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Europe's mysterious "Little Ice Age" has been traced back to a massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia - thanks to Pink Floyd. It lasted centuries and led to the Thames Frost fairs, when the river froze over for months at a time - turning it into a skating rink. A generally warm medieval period was followed by a mostly cold spell - from the 14th to the 19th Centuries. The weather phenomenon has baffled climatologists for decades. A study - inspired by the 70s rock legends' Dark Side of the Moon - now shows it was triggered by a catastrophic eruption...

Some weird movements are associated with two volcanic areas in the US West: Glacier Peak volcano in Washington and Three Sisters volcano in Oregon. Here the stories: Glacier Peak in Snohomish County, Washington is currently at a “very high” threat for eruption. That’s the top classification of threat levels, according to federal scientists, who seek new monitoring systems: Meanwhile, the ground is swelling slightly faster than usual beneath parts of the Three Sisters volcanic region in Oregon, a new study shows, but scientists say there’s no signs of an imminent eruption. An uplift of about an inch in the ground...

HONOLULU -- One of the most active volcanos on Earth is erupting on Hawaii's Big Island. Officials with the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed Wednesday that an eruption has begun in Kilauea volcano's Halemaumau crater at the volcano's summit. Webcam footage of the crater showed lava fountains covering the floor of the crater and billowing clouds of volcanic gas were rising into the air. The same area has been home to a large lava lake at various times throughout the volcano's eruptive past....

NASA scientists have found evidence that thousands of massive ancient volcanoes erupted on Mars. The so-called "super eruptions" occurred in a region of northern Mars called Arabia Terra over a period of 500 million years dating back approximately 4 billion years.... ...Using images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer, they studied the walls of canyons and craters from hundreds to thousands of miles away from the calderas, identifying volcanic minerals turned into clay by water. They made three-dimensional topographic maps of Arabia Terra and compared mineral data to the maps in order to see that the layers...

YELLOWSTONE volcano could be about to erupt and challenge humanity’s existence as a spate of mini-quakes have been felt around the fearsome caldera. During the month of April, a total of 63 earthquakes struck around the Wyoming based supervolcano. All of the tremors were relatively small, with the largest registering at 2.6 on the Richter scale, hitting on April 29. But experts have warned that it is not necessarily about the strength of an earthquake around a volcano, but more the quantity of them. Some scientists believe that tremors around a volcano could be a sign that it might blow....

Eight >50K foot high volcanic eruptions in the last week and a half. I have only been watching him for a few weeks but this seems newsworthy. No one else seems to be covering it. 7

Scientists have discovered a stunning volcanic ‘lost world’ off the coast of Tasmania. Experts on the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), vessel ‘Investigator’ made the find while mapping the seafloor 249 miles east of Tasmania. The project is led by scientists from the Australian National University. CSIRO is Australia’s national science agency. A chain of ‘seamounts’, or undersea mountains, were spotted in deep water, offering the first glimpse of a spectacular “underwater world.” Scientists say that the mountains rise up to 9,843 feet from the seafloor, but the highest peaks are still 6,562 feet beneath the waves. “Our...

It's not only a possibility in the Hawaiian Islands. A chain of about 40 volcanos runs along the West Coast between Canada and Mexico and all have the potential to become active. (The potential for each peak is outlined in the gallery above.) They've all erupted at least once in the past 10,000 years and they all have a supply of magma under them.

Roger Bilham, a geophysicist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, informed that, in this year, the planet would face more powerful earthquakes and the magnitude level will be 7.0 or more. It can even reach 9.0. He stated that the number of earthquakes could reach up to 20 in 2018. The published report says, when the planet will enter in to slow rotation period, that will decrease the centrifugal force and tighten the planet’s equator. After that, the tectonic plates will crush with each other. The force that will erupt from this event will start super earthquakes on Earth. The...

Scientists analyzing a volcanic eruption at a mid-ocean ridge under the Pacific have come up with a somewhat contrarian explanation for what initiated it. Many scientists say undersea volcanism is triggered mainly by upwelling magma that reaches a critical pressure and forces its way up. The new study says the dominant force, at least in this case, was the seafloor itself -- basically that it ripped itself open, allowing the lava to spill out. The eruption took place on the East Pacific Rise, some 700 miles off Mexico. "Mid-ocean ridges are commonly viewed as seafloor volcanoes, operating like volcanoes on...

Magma located under areas that include the Yellowstone region and the western margin of North and South America can erupt violently, spewing vast quantities of ash into the air, followed by slower flows of glassy, viscous magma. [A] new study by University of Wyoming researchers suggests scientists can go back to the past to study present-day solidified magma chambers where the erosion has removed overlying rock, exposing granite underpinnings. One such large granite body, the 2.62 billion-year-old Wyoming batholith, extends more than 125 miles across central Wyoming. University of Wyoming earth scientist Davin Bagdonas traversed the Granite, Shirley and Laramie...

The physical mechanism causing the unique, sharp bend in the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain has been uncovered in a collaboration between the University of Sydney and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Led by a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney's School of Geosciences, researchers used the Southern Hemisphere's most highly integrated supercomputer to reveal flow patterns deep in the Earth's mantle -- just above the core -- over the past 100 million years. The flow patterns explain how the enigmatic bend in the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain arose. True to the old adage -- as above, so below -- the...

It’s not very often that I comment on news articles, but a reader of the blog recently brought this one to my attention, and it hits close to home. The article is in the Washington Post’s Travel section and is entitled, “In Guatemala, a treacherous hike to one of the world’s most active volcanoes”. That title pretty much covers why I’m so upset – and conflicted – about the author of the piece is writing about. Anyone who knows me knows that I love volcanoes. BUT. I can’t stress enough that the Santiaguito hikes, conducted in this manner, ARE NOT...

Several massive volcanic erupted around the world in 2015. Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung, one of more than 100 active volcanoes in the country, emitted enormous plumes of smoke and ash throughout the year, leading to the evacuation of more than 10,000. And just earlier this month, Nicaragua’s Momotombo volcano reactivated after it was dormant for more than 100 years. Here are the the other volcanoes that lit up the sky this year.

Mass extinction events are sometimes portrayed in illustrations of volcanic eruptions causing widespread destruction. According to Dr. Richard E. Ernst of Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, expert on Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs), this interpretation may have some truth behind it, but not in the instantaneous way we might think. Ernst will report on his research on 1 November at the Geological Society of America's Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. The basaltic lava flowing from ancient volcanoes and the portion of magma (liquid rock) emplaced underground can create geologic conditions linked with climate change and, subsequently, extinction events. This climatic effect...

“Is the number of volcanic eruptions worldwide increasing? “Yes,” answers Michael Snyder in this startling article.“ During the 20th century, there were a total of 3,542 volcanic eruptions globally. That works out to approximately 35 eruptions per year. That may sound like a lot, but according to Volcano Discovery there are 36 volcanoes erupting around the world right now. In other words, the number of volcanoes erupting as you read this article is greater than the 20th century’s yearly average.“ And all of this is part of a larger trend. In 2013, we witnessed the most volcanic eruptions worldwide that...

Vast ranges of volcanoes hidden under the oceans are presumed by scientists to be the gentle giants of the planet, oozing lava at slow, steady rates along mid-ocean ridges. But a new study shows that they flare up on strikingly regular cycles, ranging from two weeks to 100,000 years -- and, that they erupt almost exclusively during the first six months of each year. The pulses -- apparently tied to short- and long-term changes in earth's orbit, and to sea levels--may help trigger natural climate swings. Scientists have already speculated that volcanic cycles on land emitting large amounts of carbon...

Give climate change credit for one thing: it’s endlessly versatile. There was a time we called it global warming, which meant what it said: the globe would get warmer. It was only later that we appreciated that a planet running a fever is just like a person running a fever, which is to say it has a whole lot of other symptoms: in this case, droughts, floods, wildfires, habitat disruption, sea level rise, species loss, crop death and more. Now, you can add yet another problem to the climate change hit list: volcanoes. That’s the word from a new study...

Geoscientists now overwhelmingly agree that a single large asteroid or comet impact, such as Chicxulub in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, could not have been the sole cause of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. Instead, new research in both planetary/space science and multiple earth-science specialties reveals that concomitant volcanic activity and the associated climate and environmental changes were significant contributing factors in four of the five major mass extinctions in Earth history.

Ajai RajSeptember 8, 2014 Last Friday's eruption at Iceland's Bardarbunga volcano had many worried about the possible impacts of a larger eruption on air travel. Another eruption at Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has caused a state of emergency to be declared on Big Island, as lava flows from the ongoing eruption have advanced within a mile of a residential zone. That's just one example of how much danger volcanoes pose to the U.S. — and we aren't doing much about it. Compared with Iceland, the U.S. is much more vulnerable to volcanic disasters — and has been failing at monitoring these...