Latest Igneous rocks Stories
As ash caused by a volcanic eruption crippled European air travel for a fourth straight day on Sunday, hope that the travel restrictions could soon be lifted came in the form of a few successful test flights.On April 18, a British Airways Boeing 747 jumbo jet successfully flew through the cloud of volcanic ash, travelling from Heathrow Airport in London out over the Atlantic Ocean during a three hour flight. A British Airways spokesman and told the AFP, "The conditions were perfect and...
In the past, volcanic eruptions have had a cooling effect on the Earth's climate, but the recent Icelandic eruption is too small to provide any relief from manmade global warming, scientists said on Friday.The biggest cooling event of the last 30 years was the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, which cooled the Earth's surface by nearly 1 degree Fahrenheit over the following year. This, in turn, was enough to offset the impact of greenhouse gases from 1991 to 1993.The Mount St. Helens eruption...
Volcanic ash fall could contaminate Iceland's drinking water in certain areas due to the ongoing Eyjafjallajokull eruption. Health officials also warned that the biggest health risk would be to livestock."It is important to prevent the ash from reaching water supplies, both for public and animal health reasons and for safe milk production," Halldor Runolfsson of the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority told AFP.Most of Iceland's water supply comes from underground sources, which...
Thousands of planes are grounded across Europe due to the spread of volcanic ash following the recent eruption under Iceland's Eyjafjallajoekull glacier. Volcanic eruptions eject large amounts of ash and trace gases such as sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere, often reaching the altitudes of scheduled flights.When flying through a volcanic ash cloud, ash particles enter the jet engines which can result in engine failure. The ash can also severely damage the material of the aircraft, clog its...
The volcanic eruption in Iceland that has put a halt to air traffic throughout much of Europe could also cause trouble for people with already significant breathing problems, according to the World Health Organization on Friday. The agency has yet to establish what health risks could be involved with this specific eruption, but once the ash clouds settle the effects on health could be dangerous and widespread. "Any particulate matter that is deposited, breathed into the lungs is dangerous to...
If history is any indication, the erupting volcano in Iceland and its immense ash plume could intensify, says a Texas A&M University researcher who has explored Icelandic volcanoes for the past 25 years.Jay Miller, a research scientist in the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program who has made numerous trips to the region and studied there under a Fulbright grant, says the ash produced from Icelandic volcanoes can be a real killer, which is why hundreds of flights from Europe have been...
The eruption of an Icelandic volcano that sent a huge plume of ash into the atmosphere and caused sweeping disruptions of air traffic over Great Britain and Scandinavia today will likely dissipate in the next several days, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder atmospheric scientist.Professor Brian Toon, chair of CU-Boulder's atmospheric and oceanic sciences department, said the plume created by the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano contains tiny rock particles made up of...
European air travel was in a state of chaos early Friday morning, as the continued eruption of ash from a volcano in Iceland has forced airports across the continent and in the UK to close.According to Patrick Donahue of Bloomberg.com, airports in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Sweden were closed as of 7:00am CDT. Furthermore, Vienna Airport in Austria was scheduled to be closed at 6:00pm local time, and many flights out of...
The erupting Icelandic volcano that disrupted air traffic across Europe early Thursday worsened as the day went on, causing concern for health authorities in several countries.The volcano, which is located under the ice cap of the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, began erupting early Wednesday morning. As of 5:00pm CDT on Thursday, it not only remained active, spewing forth massive amounts of ash and smoke some 40-hours later, but started to grow even more intense, according to what University of...
The eruptions of "supervolcanoes" on Earth's surface have been blamed for causing mass extinctions, belching large amounts of gases and particles into the atmosphere, and re-paving the ocean floor. The result? Loss of species, increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and changes in ocean circulation. Despite their global impact, the origin and triggering mechanism of these eruptions remain poorly understood. New data collected during a recent Integrated Ocean Drilling Program...
Latest Igneous rocks Reference Libraries
Biotite is a common phyllosilicate mineral that contains potassium, magnesium, iron and aluminium. It is sometimes called "iron mica" and is found in granitic rocks, gneisses, and schists. Like other mica minerals, biotite has a highly perfect basal cleavage, its flexible sheets easily flaking off. It has a hardness of 2.5 - 3, a specific gravity of 2.7 - 3.1, is colored greenish to brown or black, and can be transparent to opaque. Biotite is occasionally found in large sheets, especially in...
Diorite is a grey to dark grey intermediate intrusive igneous rock composed principally of plagioclase feldspar (typically andesine), hornblende, and/or pyroxene. Varieties deficient in hornblende and other dark minerals are called leucodiorite. It is often described as "salt and pepper" when composed largely of light-colored minerals randomly interspersed with dark minerals. When olivine and more iron-rich augite are present, the rock grades into ferrodiorite, which is transitional to...
Gabbro is a dark, coarse-grained, intrusive igneous rock chemically equivalent to basalt. It is a plutonic rock, formed when molten magma is trapped beneath the Earth's surface and cools slowly into a hard, coarsely crystalline mass. It is dense, greenish or dark-colored and contains varied percentages of plagioclase feldspar, pyroxene, amphibole, and olivine (called olivine gabbro when olivine is present in large quantities). Quartz gabbros are also known to occur and are probably derived...
Peridotite is a dense, coarse grained ultrabasic rock, consisting mainly of the minerals olivine and pyroxene. Peridotite is also a group of mantle derived igneous rocks. They all are ultramafic or ultrabasic meaning they contain less than 45% silica and are high in iron and magnesium. Members of the peridotite family include: Dunite - predominately composed of olivine, with minor enstatite pyroxene and chromite. Harzburgite - composed of olivine, enstatite, and minor chromite....
Rhyolite is an igneous, volcanic (extrusive) rock, of felsic composition, with aphanitic to porphyritic texture. Mineral assembly is usually quartz, alkali feldspar and plagioclase (in a ratio > 1:2). Biotite and pyroxene are common accessory minerals. Rhyolite can be considered as the extrusive equivalent to the plutonic granite rock. Due to their high content of silica, rhyolite form highly viscous lavas. They can also occur as breccias or in volcanic necks and dikes. Like obsidian,...
