The Japanese Sakurajima volcano erupted on April 6th sending plumes of ashes into the sky. I didn't even see it in the news. There were 15 explosions between the 2nd and the 6th of April.
It was in a report of weekly volcanic activity on the website Volcano Discovery. What a website - packed full of stuff. It does not have the look and feel of other websites, so I checked it out. This is what it has to say about itself:
"www.VolcanoDiscovery.comis a complex website with many facets: - First of all, it represents the (very) small private tour operator company, founded by Dr. Tom Pfeiffer back in 2004, which offers geologic-interest walking and study tours and expeditions to active volcanoes world-wide. - In addition, this website has grown a lot with a large section about volcanoes, volcano news, volcano photos and recently, earthquakes all over the world."
I find out that there are 20 volcanoes actively erupting on any particular day in the world. So far there have been 49 confirmed eruption during 2020 from 49 different volcanoes. They are in France, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the Philippines, Japan, United States, Russia, and so on. While it seems a lot, volcanic activity hasn't not been increasing over time.
The authority on the subject is the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program - which is HERE. They maintain a database of volcanoes along with activity. While the Sakurajima eruption isn't listed on the activity page, the site message is that due to COVID-19 they are working from home.
I wonder about volcano jokes. I can't imagine a topic without its own jokes. Here are three for volcanoes.
A man phoned to find out whether he could get insurance if the nearby volcano erupted. They assured him he would be covered.
Scientists say that the Yellowstone super-volcano is overdue for an eruption. Apparently the volcano has eruptile dysfunction.
What kind of dessert comes out of a musical volcano? Bach Lava
I went looking through my database for any volcano abstracts. There is quite a selection - rust, peeling paint and scratches on all kinds of surfaces.
