A picture of parts of the crater area, taken from the caldera rim on 25 Feb, appeared on the net and shows what is described as a 15 m wide crater left by the 13 Feb eruption (but this seems rather small). [moins]

A picture showing the new crater at the place of the 2007 lava dome has emerged on our friend Øystein Lund Andersen's website, but of course, it is impossible to see what the bottom of the new pit looks like. [moins]

The biggest problem at the moment are lahars, mud flows that form when rain water mixes and remobilizes loose deposits. These mud flows can carry boulders of meter size and are extremely destructive (imagine flowing cement with mixed-in large debris of all sorts). It is estimated that approximately 50 million cubic meters of tephra deposits from the 13 Feb eruption could be remobilized by the rains in the coming days, weeks and months to come. Areas most at risk are river valleys and their river banks.
The first lahars have already appeared during the past days, and produced extensive additional damage, but fortunately no fatalities. [moins]

The SO2 aerosol plume from the eruption is still well visible in the atmosphere on satellite data. [moins]

A constant stream of analysis and interesting details about the eruption has been appearing. Among them the observation that in terms of SO2 output, impressive as it was, it was only a moderate event. The injected amount of SO2 is not sufficient to cause any noticeable (short-term) climate changes.
Satellite data have shown that the eruption column reached a maximum of 27 km altitude originally, before falling back and producing beautiful gravity waves at approx. 19 km altitude where it spread into an umbrella cloud. Read more. [moins]

Fast rise of magma?
One of the most remarkable aspects of the eruption was how quickly it built up, suggesting a very fast rise of magma occurred in the hours before the explosion. VSI mentioned that there were only 2 hours between the appearance of shallow earthquakes (the typical immediate precursors) and the onset of the eruption itself. With such little warning time, it was difficult to implement an effective evacuation, but still, one should recognize that Indonesian authorities have done a marvelous job. Still, it is a small wonder that there were not many more fatalities. Most of this is to be attributed to the fact, that the eruption seems not to have produced any or at least no larger pyroclastic flows (which in itself is also a small wonder). [moins]

Our correspondent Andi wrote: "Jogja and many cities in the west and east of Java is covered by raining ash and layered until 3-4 mm. It's terrible that the ash could reach Jogja and other cities until 500 km away from Kelud as well as covered Borobudur temple again as in eruption 2010. ... The color (of the ash, rmk) is white powder and some black particles inside as well that maybe there is some pyroxene (small black particles)." [moins]

BNPB (Civil protection) confirmed 3 fatalities (indirectly or directly) caused by the eruption: two as result of breathing difficulties caused by the ash, one as a road accident during evacuation. All of the victims were in Pandasari village less than 7 km from the volcano where 20 cm of ash has fallen. ...plus [lire toutes]

The ash plume from last night's major eruption (possibly sub-plinian or even plinian in size) of Kelut is drifting rapidly to the west above the Indian Ocean. It is estimated to be as high as 55,000 ft (16 km) and extends several hundred kilometers in both N-S and W-E directions. ...plus [lire toutes]

It seems that a large eruption started at the volcano at 23:29 local time today. VAAC Darwin reports an ash plume to 45,000 ft (15 km) altitude is drifting 50 nautical miles to the west of the volcano. The alert status was raised to the highest level. ...plus [lire toutes]

VSI raised the alert status to the second highest level 3 (out of 4), "Siaga" (meaning eruption warning). In its latest report, VSI informs that an ongoing slight deformation, suggesting magma intrusion, has been detected since September and that a strong increase in seismic activity started on 7 February. A seismic swarm occurred with hypocenters between 1.5-3.5 km depth beneath the summit area. ...plus

The alert level of the volcano was raised today from 1 ("normal") to 2 ("Waspada", "watch") on a scale of 1-4. During the second half of 2014, a strong increase in seismic activity and a 5.5 deg temperature increase of the crater lake water had been detected. ...plus [lire toutes]

CVGHM lowered the Alert Status of Kelut on 8 November from 4 to 3 (on a scale of 1-4), due to a decrease in seismicity and deformation. Temperatures of the crater lake were measured at 75 deg C on 6 Nov, and 150-210 deg C on the surface of the new lava dome. According to a local news article, a volcanologist reported that the lava dome was 250 m in diameter and 120 m above the crater lake surface. On 11 November, a plume rose to an altitude of 3.7 km (12,000 ft) a.s.l. and ashfall was reported in several areas.
CVGHM recommended that evacuees could return to their homes, but should stay clear of the mountain within a 3-km radius was restricted.

The Center of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (CVGHM) raised the altert status of Kelut volcano on 16 October from 3 to 4 (on a scale of 1-4). During 15-28 September, gas discharge from the crater lake increased and spread in a radius of 5 m. Inflation around the summit occurred during 13-16 October. On 16 October, the temperature in the crater lake increased to 37.8 degrees C.

...plus [lire toutes]