A catastrophic drop in atmospheric ozone layers 60 000 to 100 000 years ago likely contributed to a population bottleneck during that period. According to a new study, the event was triggered by the eruption of the Toba supervolcano in Sumatra, Indonesia. "Toba...
June 05, 2021
Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California identified what triggers large-scale volcanic eruptions and the conditions that lead to them. Using data from the 2018 Kilauea eruption in Hawaii-- its largest volcanic eruption in over 200...
May 11, 2021
An international team of researchers published a new study providing new clues about how and where subduction begins on Earth, the process behind the deadliest volcanic eruptions. The Earth's largest earthquakes and most explosive volcanoes occur at subduction...
August 02, 2020
A new study suggests that the massive Okmok volcano eruption in Alaska in 43 B.C.E. may have caused a nearly two-decade power struggle that led to the fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. According to records, the period was marked with...
June 28, 2020
Steamboat Geyser in Wyoming is the world's tallest active geyser, which sometimes blasts water over 90 m (300 feet) into the air. At times, the geyser stays quiet for years then abruptly bursts back to life-- a behavior that has been puzzling scientists. A new...
June 04, 2020
Drones can help in monitoring explosive volcanoes and prove necessary in a crisis situation, researchers from the GFX German Research Center said. The team presented results of a series of repeated flights with visual and thermal imaging cameras at the Santa Maria...
May 31, 2020
New research reveals that Hawaii's Pūhāhonu volcano is the largest and hottest shield volcano on Earth, although it is barely visible as only a portion of its tip is exposed above the seafloor. Pūhāhonu, a Hawaiian word which means "turtle surfacing for...
May 15, 2020
Researchers presented underwater volcanism as a new interpretation of why the sky mysteriously went dark for over a year beginning 536 A.D., with some parts of Europe and Asia seeing the Sun for only about four hours a day and accounts saying the Sun gave no more...
December 19, 2019
Researchers reporting in Nature Communications suggest they've unlocked the secret of explosive volcanism. The team studied samples at Indonesia's Mount Merapi, concluding that explosivity of stratovolcanoes rises when mineral-rich gases seal the pores and...
November 16, 2019
Research has shown that the Anak Krakatau volcano in Indonesia displayed clear warning signals before it collapsed into the Sunda strait between the Sumatra and Java islands on December 22, 2018. The event triggered a tsunami which resulted in 430 fatalities. The...
October 05, 2019
A research team has tested a new technique that could possibly forecast how a volcanic eruption will happen accurately. The method combined physics and statistics to capture the probability of past eruption patterns. The risk of volcanic eruptions is unpredictable...
September 20, 2019
The drawn-out nature of volcanic eruptions can cause more fatalities than the seemingly brief explosion itself, according to a study by researchers from the United Kingdom and Trinidad and Tobago published on August 14, 2019. Residents who live within the vicinity...
September 14, 2019
Scientists have discovered a series of previously unknown volcanoes just off the coast of SW Sicily, Italy. The three northern volcanoes show a tuff cone-like morphology while the three most southern edifices have a truncated-conical shape. Ages of all newly...
August 06, 2019
The rocks in the upper crust of seemingly extinct Ciomadul volcano in Romania are 15% molten and in some regions up to 45%, a new study finds. That a seemingly dead volcano like Ciomadul is actually capable of erupting in the future calls for renewed attention to...
August 01, 2019
A joint research project of the Chronology Laboratory of the Finnish Museum of Natural History and Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) suggests that large volcanic eruptions in the years 536 and 541–544 CE resulted in unusually gloomy and cold period...
April 11, 2018
A new study, led by researchers from the University of Leeds, suggests that flight-disrupting ash clouds are more common over northern Europe than previously thought and puts the average gap between them at about 44 years. The study also reveals that these types of...
January 03, 2017
A new study suggests that Campi Flegrei, a volcano in the metropolitan area of Naples, one of the most densely inhabited areas in the world, may be near a critical pressure point which would reawaken it from its, almost 500 years long, sleep. In the course of a new...
December 22, 2016