Residents of Sicily, Italy found themselves being covered by a rain of volcanic rock after Mount Etna erupted Tuesday.
The volcano sent molten lava thousands of feet into the air and sent thick ash clouds for miles in all directions. The eruption also appeared to cause a change in the mountain’s vents resulting in the production of perfect steam rings.
Residents of the city posted videos online showing a clear blue sky as rocks rained down on villages. The eruption caused so much ash to fly into the nearby water that the ocean has turned black.
‘The ash is not heavy but it’s extremely sharp. Many cars got scratched and windshields got chipped as the stones are quite big,” resident Turi Scandurra told the Daily Mail. ‘None of us were scared because Etna always reminds us of its presence. Sometimes you can hear it thundering and your windows vibrating – even the doors inside the house shudder.’
The volcano last had a major eruption in 1992 but regularly had a series of smaller events. The volcano had been in a quiet period over the summer.
Indonesian officials are scrambling to evacuate residents still surrounding Mount Sinabung as eruptions continue to grow stronger throughout the day.
The eruptions send lava and searing hot gases rushing a mile down the mountain’s slopes and shot volcanic rock at much as 6,500 feet into the air. Authorities have raised the warning level for the mountain to its highest level and warned aircraft to avoid the area.
Officials say at least 15,000 people have now been taken out of a zone three miles wide around the entire mountain.
A local farmer who fled the exclusion zone with his family said that hot ash and gravel began to rain down on his village in the early morning hours.
The eruptions are having a devastating impact on farming in the area. Farmers as far as 45 miles from the volcano’s crater are reporting hot ash falling and coating their crops.
Two volcanoes in Indonesia have erupted sending thousands fleeing and destroying entire crops.
Mount Sinabung first erupted Thursday in the early morning hours sending a plume of ash 23,000 feet into the air in the Karo region of North Sumatra. The mountain then erupted again just before noon with an ash plume that rose 16,400 feet.
Government officials rushed at least 5,500 residents away from the area.
Then today Mount Sinabung was the second Indonesia volcano to erupt in a span of hours. Mount Merapi exploded just before 5 a.m. local time send a plume of ash 6500 feet into the air. Hours later, Mount Sinabung erupted stronger than ever with an ash cloud rising 26,500 feet into the air.
The Indonesian Transportation Ministry has issued a statement to all airlines telling them to avoid the airspace surrounding the volcanoes because of the ash and their current instability.
The ash from the volcanoes has destroyed the crops of farmers surrounding the mountain who depend on their crops to live. A local farmer told the Jakarta Globe the losses to farmers in the region could end up in the billions. He said some of the farm land has been so damaged by the volcanoes they can no longer be used for farming.
Indonesia is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Red-hot ash and volcanic rock rained down from Mount Sinabung in Sumatra Sunday forcing thousands to flee the mountain’s wrath.
The mountain erupted shortly before dawn Sunday morning. Continue reading →
One Japan’s most active volcanoes erupted in one of its largest eruptions Sunday.
The volcano shot an ash plume at least 16,000 feet into the air according to the Kagoshima Local Meteorological Observatory. The plume was the largest recorded plume in the volcano’s history. (Records began in 1955.) Large rocks were spotted flying from the mouth of the volcano. Continue reading →
Four adults and two children were killed when Mount Rokatenda suddenly erupted Saturday morning. The eruption blew volcanic rock over a mile into the air.
The volcano covered a beach with hot ash killing the six. Officials had issued a mandatory evacuation order for the area when the volcano began to show activity last year. An almost two mile exclusion zone was routinely ignored by locals who had begun to accept the rumbling of the volcano was just normal and believed no eruption was about to happen. Continue reading →
The northernmost active volcano in Russia erupted Monday sending ash shooting three miles into the sky.
The Shiveluch volcano has been active since May 2009. Continue reading →
One of Indonesia’s most dangerous volcanoes shot a plume of ash and sand over half a mile into the sky forcing hundreds of villagers to flee into the night.
Mount Merapi, located near Yogyakarta, produced a short but massive rumbling before dawn Monday and spewed the ash cloud for hours. The ash fell as far as 8.5 miles from the volcano before activity ceased Monday afternoon. Continue reading →
Hundreds of people have been evacuated after the Tungurahua volcano erupted Wednesday.
The volcano shot an ash plume over three miles into the air. Continue reading →
Officials in the region surrounding the Popocatepetl volcano are on heightened alert due to a small earthquake and increasing emissions from the volcano.
The alert level has been raised to Yellow-3, the third highest level on the country’s seven-stage warning scale. Continue reading →
