Eruption of Kadovar Is the First Surprise of 2018
By
Erik Klemetti | January 6, 2018 4:00 pm
20
UPDATE JANUARY 7, 2018: It appears that the
500-600 residents of the island have been evacuated, but details are sparse. Local reports suggest that
half the island is covered in “lava”. I think this is actually a mistranslation or misunderstanding and that this really means covered in ash or volcanic debris. With the potential for pyroclastic flows hitting the sea around the island or even a landslide from the volcano failing, the
Rabaul Volcano Observatory has warned that there is a potential for a tsunami to be generated if the eruption continues.
Strange Sounds@Strange_Sounds
First known
#eruption of
#Kadovar #volcano in Papua New Guinea
#PNG prompts
#evacuation of 500 people after sending a column of ash 7000 feet in the air
http://strangesounds.org/2018/01/kadovar-volcano-first-known-eruption-papua-new-guinea-evacuation-picture-video.html … via
@Strange_Sounds
Video of the eruption taken from a small airplane shows the dark grey plume (along with a white steam plume) from the crater. Much of the island looks to be coated in grey ash in the video and trees on the side facing the airplane looked to be stripped of foliage as well. Some areas looked like they may have already seen some minor pyroclastic flow activity as well. Local reports also mention ash falling on the nearby islands as well.
Kadovar is an andesitic volcano, so the lavas erupted are relatively sticky, meaning we likely could expect dome growth followed by collapse generating pyroclastic flows from the volcano if the eruption continues. This would be similar to the nearby PNG volcano
Manam and
Karkar. There are
no confirmed historic eruptions from Kadovar, so there was little in the way of monitoring for the volcano prior to these new ash emissions.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/r.../kadovar-eruption-surprise-2018/#.WlJPqa5l-aE