************************************ Piton de la Fournaise From: Thomas Staudacher <staud@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> ************************************ After one month of very high activity, the eruption at Piton de la Fournaise, which started on April 2nd in the Grand Brûlé at 650 m altitude, finally stopped on May 1st. The debit at certain moments was estimated between 100 and 200 m^3 per second and the lava flows covered an area of about 4 km^2, with up to 30 or 40 m thick lava. A platform of about 35000 m^2 was build on the sea and first estimations of the erupted volume amount to 120 x 10^6 m^3 , which ranges this eruption between one of the largest known historical eruptions at Piton de la Fournaise. During this eruption, the whole Dolomieu crater collapsed, the depth of which we now determined more precisely between 350 and 360 m, and landslides of the crater walls occur almost permanently. Presently, seismic activity beneath Piton de la Fournaise is still high, with abundant earthquakes at 1 to 7 km below sea level, which might indicate a re- alimentation of the magma chamber and possibly further eruptions. Thomas Staudacher OVPF/IPGP _________________________________________________________________ Thomas Staudacher Observatoire volcanologique du Piton de la Fournaise Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris 14 RN3, le 27ème km F-97418 La Plaine des Cafres, La Réunion tél +262(0)262 27 52 92, fax +262(0)262 59 12 04 _________________________________________________________________ ============================================================== To unsubscribe from the volcano list, send the message: signoff volcano to: listserv@xxxxxxx, or write to: volcano-request@xxxxxxxx To contribute to the volcano list, send your message to: volcano@xxxxxxxx Please do not send attachments. ==============================================================
