Piton de la Fournaise volcano (La Réunion) activity update

The eruption continues into its second month,- for Piton de La Fournaise's standards this is an unusually long-lived one. Accompanied by stable tremor, effusive activity remains strong and feeds a growing lava flow field that slowly expands towards the east in direction of the Grandes Pentes.
At the site of the main vent near Piton Rivals, a cone with a small lava lake has formed. From there, the lava flows for a large part of its path through lava tubes that then feed several flow branches further downslope. Occasionally, when parts of the tube system becomes blocked or unstable, new surface flows develop near the vent, such as last night when a new surface flow appeared that began flowing to the southeast.