Piton de la Fournaise Volcano on France's Reunion Island Shows Signs of Eruption

PARIS (Sputnik) - Piton de la Fournaise, a volcano in the French overseas territory of Reunion in the Indian Ocean, showed the first signs of an eruption on Wednesday, a local volcanological observatory tweeted.

The seismic crisis began at 05:15 GMT with a tremor that indicated the arrival of magma close to the surface.

"The Piton de la Fournaise volcano's eruption began at 03:30 a.m. local time [07:30 GMT] on December 22, 2021 on the southern slope", the observatory said.

Earlier in the day, the observatory's team observed at least 3 eruptive cracks open on the southern slope of the volcano. Public access, as well as the landing of aircraft in the area of the volcano, are now prohibited.

Piton de la Fournaise volcano erupts in #France

At least three eruptive cracks have opened in the central caldera of the #volcano

📰 https://t.co/ZTNzwZdjkk#PitondelaFournaise #eruption#video

Wed Dec 22 2021 pic.twitter.com/yB5Hy21eLb

— Ψ 𝖠 𝖡 𝖸 𝖲 𝖲 ℭ𝔥𝔯𝔬𝔫𝔦𝔠𝔩𝔢𝔰 (@AbyssChronicles) December 22, 2021

#La_Réunion🇫🇷🏝️🌋Le Piton de la Fournaise est entré en éruption pour la seconde fois de l'année - https://t.co/6QfxUQKrhq pic.twitter.com/8Kva4hZnkU

— VALLÉE Jean-Claude (@jclvallee1) December 22, 2021

The volcano's last eruption took place on 9 April 2021. Piton de la Fournaise is one of the most active volcanoes on the planet. It first awoke 500,000 years ago and has been erupting twice a year on average for the past two decades. It usually emits fountains of lava that flow down its flanks.