eruptions

(a) Reconstruction of global volcanic forcing. (b) Reconstructed surface temperature anomalies (°C) relative to 1961–1990. (c) Ensemble mean of annual mean SAT anomalies (°C) from multi-model simulations. Credit: Science China Press Recently, a study by Dr. Sun Weiyi and Prof. Liu Jian from the School of Geography at Nanjing Normal University was published in Science China Earth Sciences. …

Crew aboard the International Space Station photographed the eruption of Mount Etna in Sicily in October 2002. Ashfall was reported more than 350 miles away. When it comes to explosive power, however, no eruption in modern times can compare with a super eruption—which hasn't occurred for tens of thousands of years. Credit: NASA New research suggests that sunlight-blocking particles from an extreme eruption would not cool…

NASA's Juno spacecraft snapped detailed images of the most volcanically active world in our Solar System on Saturday. During this close fly-by, the spacecraft spotted plumes of volcanic activity erupting from Io's surface in real-time.This encounter was the second in a set of two close fly-bys designed to provide new insight into the fiery phenomena that lurk beneath Io's surface.They are humanity's closest encounters with Io in the last 22 years, surveying it at a distance of 930 miles. Here are the striking first…

January 18, 20243 min readIceland, Hawaii and Italy have all tried to control lava to save cities in the past. A volcanologist explains the methodsBy Loÿc Vanderkluysen & The Conversation USLava flows from a fissure near Grindavik, Iceland, on Jan. 14, 2024. The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research.Fountains of lava erupted from the Sundhnúkur volcanic system in southwest Iceland on Jan. 14, 2024. As the world watched on webcams and…

Occurrences of the Archaeos Tuff. IODP drill sites are shown as red dots and onland sites as yellow dots. The drill sites are labeled with their IODP site numbers. No Archaeos Tuff was in fact recovered at Site U1590, but its presence is seen on seismic profiles. The inset shows the location on the South Aegean Volcanic Arc. See Methods for sources of bathymetric data. Credit: Communications Earth & Environment (2024). DOI:…

It has been three days of non-stop solar activity from the Sun, and it does not appear to slow down anytime soon. After a minor solar storm on Monday and three different solar flare eruptions on Tuesday, the last 24 hours have also been filled with similar activity. Another solar flare, stronger than any we have seen this week, erupted yesterday, December 6, and a separate ‘sigmoid eruption' may have hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) towards the Earth, data from NASA has shown. The latter can spark a solar storm on…

Estimates of how the ground deformed near Grindavík, Iceland, on Nov. 10-11, 2023. The vertical movements of more than 3 feet (dark purple), between Grindavík on the ocean and the Blue Lagoon north of it, were caused by the magma dike’s movement. Credit: Icelandic Met Office Thousands of earthquakes in recent weeks have shaken the Icelandic fishing town of Grindavík, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) southwest of the capital…

Volcanic events of the 530s (Left, A–E), mid-1450s (Middle, F–J), and 1600s (Right, K–O). (A, F, and K) NH summer temperature anomaly relative to the three-year mean prior to the eruption reconstructed from tree-rings (B, G, and L) Concentration of sulfur (ppb) in the Tunu2013 ice core from Greenland (blue) and the B40 ice core from Antarctica (pink). The line is from continuous measurement on the ice core , and squares are from the discrete…

Toxic gases and ash from Mount Vesuvius took just minutes to asphyxiate an estimated 2,000 Pompeians in C.E. 79. A pyroclastic flow from Mount Pelée claimed the lives of nearly 30,000 on the Caribbean island of Martinique in 1902. If those catastrophic eruptions had occurred today, could scientists have forecast them in time to save lives? Volcanologists have certainly made some progress on this front. Look no further than Popocatepetl, or El Popo. Lying on the outskirts of Mexico City, it is one of the largest active…

A study led by the University of Cambridge suggests that the cooling effect of volcanic eruptions on Earth’s surface temperature is likely underestimated in standard climate projections, possibly by up to four times. The researchers discovered that small-magnitude eruptions, which occur more frequently than large ones, contribute significantly to volcanic cooling effects by emitting sulphur gases into the atmosphere, highlighting the need for improved representation of all volcanic activities in climate…