Latest Types of volcanic eruptions Stories
 Scientists have placed high-tech "spiders" inside and around the mouth of Mount St. Helens, one of the most active volcanoes in the United States. Networks such as these could one day be used to respond rapidly to an impending eruption. On July 14, 2009, these spider pods were lowered by cable from a helicopter hovering about 100 feet up (30 meters) and gently put in hot spots inside and around the volcano crater."This project demonstrates that a low-cost sensor network...
When Alaska's Kasatochi Volcano erupted on Aug. 7, 2008, it virtually sterilized Kasatochi Island, covering the small Aleutian island with a layer of ash and other volcanic material several meters thick. The eruption also provided a rare research opportunity: the chance to see how an ecosystem develops from the very first species to colonize the island.Next week, a team of researchers organized by the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will visit Kasatochi to look...
One of the most active volcanoes in the Philippines could be ready to erupt soon, experts at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said on Friday.The institute changed its alert status on Friday for the Mayon mountain from "low-level unrest" to "moderate unrest", citing steam emissions and a ominous glow at the top of the 8,077-foot volcano in the Bicol region.The changed alert status only represents a transition from level 1 to 2 of its 5-level scale, but authorities are not...
U.S. scientists said they have determined the eruption of Indonesia's Toba volcano about 74,000 years ago triggered a decade-long severe winter. Previous studies suggested the massive eruption produced a 1,000-year episode of ice sheet advance, as well as a volcanic winter, which most likely would have drastically reduced the human population at the time. To investigate additional mechanisms that might have enhanced and extended the effects of the Toba eruption, Rutgers University Professor...
Alaska's Mount Redoubt has gradually slowed down in activity since the last eruption three months ago.The Alaska Volcano Observatory said on Tuesday that seismic activity has calmed down and the eruptions may have stopped. The observatory has dropped the alert levels for the areas around the mountain.Several eruptions starting in March interrupted air traffic and covered Anchorage, the Kenai Peninsula and Wasilla with ash. Due to prior events, geologists felt that the eruptions would be...
According to a new study, volcanic eruptions in what is now present-day China may have been the cause of mass extinction 260 million years ago.The Guadalupian Mass Extinction, which devastated marine life around the world, was preceded by eruptions in the Emeishan province of Southwest China, said Paul Wignall, paleontologist from the University of Leeds.According to the report, which appears in Friday's edition of the journal Science, the eruption in China unleashed nearly a half million...
Scientists who have just returned from an expedition to an erupting undersea volcano near the Island of Guam report that the volcano appears to be continuously active, has grown considerably in size during the past three years, and its activity supports a unique biological community thriving despite the eruptions.An international science team on the expedition, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), captured dramatic new information about the eruptive activity of NW...
Scientists who have just returned from an expedition to an erupting undersea volcano near the Island of Guam report that the volcano appears to be continuously active, has grown considerably in size during the past three years, and its activity supports a unique biological community thriving despite the eruptions.An international science team on the expedition, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), captured dramatic new information about the eruptive activity of NW...
'Sigmoids' are S-shaped structures found in the outer atmosphere of the Sun (the corona), seen with X-ray telescopes and thought to be a crucial part of explosive events like solar flares. Now a group of astronomers have developed the first model to reproduce and explain the nature of the different stages of a sigmoid's life. Professor Alan Hood and Dr. Vasilis Archontis, both from the Mathematical Institute at St. Andrews University, Scotland, will present the team's results at the European...
The U.S. government will spend $15.2 million to modernize equipment for monitoring U.S. volcanoes and improving warning systems, according to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.Salazar said the United States and its territories have 169 active volcanoes, and 54 of them need improved monitoring so scientists can warn the public about explosive disruptions, alert aircraft to ash clouds and inform communities of falling ash, lava and mud flows.One example Salazar cited was the recent activity of the...
Latest Types of volcanic eruptions Reference Libraries
Scoria is a term used by geologists to describe an igneous rock containing many gas bubbles, or vesicules. Scoria forms when magma rich in dissolved gases is vented. As the magma encounters lower pressures, the gasses are able to escape and form bubbles. These bubbles are trapped when the magma cools and solidifies. Volcanic cones of scoria can be left behind after eruptions, usually forming mountains with a crater at the summit. An example is Mount Wellington, Auckland in New Zealand....
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...
