India’s only live volcano in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands was inactive for more than 150 years has once again started spewing smoke and lava.
This Barren Island volcano is located 140 km northeast of Port Blair. It was last active in 1991, since then it continues to show intermittent activity.
The volcanic island is uninhabited; its northern part is barren and devoid of vegetation.
According to experts, it was on the afternoon of January 23, 2017 when the volcano unexpectedly started spewing ash. It was erupting in small episodes which lasted for about five to ten minutes.
During daytime, only ash clouds were observed. Clouds were witnessed at the crater mouth where the smoke was bellowing out in otherwise clear sky.
The reason for these volcanoes is the rising magma which forms deep in the mantle due to the melting of the subducted Indian Ocean crust.
However, after sundown, red lava fountains spewing from the crater into the atmosphere and hot lava streamed down the slopes of the volcano.
The experts revisited the site in the early hours of January 26, 2017 and saw continuation of spurts of blasts and smoke.
The research team sampled the sediments and water in the vicinity of the volcano to find out the nature of present and past volcanic activity in the region. For this, they recovered coal-like black pyroclastic material representing proximal volcanic ejecta.
Image Credit: volcanohotspot.files.wordpress.com
