Which Volcanoes Will Erupt This Year?

After 50 days of silence, Sicily’s Mt. Etna rang in the New Year with a new eruption the morning of January 5. Plumes of black ash and lava rose 5,000 meters high in a style reminiscent of the volcano’s 18 eruptions last year.

Etna was not the first volcano to wake up in the first days of 2012 (scroll down for our Top Five New Eruptions of 2012), but it was certainly the most spectacular. Etna's snow-capped slopes enhanced the beauty of these latest fireworks; the snow also made the eruption smokier than some.

Europe’s tallest and most active volcano, Etna got its explosive start about half a million years ago as a series of submarine eruptions off the ancient coastline of Sicily. The restless mountain rose to its current grandeur via the accumulation of layer upon layer of erupted debris.

A similar process is just getting underway off the coast of El Hierro in Spain's Canary Islands, where ongoing eruptions are just beginning to break the ocean surface:

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• Ecological Footprint
• Effects of Global Warming

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This past week’s report from the Smithsonian/USGS Global Volcanism Program listed nine ongoing eruptions from last year, including El Hierro and Kilauea, on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Note that Germany's Laacher See was NOT on the official list of new activity, despite a recent Daily Mail story suggesting otherwise.

TOP 5 NEW ERUPTIONS OF 2012

1. Etna (Italy): Plumes of black ash and lava began erupting in the early morning hours of January 5.
2. Lewotolo (Indonesia):  Earthquakes intensified on January 2, following a month of white plumes rising 50 to 250 meters above the mountain’s summit; local officials raised the alert level from 1 to 3 in response to this change in activity.
3. Tungurahua (Ecuador): A plume of gas and steam plume rose 200 meters above the crater on January 3. Explosions the previous week blanketed nearby villages with ash 2 to 4 millimeters deep.
4. Galeras (Colombia): A webcam showed gas emissions, with steam rising from three separate craters.
5. Callaqui (Chile): A pilot reported an ash plume above the volcano on January 2, but scientists could not confirm the presence of ash in satellite imagery under clear skies.

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