The period of sustained, elevated activity which started around 2:30 pm yesterday continued through to around 6:00 pm. Volcanic activity then declined and remained at an extremely low level, with the occasional small rockfall events throughout most of the night. At around 3:45 a hybrid earthquake swarm started and is still in progress. The hybrid swarm is fairly consistent to those that occurred earlier this week. Most of the earthquakes are small, occurring at a rate of one every 2 minutes but there has been some larger events that could be of felt intensity near the summit of the volcano. If the recent pattern is maintained the earthquake swarm will continue until around midday and will also be followed by pyroclastic flows in the mid afternoon. The pyroclastic flows will most likely be more noticeable than yesterdays'.
The upper slopes of the volcano is hidden in the clouds this morning.
Further pyroclastic flows and attendant ash clouds are likely today. Due to the switch in the area of dome growth in the last few days, the northern side of the volcano is particularly dangerous. People should stay away from the ghauts on the northern and north-east side of the dome, and visits to the central corridor should be restricted to those that are absolutely essential. The Tar River and Long Ground areas are extremely dangerous, and should not be entered.