Latest Volcano Stories
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online About 50 miles underground, there is a deep connection between two of Earth's most notable volcanoes, Hawaii's Mauna Loa and Kilauea, that could explain some of their enigmatic behavior. A new study, led by Rice University, is the first to model paired volcano interactions. It explains how a link in Earth's upper mantle could account for the competition between Kiluea and Mauna Loa for the same deep magma supply. The results of this...
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Watching active volcanic eruptions should be done so from a safe distance. Observing active eruptions here on Earth can be easily accomplished from the comfort of your home with proper equipment. But observing an Earthen volcanic eruption from home is nothing when compared to what a group of California researchers have been privy to. Using an ingenious combination of ground-based telescopic surveys and archival data, the Golden...
Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online From Pompeii to Mount St. Helens, we humans have watched in awe, and sometimes horror, the magnificence of volcanic eruptions. As detailed in a great article earlier this month by redOrbit’s own Lee Rannals, monogenetic volcanoes, volcanoes erupting due to the combination of water and magma, are driven by a rapid expansion of gas bubbles that form as the water, previously trapped in molten rock, rises beneath the volcano....
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online An active Indonesian volcano erupted once again, spewing out clouds of ash and alarming residents as far as three miles away. Mount Lokon, a 5,214-feet volcano on northeast Sulawesi island, has been very active recently, and on Sunday it added another eruption to its track record. Since its biggest eruption in July 2011, when over 5,200 people were evacuated, Mount Lokon has erupted and spewed clouds of ash about 600 times....
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online A new study is shedding light on the violent lives of monogenetic volcanoes, which erupt when magma and water meet. These volcanoes erupt beneath the surface of the Earth just once before dying, although some eruptions can last for years. Greg A. Valentine, PhD, a University at Buffalo geology professor, said not much is known about maar-diatremes volcanoes. "The hazards that are associated with these volcanoes tend to be...
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Guatemala’s Volcan del Fuego, one of the country’s most famous tourist attractions, erupted Thursday, spewing a cloud of ash more than 2 miles into the sky and forcing authorities to order the evacuation of thousands as lava raced down the mountain’s slopes. More than 33,000 residents in surrounding communities were ordered to leave their homes and seek shelter at safer grounds after a series of powerful eruptions sent the...
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online New scientific data from the Greek isle of Santorini has shown signs of unrest for the first time in more than 50 years, and could be evidence of an impending eruption similar to the one that last struck in 1950, but far less catastrophic than the one that wiped out Minoan settlements on the island of Crete some 3,600 years ago. The Santorini volcanic eruption circa-1650 BC formed a large crater, or caldera, which is now flooded...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Clouds of volcanic ash from Anak Krakatau, or child of Krakatau, have become so prominent in recent days that Indonesian authorities have issued a warning for local residents and tourists. "The ash was carried by wind from the southeast to the south, reaching Bandarlampung," Nurhuda, head of the observation and information section of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) in Lampung province told state news agency...
While piloting a commercial transatlantic flight last year, Captain Klaus Sievers and his crew got a whiff of an unusual odor. In a confined space 10 km up in the air, there was only one thing it could be. The foul smell with traces of sulphur in the cockpit came from none other than the Grímsvötn volcano that was spewing gas and ash from southeast Iceland. Sulphur dioxide often indicates volcanic ash, and the presence of ash in the atmosphere can endanger jet engines. Timely...
Exposure to volcanic ash can increase respiratory symptoms such as an extreme cough, or phlegm, according to a new study. The research, which will be presented today (4 September 2012) at the European Respiratory Society's Annual Congress in Vienna, investigated the effects of living close to the Icelandic Volcano, Eyjafjallajökull. Eyjafjallajökull erupted in April 2010 and created a huge ash cloud which spread across Europe, causing widespread disruption to air travel on the...
Latest Volcano 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...
Olympus Mons -- Olympus Mons is the tallest mountain in the solar system, at 25 km. Located on Mars, and officially called by its Latin name Olympus Mons. It is named for the mountain on Earth. Olympus Mons is an apparently extinct shield volcano, the result of highly fluid magma flowing out of volcanic vents over a long period of time, and is much wider than it is tall; the average slope of Olympus Mons' flanks is very gradual. The Hawaiian islands are an example of similar shield...
Jupiter's Moon Europa -- Europa is a puzzle. The sixth largest moon in our Solar System, Europa confounds and intrigues scientists. Few bodies in the Solar System have attracted as much scientific attention as this moon of Jupiter because of its possible subsurface ocean of water. The more we learn about this icy moon, the more questions we have. Because the nature of science is to ask questions, we cannot resist the mystery of Europa and its potential for possessing an ocean. Early...
