Volcano news & eruption updates: Barren Island
Barren Island volcano (India) - new eruption confirmed
Wednesday Oct 16, 2013 12:52 PM | BY: T
MODIS hot spot data (past 7 days) for Barren Island volcano (ModVolc, Univ. Hawaii)
Terra satellite image from yesterday showing Barren Island with what might be a small eruption plume (NASA)
No details about the nature of the eruption are available at the moment, but the description and distribution of the hot spots suggests that it might be an explosive-effusive eruption with lava flows (possibly reaching the sea.
A satellite image from yesterday shows what likely is a steam/gas plume, but doesn't allow to recognize details.
- All news about: Barren Island volcano
- Information about: Barren Island volcano
Previous news
Sunday, Feb 17, 2013
A new eruption seems to have started. An ash plume rising to 20,000 ft (6 km) altitude and drifting 120 nautical miles to the SW was reported last night by VAAC Darwin. The aviation color code was raised to RED. [more]
Thursday, Jan 15, 2009
Satellite imagery reported that during 7-8 and 10-11 January ash plumes from Barren Island were seen. [more]
Friday, Nov 21, 2008
A pilot reported a lava flow on Barren island on 17 November and also a ash plume was seen. [more]
Thursday, Apr 06, 2006
Barren Island remains active. Pilots frequently observe ash plumes at around flight level 100. The volcano continues to emit small to moderate amounts of ash forming plumes travelling beneath 10-15000 ft (ca. 3-4,5 km a.s.l.) and extending for about 20 nm (30-35 km). -->More on Barren Island
[more]Sunday, Mar 19, 2006
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
[more]Background:
Barren Island, a possession of India in the Andaman Sea about 135 km NE of Port Blair in the Andaman Islands, is the only historically active volcano along the N-S-trending volcanic arc extending between Sumatra and Burma (Myanmar). The 354-m-high island is the emergent summit of a volcano that rises from a depth of about 2250 m. The small, uninhabited 3-km-wide island contains a roughly 2-km-wide caldera with walls 250-350 m high. The caldera, which is open to the sea on the west, was created during a major explosive eruption in the late Pleistocene that produced pyroclastic-flow and -surge deposits. The morphology of a fresh pyroclastic cone that was constructed in the center of the caldera has varied during the course of historical eruptions. Lava flows fill much of the caldera floor and have reached the sea along the western coast during eruptions in the 19th century and more recently in 1991 and 1995.---
Source: GVP, Smithsonian Institution
