No Ash in Steam Plume from Whakaari/White Island

Image from the observation flight (3 September 2025), showing a white steam and gas plume, containing no volcanic ash. Photo Brad Scott.

An observation flight by Earth Sciences New Zealand has confirmed that no ash is currently present in the volcanic plume at Whakaari/White Island. Some short-lived minor eruptive activity was observed on August 28th which produced a thin covering of ash across the island.

Poor weather conditions since had made it difficult to confirm any further activity. The observation flight, undertaken on Wednesday, confirmed that the recent activity was minor and that only thin ashfall deposits are present on the island.

The active vent area is unchanged which indicates no large-scale activity occurred and no eruptive activity occurred during the observational flight.

A vent temperature of 164 °C was measured. Earth Sciences New Zealand say that that is typical of volcanic unrest.

That temperature is relatively low compared to periods when heightened activity was present in the vent area. When shallow magma was present beneath the vent, temperatures often exceeded 400-600 °C.

Data from gas flights and satellites also confirm that the gas output remains steady. The volcanic alert level remains at level 2, indicating moderate to heightened volcanic unrest, and the aviation colour code remains yellow.