Ísland: Floods
When you bring together volcanoes and ice - as many places in Iceland do - you get floods. Specifically, they're called jökulhlaups, which literally means "glacier run" but in reality means a glacial...
View ArticleFast-forward your volcano
Remember a couple of months ago when Google Earth Timelapse got updated? I didn't spend a lot of time looking at it back then, but I've taken it for a spin since then and - being a volcanologist -...
View ArticleLife returning to island destroyed by eruption
Nine years after it erupted, Kasatochi Island is just beginning to resemble its neighbors. Kasatochi is a speck in the middle of the Aleutian chain between Dutch Harbor and Adak, about 75 miles east of...
View ArticleGlass formed by volcanic lightning could be used to study eruptions
Researchers have developed a method to measure one of the most striking and difficult to measure volcanic features – volcanic lightning – using the tiny glass spheres formed by hot volcanic ash.
View ArticleVacationing at volcanoes: The Toba Caldera
Visiting one of the largest volcanic lakes (and calderas) in the world in northern Sumatra: Toba Caldera
View ArticleVacationing at volcanoes: Mount Sibayak
Berastagi, a city in northern Sumatra, is a great place for volcanoes, because it has two active ones: Mount Sibayak and Mount Sinabung. Active takes on a different context here; to the locals,...
View ArticleScientists monitor volcanic gases with digital cameras to forecast eruptions
Scientists have shown for the first time that volcanoes emit distinctive pulses of gas a few hours before erupting, which could lead to real-time forecasting of dangerous volcanic eruptions that are...
View ArticleConsidering climate from the Canary Islands
I have the pleasure of attending an AGU Chapman Conference this week in Puerto de la Cruz, a small town on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. The Canaries are a small group of volcanic...
View ArticleInfrasound recordings give scientists a peek inside volcano’s plume
High-resolution recordings of the powerful infrasound waves generated by an eruption at Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano have given scientists a rare view inside the activity at the volcano’s mouth. The...
View ArticleI’m “non-essential” and furloughed. Here’s what I’m supposed to be doing for...
It's been 27 days since I, my colleagues and 800,000 or so others were informed that our leaders were okay with using us as political pawns. 27 days since 380,000 of us were told we weren't allowed...
View ArticleCalifornia is volcano country
One of the big projects I've been working on for the past couple of years has been assisting my SIC (Scientist-In-Charge) at the California Volcano Observatory in writing a report about California's...
View ArticleGeoengineering versus a volcano
Major volcanic eruptions spew ash particles into the atmosphere, which reflect some of the Sun’s radiation back into space and cool the planet. But could this effect be intentionally recreated to fight...
View ArticleNew study traces Io’s volcanic tides
Hundreds of volcanoes pockmark the surface of Io, the third largest of Jupiter’s 78 known moons, and the only body in our solar system other than Earth where widespread volcanism can be observed. A new...
View ArticleNew study suggests gigantic masses in Earth’s mantle untouched for more than...
Ancient, distinct, continent-sized regions of rocks, isolated since before the collision that created the Moon 4.5 billion years ago, exist hundreds of miles below the Earth’s crust, offering a window...
View ArticleThis is an ex-eruption!
Recently, as chronicled in Scientific American, I was involved with amending the eruptive record at California’s Mount Shasta to remove an eruption that was supposedly seen by a French mapping...
View ArticleSifting volcanic paydirt to help forecast eruptions
More than 100 volcanoes pimple the adolescent skin of Alaska, spreading from ear to ear. Some are loud, flamboyant and obnoxious. Others are sneaky and quiet, escaping notice until a pilot sees a gray...
View ArticleA different take on the model volcano, the “most cliché science experiment”...
While eruptive demonstrations will always be cool, I think the gravity-driven structural evolution of large volcanoes is equally interesting and consequential and subject to illustration with models....
View ArticleRedoubt’s big impact 30 years ago
On December 15, 1989, a pilot who had flown a 747 passenger jet all the way from Amsterdam was looking forward to landing in Anchorage. There, he would take a short break before continuing to Tokyo....
View ArticleSpreading volcano follow-up: Cross sections showing normal faults and thrust...
Geo Models: The GIF shows the results of about 15 minutes of deformation with fresh sealant straight out of the tube. The summit of the cone collapses into a graben, and the flanks of the cone spread...
View ArticleA bad night in a good box
Early in his career, on a wet, windy, foggy night, Guy Tytgat checked into the loneliest hotel in the Aleutians. His room was four feet wide and five feet tall, made of fiberglass, and perched on the...
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