As of November 21st, 2021, there are 49 volcanoes
which are actively erupting. These include volcanoes such as Masaya in
Nicaragua, which is a caldera volcano that has been producing a low intensity eruption
since 2015. It also includes Ol Doinyo Lengai in Tanzania,
which produces rare earth element enriched black lava that cools as a white color. With this being said, here are a few of this
week's major volcano related news stories. In Turkey, scientists rushed to add seismic
monitoring stations to a highly explosive volcano after a major volcanic earthquake
occurred. Meanwhile in Iceland, a major glacial flood
is about to occur from the Grimsvotn volcano, which could then even trigger a volcanic eruption. But first, a quick update of the Taal volcano
in the Philippines. During a 28-hour period from November 15th
to November 17th, the acidic crater lake of Taal produced three small phreatomagmatic
explosions due to the presence of shallow magma. This occurred alongside the presence of significant
sulfur dioxide emissions, totaling more than 10,000 metric tons of the gas per day. Since then, emissions have continued to decrease
by 75%, representing a decreasing amount of shallow magma. With this being said, three more small phreatomagmatic
explosions occurred on November 22nd at 8:11 am, 8:17 pm, and 8:34 pm. At the present, a large volcanic eruption
is not to be expected, but more small phreatic bursts are possible. In Turkey, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck
adjacent to the city of Derbent on November 8th. Although some damage was done to structures,
it was relatively minor and thus the event was forgotten about. Then, a professor of seismology analyzed the
earthquake and concluded that this was no tectonic earthquake. Rather, it was most likely volcanic in origin,
due to the intrusion of magma at a depth of 10 kilometers in the crust. This claim did not gain much attention until
a series of low magnitude earthquakes began at one of the region's most explosive volcanoes,
Hasan Dagi. Hasan Dagi is a lava dome complex volcano
which in a manner of speaking is very similar to the Lassen Peak complex in California. It has been active for several million years
and each of its eruptions are highly explosive, producing long reaching pyroclastic flows
and emplacing thick dacite lava domes. The overall volcano has partially collapsed
into a caldera at least 4 times, proving that at times an unusually large underground magma
chamber has been present. Although still largely debated, Neolithic
era cave paintings dated to 6750 BC depict this volcano producing a major eruption. Contemporary evidence of this event alongside
another potential eruption in 7550 BC has since been found. Thus, if Hasan Dagi was to erupt, it would
produce a plinian style explosive eruption, with a minimum VEI of a 4. This volcano has a long period of dormancy
between its major eruptions, and it appears that we are approaching the beginning phase
of one such cycle. With this being said, the odds of an imminent
eruption are incredibly slim. However, there is a legitimate possibility
that this volcano could erupt in the next 5 years, and as a result more seismic stations
have been placed around the volcano. In Iceland, a volcano which has been at a
raised alert level for several months, Grimsvotn just had a major development. Part of its thick glacier covered edifice
subsided by a whopping 140 centimeters in only 3 days. The cause of this sudden drop is not a volcanic
eruption, but rather due to the unexpectedly rapid melting of a section of glacier. This melting occurred due to increased fumarole
related activity which generated sufficient heat to melt enough ice to form 1 cubic kilometer
of liquid water. A significant portion of this water will soon
escape the overall volcano, creating a catastrophic glacial flood known as a jökulhlaup. This imminent flood could become the largest
such flood of the 21st century so far in Iceland. With this being said, this imminent flood
could actually cause a volcanic eruption. If enough material is removed overlying the
caldera, it can cause the crust to rebound upwards, thus allowing magma to erupt onto
the surface. Examples of jökulhlaup triggered eruptions
occurred in 1922, 1934, and 2004. Thus, in the next 2 weeks we need to keep
a very close eye on this highly explosive stratovolcano, which last erupted in 2011. Here is a quick list of every volcano which
is currently erupting. Additionally, here are some volcanoes at raised
alert statuses which are not erupting but could erupt relatively soon. I hope that you enjoyed this video. If you would like to request a specific topic
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