"it has been a LONG term since the last one erupted."
Soufriere Hills on Montserrat was active as recently as 2012 (it awakened 1998 after slumbering for 350 years). Volcanoes exist on geologic timescales, and dozens of years or centuries between eruptions are the norm, not the exception. There are hundreds of active volcanoes in the world, but only a few of them erupt constantly.
"There is more unusual activity."
The activity is not unusual. Two Caribbean island volcanoes have erupted explosively with 1000+ casualty counts since 1900, and there have been lesser eruptions at periodic intervals since then.
As usual with these things, nobody pays attention to something halfway across the planet unless the media short-strokes it on the front-page. There are spectacular eruptions currently ongoing in Iceland, Guatemala (Pacaya) and Sicily (Etna), but they're not the types of andesitic/rhyolic volcanoes that generate pyroclastic explosions that char-broil entire cities in minutes.
"it has been a LONG term since the last one erupted."
Soufriere Hills on Montserrat was active as recently as 2012 (it awakened 1998 after slumbering for 350 years). Volcanoes exist on geologic timescales, and dozens of years or centuries between eruptions are the norm, not the exception. There are hundreds of active volcanoes in the world, but only a few of them erupt constantly.
"There is more unusual activity."
The activity is not unusual. Two Caribbean island volcanoes have erupted explosively with 1000+ casualty counts since 1900, and there have been lesser eruptions at periodic intervals since then.
As usual with these things, nobody pays attention to something halfway across the planet unless the media short-strokes it on the front-page. There are spectacular eruptions currently ongoing in Iceland, Guatemala (Pacaya) and Sicily (Etna), but they're not the types of andesitic/rhyolic volcanoes that generate pyroclastic explosions that char-broil entire cities in minutes.