India's only volcano is said to be active again. The only volcano of the very vast country, in the Barren Island is active again as scientists saw it spewed out lava and smoke.
The Barren volcano had been dormant for the last 150 years, CNN reported. It had been active when it first erupted in 1991, then in 1995 then the last was in 2005. It is located at Barren Island volcano, on a isolated unoccupied island off the country's eastern coast.
Indian scientists have been observing the Barren volcano for eight hours on January 23 and 25. They saw ash clouds in daytime and fountains of red lava coming out of the volcano's mouth and flowing down its slopes at night. India's National Institute of Oceanography or NIO have been collecting samples of the lava and ashes of the Barren volcano. They noted that the volcano is erupting in small scale for five to 10 minutes long.
"We are checking the composition of the lava and powdering the black sand to figure out the components," Abhay Mudholkar, who is heading the NIO team which is collecting samples in the Andaman basin, said on Friday. According to Times Of India, the Andaman basin is known for its strong seismicity, submarine volcanoes and hydrothermal activity. Researchers from Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) have also visited the site and have collected samples from the basin.
Scientists from CSIR-NIO recognized many small underwater volcanoes in a linear chain called a volcanic arc. When B Nagender Nath revisited the site, his team from CSIR saw the spewing of smoke and lave of Barren volcano. The collected sample will help identify the volcaninc activity of the volcano. The scientists are hoping to find out as to why Barren Island volcano becomes active after 10 years of being quiet.
