Today, the eruption continues with steady lava fountaining from the lower vent and strong degassing and ash emission from the upper vents, but is much less noisy compared to yesterday, to the relief of people living in the area many of whom were terrorized by the extreme noise of the eruption in recent days.
The decrease of sound intensity is however not an indication of what state the eruption is in its deeper underground. It is mostly reflecting how gasses can escape and interact with the ambient air at the very surface. The decrease of eruption sound is likely due to an enlargement of the upper conduits after several collapses and other changes occurred at the vents, which now are in a more stable configuration to allow the passage of magma in a more unobstructed way. It probably has no significance as to the eruption's effusion rate, which continued to be very high. The past day's activity changed the morphology of the main cone quite a bit, by accumulation of falling material from the mountains, as well as overlapping lava flows.
0 Comments