India's only active volcano in Andaman spewing lava and smoke after 150-years

India only active volcano located 140-km north-east of Port Blair, in the Andaman is spewing lava and smoke after being dormant for over 150 years, researchers at the Goa-based National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) said on Saturday. 

In a statement, CSIR-NIO said, "The only live volcano in the Andaman and Nicobar islands is erupting once again. The Barren Island volcano, located 140-km north-east of Port Blair, dormant for more than 150 years started erupting in 1991 and has since then shown intermittent activity.

"On the afternoon of 23 January 2017, the scientific team on board CSIR-NIO’s research ship RV Sindhu Sankalp were busy collecting sea floor samples in the Andaman Basin near the Barren volcano when it suddenly started spewing ash.he volcano was erupting in small episodes lasting about 5 to 10 minutes. 

During the daytime only ash clouds were observed. However after sundown, the team observed red lava fountains spewing from the crater into the atmosphere and hot lava flows streaming down the slopes of the volcano.

The volcano was revisited in the early hours of 26th January, 2017 again.The Andaman Basin is an active back-arc spreading basin and is known for its strong seismicity and many submarine volcanoes and hydrothermal activity