Breaking News: Volcanoes

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Released: 16-Nov-2016 12:05 PM EST
Climate Change May Prevent Volcanoes From Cooling the Planet
University of British Columbia

New UBC research shows that climate change may impede the cooling effect of volcanic eruptions.

Released: 15-Nov-2016 10:05 AM EST
Researchers Explore Gigantic Volcanic Eruptions That Caused Worldwide Mass Extinctions
Virginia Tech

A paper in Nature Communications confirms a major feature in the formation of large igneous provinces — massive worldwide volcanic eruptions that created incredibly high volumes of lava and triggered environmental catastrophes and mass extinctions from 170 to 90 million years ago.

28-Sep-2016 9:00 AM EDT
New Technique for Finding Weakness in Earth’s Crust
University of Adelaide

Scientists have developed a method to estimate weakness in the Earth’s outer layers which will help explain and predict volcanic activity and earthquakes.

Released: 2-Sep-2016 3:05 PM EDT
Ceres: The Tiny World Where Volcanoes Erupt Ice
Arizona State University (ASU)

Ahuna Mons is a volcano that rises 13,000 feet high and spreads 11 miles wide at its base. This would be impressive for a volcano on Earth. But Ahuna Mons stands on Ceres, a dwarf planet less than 600 miles wide that orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. Even stranger, Ahuna Mons isn't built from lava the way terrestrial volcanoes are -- it's built from ice.

Released: 28-Jul-2016 8:05 AM EDT
As Hazard Warnings Increase, Experts Urge Better Decisions on Who and When to Warn
Society for Risk Analysis (SRA)

Effective warnings are a growing need as expanding global populations confront a wide range of hazards, such as a hurricane, wildfire, toxic chemical spill or any other environmental hazard threatens safety.

       
Released: 6-Jul-2016 3:05 PM EDT
New Study Upends a Theory of How Earth's Mantle Flows
Earth Institute at Columbia University

A new study carried out on the floor of Pacific Ocean provides the most detailed view yet of how the earth's mantle flows beneath the ocean's tectonic plates. The findings, published in the journal Nature, appear to upend a common belief that the strongest deformation in the mantle is controlled by large-scale movement of the plates. Instead, the highest resolution imaging yet reveals smaller-scale processes at work that have more powerful effects.

Released: 23-Jun-2016 1:05 PM EDT
Geologists Make Their Own Lava to Prep for Explosive Experiments (Video Available)
University at Buffalo

The lava-making operation — one of the largest in the world — will provide a rare, close-up view of the interplay between molten rock and water, an interaction that can enhance the explosive potential of volcanoes.

Released: 2-Jun-2016 3:05 PM EDT
Scientists Gain Supervolcano Insights From Wyoming Granite
University of Wyoming

Geophysical monitoring of the ground above active supervolcanoes shows that it rises and falls as magma moves beneath the surface of the Earth. Silica-rich magmas like those in the Yellowstone region and along the western margin of North and South America can erupt violently and explosively, throwing vast quantities of ash into the air, followed by slower flows of glassy, viscous magma.

Released: 2-Jun-2016 3:05 PM EDT
How Southeastern Mayan People Overcame the Catastrophic Eruption of Ilopango?
Nagoya University

A Nagoya University researcher and his leading international research group discovered a Great Platform built with different kinds of stone at the archeological site of San Andrés, El Salvador, and challenged the prevailing theory regarding the sociocultural development of Southeastern Maya frontier.

Released: 14-Apr-2016 8:05 AM EDT
The Cozier the Better for Bubbles Inside Powerful Volcanoes
Georgia Institute of Technology

Study suggests that powerful volcanic blasts occur due in part to how light vapor bubbles migrate and accumulate in some parts of shallow volcanic chambers. Researchers say these bubbles maneuver their way through crystal filled magma until they settle in these open-spaced reservoirs – areas without many crystals – and build up the necessary energy for an impending eruption.

Released: 21-Mar-2016 11:05 AM EDT
Making Magma Helps Researchers Understand Volcanoes
University of Alaska Fairbanks

The best way to figure out how something is made is to take it apart and put it back together again. That is what Jessica Larsen and her students do at the Geophysical Institute’s Petrology Lab in order to understand active volcanoes in Alaska.

3-Mar-2016 6:05 AM EST
How Rivers of Hot Ash and Gas Move When a Supervolcano Erupts
University at Buffalo

New research in Nature Communications sheds light on what happens when a supervolcano erupts. The study combines recent lab tests with vintage field data — some of it captured in colorful Kodachrome slides — to provide insight on how rivers of hot ash and gas travel huge distances in supereruptions.

Released: 15-Feb-2016 3:05 PM EST
Study Challenges Widely Accepted Theory of Yellowstone Formation
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Understanding the complex geological processes that form supervolcanoes could ultimately help geologists determine what triggers their eruptions. A new study using an advanced computer model casts doubt on previously held theories about the Yellowstone supervolcano’s origins, adding to the mystery of Yellowstone’s formation.

15-Jan-2016 5:05 AM EST
Explosive Underwater Volcanoes Were a Major Feature of ‘Snowball Earth’
University of Southampton

Around 720-640 million years ago, much of the Earth’s surface was covered in ice during a glaciation that lasted millions of years. Explosive underwater volcanoes were a major feature of this ‘Snowball Earth’, according to new research led by the University of Southampton.

Released: 14-Jan-2016 5:05 AM EST
Evidence of Large Volcanic Activity in the Caribbean Uncovered
University of Southampton

Scientists from the University of Southampton have uncovered evidence of a previously unknown large volcanic eruption in the Caribbean Sea.

Released: 11-Jan-2016 1:05 PM EST
UO-Led Expedition Probes Undersea Magma System
University of Oregon

A team of University of Oregon scientists is home after a month-long cruise in the eastern Mediterranean, but this was no vacation. The focus was the plumbing system of magma underneath the island of Santorini, formed by the largest supervolcanic eruption in the past 10,000 years.

Released: 4-Jan-2016 12:05 PM EST
Traces of Islandic Volcanoes in a Northeastern German Lake
GFZ GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam

Precise reconstruction of regional climate changes in the past.

Released: 23-Dec-2015 2:05 PM EST
Evidence of Past Volcanic Activity in the Caribbean Sea
Geological Society of America (GSA)

Reconstructing the magnitude of past volcanic eruptions is important in informing predictions about future eruptions and hazards. This is difficult to accomplish from records on land -- old eruptions are often eroded away, buried beneath later eruptions, or obscured by vegetation and soil. Most volcanoes are close to the oceans, so much of the erupted material falls into seawater and accumulates on the seafloor.

Released: 20-Oct-2015 4:05 PM EDT
New ‘Geospeedometer’ Confirms Super-Eruptions Have Short Fuses
Vanderbilt University

A new "geospeedometer" that can measure the amount of time between the formation of an explosive magma melt and an eruption confirms that the process took less than 500 years in several ancient super-eruptions.

Released: 1-Oct-2015 5:05 PM EDT
Simulating Path of 'Magma Mush' Inside an Active Volcano
University of Washington

The first simulation of the individual crystals in volcanic mush, a mix of liquid magma and solid crystals, shows the mixing to help understand pressure buildup deep inside a volcano.



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