series of huge hot avalanches generate huge plumes of ash rising 5 km in the sky / VolcanoDiscovery

Sinabung hot avalanche and ash plume earlier today (image: VSI press release)

Sinabung’s undulating ash plume (image: Nachelle Homestay / twitter)

A major collapse of the active lava dome generated a huge pyroclastic flow this morning, which traveled about 5 km and generated a huge ash cloud that also rose about 5 km above the volcano.
During the period from January to March 1, 2021, the volcano observatory recorded 37 explosive eruptions, resulting in columns of ash reaching up to 1000 m from the top of the volcano. Small to medium-sized pyroclastic flows (avalanches of hot material caused by collapses on the unstable flanks of the dome) have been reaching distances of 1500-2500 meters from the summit towards the east, southeast and south.
However, this morning’s event far surpassed anything seen in the volcano in recent years: starting at 06:42 local time, a series of collapse events triggered hot avalanches that traveled from 2,000 to 5,000 m to the southeast and east, with columns ash rising 4,000 to 5,000 m from the body of the hot avalanche cloud (known as phoenix clouds). As of 8:20 am local time, the volcano observatory reported a total of 13 of these pyroclastic flows.
Fortunately, there are no reports of deaths or injuries – all affected areas have been devastated by previous events in recent years, since the volcano’s awakening in 2013.
Impressive photos of the events can be found all over the web, especially on social networks like Twitter: