Futurity.org » volcano

Tree rings fail to capture climate after volcanos

A'ndrea Elyse Messer-Penn State — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:16:11 +0000

PENN STATE (US) — Some climate cooling caused by past volcanic eruptions may not be evident in tree-ring reconstructions of temperature change, a new study suggests.

Large enough temperature drops lead to greatly shortened or even absent growing seasons, according to climate researchers who compared tree-ring temperature reconstructions with model simulations of past temperature changes.

“We know these tree rings capture most temperature changes quite well,” says Michael Mann, professor of meteorology and geosciences at Penn State. “But the problem appears to be in their response to the intense short-term cooling that occurs following a very large volcanic eruption.

New hot spring may predict volcano blasts

Tim Green-U. Texas — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:04:52 +0000

U. TEXAS-AUSTIN (US) — Scientists have discovered a new type of hot spring, a “terrestrial smoker,” along the banks of a volcanic lake in the Philippines.

These “terrestrial smokers” are cousins to submarine black smokers, hydrothermal vents on the seafloor that spew plumes of hot, nutrient-rich water and often support rich communities of life.

Volcanoes likely sparked Little Ice Age

Jim Scott CU-Boulder — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:47:42 +0000

U. COLORADO-BOULDER (US) — Four massive tropical volcanic eruptions that occurred over a span of 50 years may have triggered Earth’s enigmatic Little Ice Age.

A new study suggests the period of cooling temperatures that began abruptly after the Middle Ages between A.D. 1275 and 1300 and lasted into the late 19th century was caused by repeated, explosive volcanism and sustained by a self-perpetuating sea ice-ocean feedback system in the North Atlantic Ocean, says Gifford Miller, professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

Rare lava collected from under sea volcano

Sandra Hines-UW — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:45:39 +0000

U. WASHINGTON-SEATTLE (US) — The first scientists to witness exploding rock and molten lava from a deep sea volcano in 2009 report that the eruption was near a tear in the Earth’s crust that is mimicking the birth of a subduction zone.

Scientists on the expedition collected boninite, a rare, chemically distinct lava that accompanies the formation of Earth’s subduction zones.

Ancient Maya road ‘frozen’ by volcano

Jim Scott CU-Boulder — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 12:26:42 +0000

U. COLORADO-BOULDER (US) — A team excavating a Maya village in El Salvador buried by a volcanic eruption 1,400 years ago has unexpectedly hit an ancient white road that appears to lead to and from the town frozen in time by a blanket of ash.

The road, known as a “sacbe,” is roughly 6 feet across and is made from white volcanic ash from a previous eruption that was packed down and shored up along its edges by residents living there in roughly A.D. 600, says Payson Sheets, an anthropology professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder who discovered the buried village known as Ceren near the city of San Salvador in 1978.

Mercury flooded by volcanic gush

Richard Lewis-Brown — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 13:54:30 +0000

BROWN (US) — Vast plains around Mercury’s north pole were created more than 3.5 billion years ago by lava flows that covered 6 percent of the planet’s surface—an area that would cover nearly 60 percent of the continental U.S.

“For more than 35 years we have been uncertain about the role of volcanic activity on Mercury,” says James W, Head III, professor of geological sciences at Brown University.

Volcanic eruption re-created in 3-D

A'ndrea Elyse Messer-Penn State — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:30:24 +0000

PENN STATE (US) — A 3-D model of the Mount St. Helens volcanic eruption more than 30 years ago is expected to help seismologists map potential flows at blast-dangerous volcanoes worldwide.

“We took on the modeling of enormously complicated pyroclastic density currents, notably the classic, notorious May 1980 lateral blast that destroyed 500 square kilometers of forested terrain at Mount St. Helens,” says Barry Voight, professor emeritus of geology and geological engineering at Penn State.

Deep-sea volcanoes air volatile side

Katherine Gombay-McGill — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 16:02:24 +0000

MCGILL (CAN) — Deep-sea volcanoes do more than gush magma flow—in some cases high concentrations of CO2 cause massive underwater explosions.

Between 75 and 80 percent of all volcanic activity on Earth takes place at deep-sea, mid-ocean ridges. Most produce effusive lava flows rather than explosive eruptions, both because the levels of magmatic gas tends to be low, and because the volcanoes are under a lot of pressure from the surrounding water.

Big volcanoes doubled CO2 level

Ken Branson-Rutgers — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:15:29 +0000

RUTGERS (US) — Core samples taken from New Jersey show a dramatic increase in the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide 200 million years ago. The cause: 20,000 years of massive volcanic eruptions.

How massive? The eruptions resulted in a million cubic kilometers of lava pouring out of fissures in the Earth’s surface in less than 20,000 years.

Why volcanos do what they do

A'ndrea Elyse Messer-Penn State — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 18:11:12 +0000

PENN STATE (US) — Ongoing observations of the Soufriere Hills Volcano on Montserrat since it erupted in 1995 are expected to advance understanding of the workings of andesite volcanos.

“To the extent that the Soufriere Hills Volcano is typical of andesitic dome building volcanoes, results from this research can be expected to apply more generally,” says Barry Voight, professor emeritus of geosciences at Penn State.