Eruptions Newsletter #6 for April 17, 2025

Activity News

So, instead of focusing on one specific volcano, I want to talk a bit about all the eruptions on Earth right now. There are many times that the media picks up on 2-3 eruptions and will portray this as “lots of activity”, which is clearly not the case.

The Global Volcanism Program keeps a list of what they consider “continuing eruptions”. As they mention, it “does not always mean persistent daily activity, but indicates at least intermittent eruptive events without a break of 3 months or more.” So, this list can be seen as one of volcanoes in states of very high unrest with intermittent to continuous eruption.

As of today (April 17, 2025), there are 45 “continuous” eruptions on Earth. Here is a list of the country’s that are home to these volcanoes ranked by number of erupting volcanoes.

• 8: Indonesia

• 3: USA, Papua New Guinea

• 2: Nicaragua, Russia, Tonga, Philippines, Italy, Ecuador, DR Congo, Japan, Guatemala

• 1: Costa Rica, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Tanzania, Peru, Chile, Colombia, United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, Antarctica, Ethiopia, Vanuatu

A couple things stand out. First, Indonesia has the most by a country mile. Eight different volcanoes are erupting including ones with more than one million people living within 100 kilometers. For many people in Indonesia, erupting volcanoes are a way of living, not a rare event.

It is not surprising to see PNG as the next on the list as it really represents an extension of the Indonesian arc to the east. The USA’s appearance on this list is a mix of Alaska, Hawai`i and the Mariana Islands, so mainly far away from people’s everyday consciousness beyond webcam views of the 18th eruption since Kīlauea had its summit revival earlier in the year.

The rest are spread out all over the planet, although South America and the western Pacific are well represented. If you’re wondering, the volcanoes in the UK and Australia are remote islands in the Indian Ocean.

The long and short is that our planet is remarkably active in terms of volcanism! Don’t get too concerned by any headlines that suggest that a few news-worthy eruptions are a sign of “increasing activity”.

Volcano Word of the Week

This week’s word is volcanic glass. What’s volcanic glass? Well, that is just magma that cooled so rapidly that no crystals formed, so instead you have a jumbled mix of chains of elements in the hardened/cooled magma.

The most familiar volcanic glass to most people is obsidian, which is produced by rapidly cooling (or gas poor) high silica magma like rhyolite. However, volcanic glass forms from all magma composition, so things like pele’s hair and pele’s tears in Hawaiian eruptions are formed from low silica basalt magma.

Likely the most important volcanic eruption product from volcanic glass is volcanic ash. Instead of ash you might get from burning wood, volcanic ash has nothing to do with burning but rather blowing apart rapidly cooling magma. You end up with tiny shards of glass (like in the SEM image below) that get carried aloft and then rain down onto the landscape as they travel away from the volcano.

That’s why volcanic ash is so dangerous: you are literally breathing is pieces of glass! When they get in your lungs, they act like little scalpels that cut up your lung. They can also mix with fluids in your lungs to form a cement. It can also be hot (but doesn’t need to be hot). If you’re somewhere that volcanic ash is a hazard, take it seriously! It isn’t like fire ash that will merely coat the inside of your throat and lungs - volcanic ash will cut you up on the insides.

Odds & Ends

The last few weeks have not been great for science journalism. Between the Dire Wolf kerfuffle, the K2-8b argle-bargle and the foofarall related to Mount Spurr (see below), it feels like we’ll fallen back into some crazy, cringe-worthy headlines that are wildly inaccurate.

I saw the following headlines about the current unrest at Mount Spurr in Alaska this week:

There is no “terror” in Anchorage and getting dust masks in case of an eruption is not “extreme lengths”. Also, “huge volcano”? Are any volcanoes not huge compared to human size scales?

“Mega volcano”? That’s a new one. Spurr is your average, run-of-the-mill arc volcano like dozens and dozens of others in Alaska and around the globe. And maybe you’re a light sleeper?

Again, preparation isn’t a bad thing!

For context, this is current status at Mount Spurr according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory: “The modest changes in monitoring data over the past month suggest that the likelihood of an eruption has decreased, and the inability to measure gas has made it more difficult to assess the current state of the volcano. However, the current level of unrest remains above background, monitoring data show the presence of magma under the volcano, and an eruption is still possible. If an eruption were to occur, an explosive eruption (or eruptions) like those that occurred in 1953 and 1992 is the most likely outcome.”

Don’t believe the unnecessary hype that certain news sources lean into when it comes to volcanic unrest/crises. People are right to prepare but we are far from “chaos”.

Oh yes, and Lava Chicken anyone?

Sounds of the Week

This week’s sounds aren’t thematic with this week’s newsletter (and no, Lava Chicken is not part of this). However, they were the songs I was listening to when I wrote it, so that counts for something. And hey, they are all linked. Maybe you can figure out how.

I learned this week that this song is the source of the drum loop Beck used for “Loser”. It is a massive banger.

To the surprise of people who have known me for a long time, I am a big fan of Grand Funk Railroad. Sure, they aren’t a “good” bad in the sense of a creative whirlwind like the Who or Led Zeppelin, but they do “rock out”.

Another song, another source of a well known beat. This one is easier to ID as the song that sampled it has the same name.

I promise you, I did not plan this.

I have very strong memories of the “They’re Coming to America”-era Neil Diamond being played from the AM radio (WBZ!) in my kitchen when I was a kid. I assumed for a long time that all Neil Diamond songs were as schmaltzy and bad like that one, but a surprisingly large part of his early stuff is much, much cooler.

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