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Volcanology
Malang, Cilacap and Semarang airports reopened Saturday on the Indonesian island of Java after being forced to close following the eruption of Mount Kelud.
Correspondents say air quality has improved across Java, but cities and villages are still covered in a layer of dust and ash.
Tens of thousands remain in shelters, facing medicine and blanket shortages.
Mount Kelud spewed ash and debris over a large area on Friday, killing three people.
The volcano had been rumbling for several weeks before it erupted.
Authorities said they were not expecting another major tremor, because the patterns showed volcanoes tended to quieten down after a large eruption.
Malang, Cilacap and Semarang airports reopened on Java after being forced to close following the eruption of Mount Kelud
The airports shut down because of low visibility. There were also fears that debris could damage aircraft engines.
Some 75,000 people are estimated to have sought refuge in temporary shelters.
Officials raised an alert on Thursday about an hour before the volcano erupted.
They urged people living in 36 villages within 6 miles of the volcano to evacuate.
Officials said two people died when their homes caved in under the weight of gravel and ash.
The volcano last erupted in 1990, killing dozens of people. A powerful eruption in 1919 killed around 5,000 people.
Indonesia lies across a series of geological fault-lines and is prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
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Sinabung volcano has erupted on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, engulfing villages in ash and killing at least 14 people.
Mount Sinabung spewed hot gas, ash and rocks 1.5 miles into the air in a series of eruptions during the morning.
Emergency official Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said three schoolchildren and a teacher were among the dead.
Sinabung volcano has erupted on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, engulfing villages in ash and killing at least 14 people
Thousands of people were evacuated in September when Sinabung erupted after being dormant for three years. Many were allowed back to their homes on Friday.
Officials fear there may have been more casualties, but they cannot get closer because of the heat from the eruption.
Pictures taken at the scene showed rescue workers recovering bodies that were buried in ash.
When Sinabung volcano erupted in 2010, at least two people were killed and 30,000 others were displaced. Before 2010, Sinabung had not erupted in 400 years.
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El Salvador has resumed evacuating residents living on the slopes of the Chaparrastique volcano.
The 7,000 ft-high volcano started erupting on Sunday morning, spewing ash and gases.
Officials from the Salvadoran environment ministry said there was a risk the volcano could erupt again, this time emitting a lava flow.
The last time the Chaparrastique spewed lava was in 1976. It also caused a strong tremor in the area in 2010.
During Sunday’s eruption a 5,000m-high ash cloud rose from the cone of the volcano. Since then, it has been emitting gases.
Volcanologist Francisco Barahona of the University of El Salvador said that a further increase in the emission of sulphur dioxide could be a sign that another eruption was approaching.
Chaparrastique volcano started erupting on Sunday morning, spewing ash and gases
Another eruption “could trigger not ashes, but a lava flow”, Herman Rosa of the environment ministry said.
More than 2,000 people were evacuated after the first eruption on Sunday, but Civil Protection Director Jorge Melendez said almost half of them had decided to return to their homes against official advice.
Jorge Melendez said people had been “reluctant” to stay in the shelters provided, but he warned the authorities would use coercion in the case of an emergency.
Chaparrastique is one of more than 20 volcanoes in the small Central American nation.
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According to a scientific report, the supervolcano that lies beneath Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming is far larger than was previously thought.
A study shows that the magma chamber is about 2.5 times bigger than earlier estimates suggested.
A team found the cavern stretches for more than 55 miles and contains 48-144 cubic miles of molten rock.
The findings are being presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco.
Prof. Bob Smith, from the University of Utah, said: “We’ve been working there for a long time, and we’ve always thought it would be bigger… but this finding is astounding.”
If the Yellowstone supervolcano were to blow today, the consequences would be catastrophic.
The last major eruption, which occurred 640,000 years ago, sent ash across the whole of North America, affecting the planet’s climate.
Now researchers believe they have a better idea of what lies beneath the ground.
The team used a network of seismometers that were situated around the park to map the magma chamber.
Dr. Jamie Farrell, from the University of Utah, explained: “We record earthquakes in and around Yellowstone, and we measure the seismic waves as they travel through the ground.
“The waves travel slower through hot and partially molten material… with this, we can measure what’s beneath.”
The team found that the magma chamber was colossal. Reaching depths of between 1 to 9 miles, the cavern was about 55 miles long and 20 miles wide.
It pushed further into the north east of the park than other studies had previously shown, holding a mixture of solid and molten rock.
The supervolcano that lies beneath Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming is far larger than was previously thought
“Yes, it is a much larger system… but I don’t think it makes the Yellowstone hazard greater,” explained Prof. Bob Smith.
“But what it does tell us is more about the area to the north east of the caldera.”
He added that researchers were unsure when the supervolcano would blow again.
Some believe a massive eruption is overdue, estimating that Yellowstone’s volcano goes off every 700,000 years or so.
However, Prof. Bob Smith said more data was needed, because there had only been three major eruptions so far. These happened 2.1 million years ago, 1.3 million years ago and 640,000 years ago.
Mount Etna has erupted again, showering volcanic ash on towns dotting the mountain’s slopes and nearby Taormina.
Etna is Europe’s most active volcano erupting occasionally. Its last major eruption occurred in 1992.
Etna is Europe’s most active volcano erupting occasionally
The eruption Saturday did not force any evacuations, but a highway was closed for half an hour as a precaution. Italian authorities also briefly closed two of four air corridors serving the nearby Catania airport but air traffic was not interrupted.
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Europe’s tallest and most active volcano Mount Etna has sent a tower of sparks and fire into the sky around it as it started to erupt on Saturday.
Europe’s tallest and most active volcano Mount Etna has sent a tower of sparks and fire into the sky around it as it started to erupt on Saturday
The plume of ash rising from Mount Etna can be seen across much of eastern Sicily. Its eruptions are not infrequent, but the last major one occurred in 1992. The latest eruption was preceded by a series of underground tremors on Friday.
The nearest airport and airspace in Italy were forced to close temporarily but none of the villages on the slopes of the mountain have been forced to evacuate so far.
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