar explosions in 1994 and 1995.

Low-level eruptive activity continues at Augustine Volcano. Changes in seismic signal characteristics as well as visual obsrevation suggest that Augustine is entering a phase of steady and slower effusion of lava, with intermittent block-and-ash-flows, rock avalanches, and rock falls from the summit lava dome.
The webcameras from AVO captured numerous hot avalanches and prolonged periods of incandescence in the summit area and on the upper northeast flank on several evenings. Satellite images show that thermal anomalies persist.
Observations made on overflights of the volcano this week indicate that the two lava flows on the north and northeast flanks continue to advance slowly. Occasional collapses of the lava flow fronts shed hot blocks and produce minor ash emissions. Estimates using photographs indicate that the new lava dome is about 70 m higher than the level of the lava dome formed in 1986.

The volcano on Barren Island is still very active as news reports. The height of the cone has increased by about 50 metres during the past nine months since its eruption started last May. A team of scientists from India landed on the island to study the recent eruption. Lava flows have covered the entire north-western face of the island destroying the lone landing site. ->More on Barren Island

Violent lava fountain from the margin of the lava lake in the East Pond vent

Molten rock stalactites shivering on the wall above the lake

Very bad weather continues to trouble the Hawaiian Islands and makes observation of Kilauea's activity difficult.
During visits to active areas, we found the sea entry at the East Lae`apuki lava delta moderately active with two main entry points. In the coastal flat, few breakouts are active at the eastern margin of the active PKK flow in the area about 1 km east of the main tube (its trace being visible from distance by the dense steam and bluish gas escaping from its roof). The tube itself has an extremely thin crust that makes the area around it very dangerous, and it is currently closed off due to that reason.
At Pu'u O'o, the lava lake inside the East Pond vent is very active, with impressive waves on its surface and yellow fountains at its southern margin that resemble a hellish cauldron of boiling magma. The lake seems to be fed by two vents at the longer extremes of the crater. It is about 25x15m large and at about 15 meters depth below the rim. Observation is not possible but from its rim, which is highly unstable and in most parts periliously overhanging or showing signs of very recent or imminent collapses. -->More on Kilauea

Merapi volcano might be becoming more active.The volcano's seismic activity has increased during the past days, and the Indonesian Volcanological Survey has raised the alert level from 2 to 3 (second highest level).

The Green Lake crater of Raoul volcano on Raoul Island (one of the remote Kermadecs Islands group in the South Pacific, located 625 miles northeast of New Zealand's city of Auckland) erupted early Friday, 17 March 2005. The eruption lasted about 30 minutes and was probably a series of phreatic explosions, throwing debris, ash and vapour out of the lake-filled crater.

The lava dome of La Soufriere volcano on Montserrat continues its rapid growth. The large spine disintegrated last week and growth of the dome has continued in a northerly direction, reaching a height of approximately 950m.

Due to lack of participants, we decided to cancel the tour to North Sulawesi and postpone it to 2007. As an interesting alternative, we can offer a special trekking tour in Java and Bali from 5-20 August instead. There are two open spaces available.

The activity at Kilauea has not experienced big changes over the past weeks: lava continues to flow into the East Lae`apuki lava delta and only few breakouts from the active PKK flow on the coastal flat or the pali occur. At Pu`u `O`o, East Pond Vent, January Vent, Drainhole are all brightly glowing from lava close to the surface.

These days, Vesuvius is in the news AGAIN, with headlines such as: "Vesuvius Due for Giant Eruption -The next eruption of Europe's biggest volcano could come as early as next year and could be a doozie. ..."

Santa Maria's activity has somewhat decreased during the past weeks. Moderate explosions continue to form ash-loaden plumes of up to about 1 km height. Occasional small block and ash flows accompanied by loud noises detach from the southeast flank of the active lava dome. ...more on Santa Maria volcano

Moderate and small strombolian explosions continue at Fuego volcano, ejecting relatively little amounts of fresh lava. The steam and ash plumes reach about 400-800 m above the crater and are quickly dispersed, mainly to the west. Small rockfall-induced pyroclastic flow  occur occasionally towards barranca Río Taniluyá and Santa Teresa. ...more on Fuego

Pacaya's activity remains very low, but some weak incandescence from the crater is visible at night, suggesting that magma is near the vents. ...more on Pacaya

Seismicity at Veniaminof volcano is low and there are no indications that new eruptions have taken place since 3 March 2006. As precaution, the Alaska Volcano Observatory maintains alert level YELLOW.

Low-level eruptive activity continues at Augustine volcano. Seismicity has increased slightly since Saturday as AVO reports. Minor ash emissions continue intermittently, producing only very minor ash plumes that do not travel far from the island. Rockfalls and small avalanches from the summit area continue to be recorded.

Strong strombolian activity at Karymsky volcano continues with no significant change over the past weeks. ->More on Karymsky

The lava dome at Sheveluch volcano continues to grow. Small to mederate explosive events might be expected at any time.
-> More on Sheveluch

Mount Veniaminof volcano is getting more active: small ash emissions were observed coming from the intracaldera cone this morning (4 March 2006) from AVO webcam images. They consisted of small diffuse, low-level plumes, rising a few hundred meters (several hundred feet) above the cone, which has an elevation of 2,156 m (7,073 ft) above sea level. The ash emissions dissipated rapidly as they drifted towards the east. Ash fall is likely to be minor and should be confined to the summit caldera.
...More about Veniaminof

Montserrat's Soufrière Hills volcano's lava dome  continues its rapid vertical growth. By 27 February, a large spine about 30m across and at least 30m high had developed at the summit of the lava dome. By 28 February this spine had split into two parts and was leaning precariously to the northeast. At about 9:15pm on 28 February the overhanging parts of the spine disintegrated and generated pyroclastic flows that travelled down Tar River Valley almost as far as the coast. A visible low-altitude ash cloud drifted away to the west of Montserrat.

We hare glad to announce that we can now offer an additional date for the tour on Nisyros island, Greece, this autumn: 6-15 October 2006. Details to the tour are found here. 

Tungurahua's activity remains low and consists of emissions of steam and gas, with little ash. An explosion on the 26th at 1600 produced a NW-drifting gas-and-ash plume to ~3 km above the volcano (or ~26,300 ft a.s.l.).

Based on information from the Tokyo VAAC, several small eruptions occurred at Suwanose-jima volcano (Ryukyu Islands)  during the past weeks. The highest rising plume reached about 3 km (10,000 ft) a.s.l. after an eruption on 23 February.

During the past weeks, occasional and small steam-and-gas emissions continued at Popocatépetl. Airphotos taken on 10 February showed a 130-m-diameter lava dome at the bottom of the crater.

Details of Manam's large eruption on 27 Feb are emerging via the Rabaul Volcano Observatory (RVO). According to that information, the eruption can be classified as Sub-Plinian:

Another notorious volcano in New Britain, Ulawun, had a (small) eruption on March 1st. Pilots reported ash to about 2 km above sea level.