All articles tagged with #volcanology
Kīlauea remains at an orange alert as the USGS monitors high pressurization and new ground cracks. Recent research suggests steam, not carbon dioxide, drives the volcano's dramatic lava fountains, though predicting the next episode remains difficult due to irregular ground deformation.
An August 2019 underwater volcanic eruption near Tonga generated a massive pumice raft covering 195 square kilometers, larger than Aruba. This floating debris field traveled over 3,000 kilometers to reach Australian waters by April 2020, transporting more than 100 species of marine organisms, including corals and barnacles, across the Pacific Ocean.
A detailed hypothetical scenario outlines the timeline of a Yellowstone super-eruption, from early seismic warnings to global economic and climatic collapse. The event would trigger massive ashfall across North America, disrupt infrastructure, and cause a volcanic winter, potentially leading to hundreds of millions of premature deaths.
A new study published in Science Advances demonstrates that argon-argon dating can accurately date the 79 CE eruption of Mount Vesuvius to within 13 years. By using pumice samples from the eruption and comparing them to the historical date recorded by Pliny the Younger, researchers at the Berkeley Geochronology Center and UC Berkeley refined the calibration of this radiometric technique. This improvement allows scientists to date other recent volcanic events with greater precision, enhancing the ability to predict future eruptions and synchronize geological timelines across Earth's history.
A detailed scientific thought experiment models the catastrophic consequences of a hypothetical Yellowstone super-eruption, detailing a timeline from initial seismic unrest to a global economic and humanitarian crisis. The scenario predicts immediate infrastructure failure, widespread ashfall across North America, and long-term climate cooling, potentially resulting in 0.7 to 1.3 billion premature deaths.
A new study links the 2022 Hunga Tonga eruption to a massive tsunami caused by a rapid, piston-style caldera collapse. Separately, satellite data reveals the eruption triggered unprecedented stratospheric methane destruction via chlorine reactions.
UK scientists detailed a hypothetical timeline for a Yellowstone supereruption, warning of global economic collapse and up to 1.3 billion premature deaths, though experts note such an event is not imminent.
A new thought experiment by UK researchers details the catastrophic timeline of a potential Yellowstone supervolcano eruption, predicting a global recession, 1.5°C cooling, and up to 1.3 billion premature deaths, though experts note such events are not predictable on a fixed schedule.
Geologists traced a 454-million-year-old eruption beneath England’s east coast to the Ordovician period, linking it to the Kinnekulle tephra ash that spread as far as Scandinavia. The event was colossal and likely produced long-lasting ash clouds and pyroclastic flows, but many scientists caution that the term “supervolcano” is vague; instead, they describe eruptions by volume (ultraplinian) and note evidence is insufficient to label this as a true supervolcano.
Crater Lake in Oregon is the deepest US lake at 1,949 feet, occupying Mount Mazama’s caldera formed after a massive eruption 7,700 years ago; with no inlet or outlet, its level is set by evaporation and seepage. Its bottom features submerged cones, a major landslide deposit, ancient lava plains, and active hydrothermal vents that harbor chemolithoautotrophic bacteria, while Wizard Island rises above the lake as a post-eruption cone. The lake’s depth and floor map were built over more than a century of measurements, from lead-line soundings to modern multibeam sonar in 2000, and ongoing caldera activity may produce future underwater eruptions that remain hidden beneath the water.
A study of La Palma's 2021 Tajogaite eruption shows superheating can dissolve crystal seeds and delay crystallization for hours, keeping magma fluid and rising rapidly to potentially power dramatic lava fountains, with implications for eruption forecasting.
Satellites imaged an underwater volcanic eruption, but scientists still don’t know what’s actually happening on the seafloor, underscoring gaps in our understanding of deep-sea volcanic activity.
Geophysicists aboard the Meteor on Expedition M201 found flat-topped, submerged volcanoes along the Reykjanes Ridge off Iceland, indicating that mid-ocean ridges can erupt explosively at shallower depths when seawater flashes to steam; a mechanism that may explain phantom islands like Surtsey and suggests future surface eruptions could occur as ice and pressure conditions change.
A preprint analysis finds Campi Flegrei, the Naples-area caldera, is showing a self-reinforcing acceleration in seismic activity and ground uplift, suggesting a potential major geological shift could occur around 2030–2034. While not a specific eruption forecast, the pattern raises significant risk to nearby residents and underscores the need for ongoing monitoring and improved predictive models.
Scientists used more than two decades of seismic data to map Bermuda’s subsurface and found a light, ~12-mile-thick slab of ancient rock beneath the island. Formed 30–35 million years ago, this slab floats under the crust and keeps Bermuda elevated above the sea without current volcanism, explaining the island’s buoyancy and challenging the classic mantle plume model. The findings tie Bermuda’s uplift to broader mantle convection processes and link to the region’s gravity and magnetic anomalies around the Bermuda Rise.