Activity on Mount Chaparrastique, El Savador.

The Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales in El Salvador recorded the first in a series of Earthquakes beneath Mount Chaparrastique, a volcano in the east of the country, on 22 December 2015. Earthquakes beneath volcanoes are of great interest to volcanologists, as they may indicate the movement of magma into chambers beneath the volcano, which may in turn be indicative of forthcoming eruptions. The level of seismic activity beneath the volcano increased through the reaminder of December and the first two weeks of January 2016, culminating in a series of ash and gas emissions on Wednesday 13 January, when the volcano began to produce a series of thin plumes of ash and gas. The largest of these so far reaches a height of about 1.2-1.5 km at about 5.20 am local time on Thursday 14 January, though they are ongoing.

A thin ash plume over Mount Chaparrastique on Saturday 16 January 2016. Josué Serpas/La Presna Grafica.

El Salvador, and neighbouring Central American states, lie on the Caribbean Plate. To the south of Central America the Coccos Plate, which underlies an area of the east Pacific, is being subducted beneath the Caribbean Plate along the Middle American Trench. As the plate is subducted it is partially melted by the friction and the heat of the planet's interior, giving rise to liquid magma which rises through the Caribbean Plate to fuel the volcanoes of Central America.

See also...

One dead after Central American Earthquake.                                                  The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 7.3 Earthquake at a depth of 40 km, roughly 67 km offshore of the Nicaraguan coastal resort...

Volcanic activity on Chaparrastique provokes evacuations.                                               About 1400 people have been evacuated from villages near Chaparrastique, a 2141 m volcano in eastern El Salvador, following increased seismic activity in the past week. A series of Earthquakes...

Thousands evacuated after eruption on Mount Chaparrastique, El Salvador.      Authorities in El Salvador have evacuated around 5000 people from a 3 km exclusion zone around Mount Chaparrastique, a volcano in the east of the...

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