During a closely watched eruption, plumes of harmful sulfur dioxide gas morphed into “plumerangs” of sulfuric-acid-rich aerosols that descended on populated parts of Iceland.
volcanoes
Posted inResearch Spotlights
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.
Posted inNews
Homemade Lava Flows Fuse Science with Art on Video
An artist’s impulse to recreate natural landscapes leads to fiery scientific explorations that elucidate the behavior of erupting lava and the solid shapes it becomes.
Posted inScience Updates
New Volcanic Island Unveils Explosive Past
A recent volcanic eruption near Tonga in the southwest Pacific created a new island, giving scientists a rare opportunity to explore the volcanic record of this remote region.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Can Volcanic Gas Levels Predict an Eruption?
Researchers test whether the changing composition of volcanic gas can signal a coming eruption in Chile’s Villarrica volcano.
Posted inScience Updates
An Autonomous Boat to Investigate Acidic Crater Lakes
A novel aquatic drone ventured into highly acidic waters to test the feasibility of remotely exploring and surveying hazardous volcanic lakes.
Posted inNews
A Volcanic Trigger for Earth’s First Mass Extinction?
Abnormally high levels of mercury in Ordovician rocks may imply that a huge surge of volcanism took place at a time when much of the planet’s ocean life vanished.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Ancient Impact May Have Triggered Long-Term Volcanic Eruptions
Scientists revisit Canada’s Sudbury crater in light of new evidence from other planets that suggests an alternative postimpact history.
Posted inScience Updates
Understanding Kamchatka’s Extraordinary Volcano Cluster
An international seismological collaboration in Kamchatka, Russia, investigates the driving forces of one of the world’s largest, most active volcano clusters.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
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.