A Dacitic Lava Dome Complex – Santiaguito Volcano Eruption
Posted on 28. Apr, 2010 by thanate in News, Volcanic Eruptions
An eruption at Guatemala’s Santiaguito volcano has sent a plume of ash 27,300 feet above sea level with 4 faces of crater collapses and pyroclastic flows generated within the gullies on the southern flank. Calamity response agency spokesman David De Leon says the volcano has calmed since Monday’s big burst – though it is still seeing weak to moderate explosions. De Leon says the eruption damaged local flower harvests, but caused no injuries.
A similar eruption to this has not been seen since 1989. The ash is still scattered at 24,000 feet and civil aeronautics alerted air traffic to avoid the plume within a radius of 80 km. The agency says schools were closed in 10 communities as a precaution and flights have been banned for 12 miles around the volcano.
Santiaguito is a crater on the slope of the 12,375-foot Santa Maria volcano about 120 miles northwest of Guatemala City. Dome growth at Santiaguito has alternated between growth caused by the emission of lava flows, and inflation caused by the injection of magma into the middle of the dome. These dome growth types are described by volcanologists as exogenous and endogenous respectively. Activity has been concentrated at several different vents, and Santiaguito now has the appearance of several overlapping domes.
The areas to the south of Santa María are considerably affected by volcanic activity at Santiaguito. This topic is quite relevant at the moment because of the recent volcanic activity in Iceland. While the fissure that’s erupting at Eyjafjallajökull isn’t in danger of melting much ice, there are several other volcanoes that are, such as Katla volcano under the Mýrdalsjökull glacier. Since roughly 10% of Iceland is covered in glacial ice, and the country has more than 30 volcanoes that have been active in the last 10,000 years, this is a major concern.
Sources: magmacumlaude.blogspot.com, photovolcanica.com, wikipedia.org, washingtonpost.com
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