Sunday 31 May 2015

May 2015 volcano eruption

Réunion's volcano, Piton de la Fournaise, erupted for the second time this year on May 17th and continued erupting for two weeks until yesterday, May 30th. During the 13 days the eruption lasted at least 8 million cubic metres of lava were ejected, which corresponds to the volume normally ejected over a period of 20 days. The volcanic cone which has formed has a volume of 400,000 cubic metres, or 13 Olympic swimming pools!

Here are some photos and videos of the eruption. 

This AFP photo by Richard Bouhet was widely distributed
by the international media

© Drone copters

© Lionel Ghighi

© Sebastien Conejero

© Sebastien Conejero

Note that one of Reunion's Volcano Observatory four webcams was directed towards the eruption (bottom right-hand corner).

screenshot of the Volcano observatory webcam (source)


Update: the photo below, by Pierre Choukroun, was photo of the day for June 16th on the website Volcano Discovery.