A new model that simulates the behavior of surging ash clouds may help scientists to better predict the hazards associated with the deadliest type of volcanic flows.
Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Tsunami Records Show Increased Hazards for Chile’s Central Coast
Simulations of the historical quake raise new concerns: A similar event in the future could cause a devastating tsunami in Chile’s most populated coastal region.
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Can Water Vapor Help Forecast When a Volcano Will Blow?
A widely used technique to monitor sulfur dioxide was tweaked to focus on water vapor at Peru’s Sabancaya Volcano. Results show that the volcano steamed up prior to its 2016 eruption.
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Lab Experiments Show How Fault Surfaces Get Groovy
Formation of nanometer-scale quartz beads could promote linear “slickenline” patterns and facilitate fault movement.
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Diagnosing Cryptic Remagnetization in Sedimentary Rocks
To understand the ancient movement of Earth’s tectonic plates, comprehensive magnetic and petrographic studies are needed to detect secondary magnetization in carbonates and other sedimentary rocks.
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Catching Glimpses of Centuries-Old Earthquakes
Researchers in the western United States survey the earthquakes that have torn up California for the past millennium.
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What Causes Rock Avalanches?
Experimental studies of frictional weakening beneath a deadly rock avalanche in China help to clarify the mechanisms that cause these devastating natural disasters.
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An Improved Model of How Magma Moves Through the Crust
Researchers have developed a new numerical model that can, for the first time, solve for both the speed and the path of a propagating dike.
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What Caused the Fatal 2014 Eruption of Japan's Mount Ontake?
Analysis of the change in the stratovolcano's tilt just prior to the explosion suggests that the cracking of a previously intact fluid barrier caused the country's deadliest eruption since 1926.
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Pulses of Rising Magma in Sierra Nevada's Past
A detailed study of layered igneous material at California's Fisher Lake offers a novel approach to identifying the pathways and timescales of individual magma pulses in volcanic arcs.