India’s only active volcano, the Barren Island volcano, in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, has begun to spew lava and ash.
The volcanic eruption could be linked to the recent earthquake that rocked Indonesia in Southeast Asia, according to geologists.
“The volcanic eruption was first evidenced on September 25 and the satellite images confirmed the spewing of lava or pyroclastic material and ash on the north flank of the island,” TOI reported, quoting the Geological Survey of India (GSI) officials as saying.
“There have been many instances of volcanic eruptions which were preceded by mild intensity earthquakes. The source of trigger may be the same as the location of Sulawesi Island, which was hit by earthquake recently, is not very far away,” the officials further said.
The GSI, however, did not deny that it could just be a coincidence and the two may be separate and simultaneous events and the source may be different. “Only a detailed study can ascertain the cause of the eruption,” Tapan Pal, director, PSS, GSI, northeast region said.
What more. Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, a government agency that monitors earthquakes and releases bulletins, have recorded magnitude between 4.3 and 4.9 in the Indonesian region of Southeast Asia in the days preceding the volcanic eruption from the Barren Island.
On September 28, an earthquake of 7.5 magnitude hit near Sulawesi Island in Indonesia, killing more than 1,500 people.
“The entire zone is tectonically quite active. As a matter of fact, Indian plate is subducting below Burma plate and the Indonesian plate is subducting under the Australian plate. The oceanic crust melt and migrates upwards until it erupts when the subduction is continuous,” Pal further explained, as for a possible cause of the eruption recorded in September end.
The last recorded volcanic eruption on Barren Island was in February 2016.
The GSI official said the 2005 eruption occurred almost a year after the 2004 tsunami that was triggered by an earthquake in Indonesia.
As per an Indian Space Research Organsiation (ISRO) study, scientists have concluded the volcanic spewing that occurred in 2017 was a continuation of the eruption that took place in 2005. Scientists used satellite data to understand the changes in the volcanic region in terms of shape, area and path of lava flows between the years 2005 and 2017.
