INSIVUMEH reported that on 8 August an 18-m-wide hot lahar triggered by rainfall descended the Cabello de Ángel drainage, a tributary of the Nimá I river drainage on the S flank of Santa María’s Santiaguito lava-dome complex, carrying tree trunks and blocks up to 1.5 cm in diameter. Explosions during 8-9 August produced ash plumes that rose as high as 1 km above the crater and drifted 15 km SW, W, and NW.

Geological Summary. Symmetrical, forest-covered Santa María volcano is part of a chain of large stratovolcanoes that rise above the Pacific coastal plain of Guatemala. The sharp-topped, conical profile is cut on the SW flank by a 1.5-km-wide crater. The oval-shaped crater extends from just below the summit to the lower flank, and was formed during a catastrophic eruption in 1902. The renowned Plinian eruption of 1902 that devastated much of SW Guatemala followed a long repose period after construction of the large basaltic-andesite stratovolcano. The massive dacitic Santiaguito lava-dome complex has been growing at the base of the 1902 crater since 1922. Compound dome growth at Santiaguito has occurred episodically from four vents, with activity progressing E towards the most recent, Caliente. Dome growth has been accompanied by almost continuous minor explosions, with periodic lava extrusion, larger explosions, pyroclastic flows, and lahars.

Source: Instituto Nacional de Sismologia, Vulcanologia, Meteorologia, e Hidrologia (INSIVUMEH)