Eruptions Newsletter #1.5 for March 7, 2025

You might be wondering “wait, I thought Erik said weekly newsletter. This is the second this week!” You’d be right! However, because my plan is to normally have the newsletter come out on Fridays. So, rather than have everyone wait until next Friday, I thought why not start out with two this week.

Activity News

Kīlauea, Hawai’i

2025 continues to be an exciting year to watch Kīlauea in Hawai’i as the latest eruption episode (#12) roared in the Halema’uma’u caldera until Wednesday (3/5) afternoon. That eruption produced lava fountains that reached 80 meters (250 feet), some of the tallest of the resurgence of activity. Fountains like this are relatively common during eruptions at volcanoes like Kīlauea.

Interestingly, the latest report from the USGS Hawaii Volcano Observatory says “a new episode is expected in the next 5-7 days.” This suggests that they have developed a pattern in the activity right now, possibly controlled by the rate of magma rising into the upper parts of the volcano. The USGS webcam tends to do a good job of letting you watch all the action.

The eruption episodes have been as short as 13 hours and as long as 8 days with pauses anywhere from 24 hours to 12 days. As HVO continues to collect data on earthquakes, deformation and gas emissions at Kīlauea, it will be fascinating to see what sort of insights they can glean about harbingers of each new episode.

Mt. Adams, Washington

The spate of small earthquake swarms at Mount Adams in southern Washington appears to be continuing. The latest flurry in January 2025 has prompted an update of the eruption response plan for both Mount Adams and its neighbor, Mount St. Helens.

Now, these swarms at Adams are small in the grand scheme of volcanic seismicity. The most recent swarm in January was six measured earthquakes. Usually a volcano heading towards a new eruption would be feeling hundreds or thousands of earthquakes. However, because Adams had been so quiet for decades, with only 1-2 earthquakes a year, multiple bouts of temblors in the last six month — albeit them small — is still a concern.

Before the current presidential administration made this nearly impossible, three new seismometers were installed by the USGS on Adams to help keep track of and locate the earthquakes. Knowing the depth of the earthquakes is vital information for understanding how the potential unrest at a volcano like Adams might be changing as well as what might be the cause.

Poás and Turrialba, Costa Rica

After a few years of quiet, both Poás and Turrialba in Costa Rica have rumbled back to activity. Both of these volcanoes have the potential for explosive eruptions. However, when you look back at their activity for the past century, what you see is lots of small (VEI 1-2) eruptions. Turrialba has a couple VEI 3 eruptions over that span, most recently in 2015.

Most of the current activity at Poás is steam-driven (phreatic) so far. However, the strong sulfur odors and earthquakes suggest that magma is likely rising up within the volcano according to OVSICORI, the Costa Rican volcano monitoring agency.

Over at Turrialba, small collapses within the main crater have been producing small ash blasts. There was some incandescence spotted in the crater of Turrialba, betraying that magma appears to be at/near the surface. However, all activity so far has been mild with plumes only reaching ~100 meters.

For the uninitiated, VEI is “Volcanic Explosivity Index”. Even a VEI 3 eruption is fairly small. They happen multiple times a year across the planet on average. If you’re not someone who thinks about large volumes of stuff much of the time, saying that a VEI 3 eruption is marked by “>10⁷ m³ ” of volcanic ejecta (material erupted) can be somewhat meaningless. So, in an attempt to help understand the volumes present in the VEI, I’ve decided to offer some "every day” comparisons.

An Every Day Volcanic Explosivity Index

A couple notes on this table. First (*), by frequency I mean a rough estimation of how often they occur on our planet. It does not mean that they will happen in that frequency or if they haven’t then we’re “overdue”.

Second (**), VEI 9 is a little bit hypothetical. I did list Toba in Indonesia becuase the Younger Toba Tuff is thought to have been at least 2,800 km³ , which is much more than 1,000 km³ (VEI 8). Another example might be the Huckleberry Ridge eruption from Yellowstone 2.1 million years ago. However, VEI 9 eruptions are a bit in the realm of the unknown in the last ~74,000 years.

Lastly(***), when we’re talking volume, we’re thinking about total erupted across an “eruptive episode”. So, this isn’t a rate as such (like cubic meters per day). Now, this is tricky because some volcanoes might be erupting almost constantly. Others might have a sequence of blasts closely spaced in time. The determination of what constitutes an “eruptive episode” is a little bit in the eye of the beholder.

Once volumes get over ~10 cubic kilometers, it is really hard to think of rationalize those sorts of sizes. Our human brains aren’t designed to think about such huge volumes (like we have trouble with deep time). However, our planet’s processes occur on such enormous scales, so we do the best we can.

Volcano Research

Nothing for this second newsletter of the week.

Odds & Ends

I was hoping to fill the “Odds & Ends” would have fun stuff, but the world of science has got a lot of unpleasant events right now. At this moment, the leases for the buildings that both the Hawaii Volcano Observatory (currently in Hilo) and Alaska Volcano Observatory (in Anchorage) are on the chopping block by the Trump administration. Needless to say, this would be a tragedy for volcano science as it would imply that these observatories would have to close and/or relocate their staff. AVO does have some facilities in Fairbanks, but HVO needs to be on the Big Island and ideally near the National Park. The past HVO building was deemed too close to the activity at Kīlauea, so they are currently in a new space.

Sounds of the Week

So, the first of these was definitely geologically-focused, but it won’t always be that way. For example, this one! My favorite performances by a drummer, one of the more underappreciated members of your average band. I’ll be the first to admit that my taste in drumming might be somewhat unsophisticated (sorry, I’m sure Gene Krupa deserves better).

Nine Inch Nails: March of the Pigs - So, in high school, I hung out with a lot of the “music” kids even though I don’t have a lick of musical talent. Anyway, one of them was obsessed with the fact that the verse portion of “March of the Pigs” is in 7/8 time. Now, I can’t keep a beat, so I marvel at the fact that Chris Vrenna is able to do this (and this video version is a live recording, so he is playing … it ain’t no drum machine).

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Maps - One of the key elements of “Maps” is how flippin’ effortless it sounds. It is one of those songs that feels like it has been in existence since the dawn of time. The first thing you hear is Nick Zinner’s bumblebee trill on the guitar but the first you notice — I mean, really internalize — is Brian Chase’s drums. I’d argue that they really carry much of the load of the song, allowing Karen O’s vocals to be that much more dynamic.

Millencolin: Friends ‘til the End - I imagine that many of you will come out of this list thinking that I am unreasonably impressed by fast drumming. That’s because I am! I make no apologies.

Queens of the Stone Age: No One Knows If you watch the video, you should likely recognize that the drummer in QoTSA for “No One Knows” is none other than Dave Grohl. He happened to be in another moderately-well-known rock band in the 1990s as well.

The Walkmen: The Rat - There is no better performance by a drummer. Matt Barrick is a man possessed … by drums.

Questions? Comments? Thoughts? Feel free to send me a note or follow me on Bluesky (@erikklemetti.bsky.social).