Latest Tephra Stories
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Last month, Earth science researchers from NASA traveled to Turrialba Volcano near San Jose, Costa Rica. The research team was there to study the chemical environment of the volcano by flying a Dragon Eye unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) into the sulfur dioxide plume and over its summit crater. The UAV – a small electric aircraft equipped with cameras and sensors – will help the scientists improve the remote-sensing capabilities of...
The 2010 ash cloud from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano that disrupted air travel in the UK and cost European businesses more than $2.6 billion was likely a once in a lifetime event, according to scientists, who have analyzed a record of past similar events stretching back into prehistory across northern Europe. Their analysis showed that past ash clouds like the one seen in 2010 occurred on an average of once every 56 years. A report of the findings has been published in the journal...
One of Iceland's most active and most feared volcanoes looks like is getting ready to erupt, with measurements indicating magma movement, according to Icelandic experts on Wednesday, raising fears of a new ash cloud disrupting air traffic in Europe and abroad. The Hekla volcano, dubbed by Icelanders in the Middle Ages as the "Gateway to Hell," has erupted some 20 times over the past 1000 years, with the most recent eruption occurring on February 26, 2000. Hekla is close to the ash-spewing...
Latest Tephra Reference Libraries
Volcanic ash is the term for very fine rock and mineral particles less than 2 mm in diameter that are ejected from a volcanic vent. Ash is created when solid rock shatters and magma separates into minute particles during explosive volcanic activity. The usually violent nature of an eruption involving steam (phreatic eruption) results in the magma and perhaps solid rock surrounding the vent, being torn into particles of silt to sand size. The plume that is often seen above an erupting volcano...
