OVPF reported that a seismic crisis at Piton de la Fournaise began at 0623 on 19 September. Volcanic tremor located beneath the SSW part of the caldera began at 0748, likely signifying the arrival of magma at the surface, though weather clouds prevented visual confirmation from webcams. Pelotons de Gendarmerie de Haute Montagne (PGHM) teams that were on-site to evacuate people from inside the caldera observed lava fountains 20-30 m high rising from a fissure that had opened E of Piton Kala Pélé. The eruption was confined to the caldera, so the Alert Level was raised to 2-1 (“2” is the highest level of a 3-level scale and “-1” denotes the lowest of three sub-levels). By 20 September lava fountaining had decreased and the focus of the eruption was at the lower part of the fissure. Sulfur dioxide emissions peaked at an estimated 8,000 tons per day at the beginning of the eruption and then decreased to about 2,300 tons per day during 20-21 September.

Geological Summary. Piton de la Fournaise is a massive basaltic shield volcano on the French island of Réunion in the western Indian Ocean. Much of its more than 530,000-year history overlapped with eruptions of the deeply dissected Piton des Neiges shield volcano to the NW. Three scarps formed at about 250,000, 65,000, and less than 5,000 years ago by progressive eastward slumping, leaving caldera-sized embayments open to the E and SE. Numerous pyroclastic cones are present on the floor of the scarps and their outer flanks. Most recorded eruptions have originated from the summit and flanks of Dolomieu, a 400-m-high lava shield that has grown within the youngest scarp, which is about 9 km wide and about 13 km from the western wall to the ocean on the E side. More than 150 eruptions, most of which have produced fluid basaltic lava flows, have occurred since the 17th century. Only six eruptions, in 1708, 1774, 1776, 1800, 1977, and 1986, have originated from fissures outside the scarps.

Source: Observatoire Volcanologique du Piton de la Fournaise (OVPF)