Volcanos, features and articles | Educational Science

Jul 31, 2013

One-Shot Volcanoes Can Be Explosively Dangerous

Volcanoes with multiple eruptions get all the glory, earning top spots on lists of the world's most dangerous and most famous fiery mountains. But monogenetic volcanoes, which erupt briefly and then die, are more common on land than volcanoes such as Mount St. Helens and Mt. Etna, which periodically outpour...

Apr 30, 2013

Photo Glossary: Hawaii's Amazing Volcanic Rocks

Hawaii's Rocks From'A'a to (almost) Z (Image credit: Robert Simmon, NASA's Earth Observatory, using data from USGS and NASA) An amazing variety of rocks appear in Hawaii from a single type of molten rock called basalt. Here's a guide to some of the weird and wonderful stones that result from...

Apr 30, 2013

Costa Rica's Turrialba Volcano Erupts

Costa Rica's restless Turrailba volcano rumbled to life early Tuesday morning (May 21), spitting ash and steam from its summit and prompting a small-scale evacuation. The small blast started at two fissures in the volcano's West Crater, the same site of earlier eruptions in 2010 and 2012, according to the...

Aug 31, 2014

Iceland Volcano Sparks New Flooding Threat

Iceland's fiery Holuhraun eruption may soon tunnel under a nearby glacier, triggering an explosive showdown between lava and ice, according to scientists monitoring the volcanic turmoil. To make space for the fresh magma feeding the eruption, rock underneath nearby Dyngjujokull glacier has cracked, forming a long depression called a rift...

Jul 31, 2014

Dead Volcano, Dying Lake Seen from Space (Photo)

A volcano that once poked out of a salty lake in Iran now sits on the shores of the drying body of water. This extinct volcano sits by Lake Urmia, one of the largest lakes in the Middle East, according to NASA's Earth Observatory, But Lake Urmia is shrinking rapidly....

Jul 31, 2014

Iceland Volcano Blasts Back to Life

A new volcanic eruption in southeast Iceland on Sunday (Aug. 31) fountained lava nearly 200 feet (60 meters) into the air. Lava is spewing from the same crack as a small eruption that occurred Friday (Aug. 29). The fissure slices through the 200-year-old Holuhraun lava field, between Bardarbunga volcano and...

Apr 30, 2014

Photos: Hawaii's New Underwater Volcano

A rocky resting place (Image credit: University of Hawaii at Manoa)A newly-discovered volcano, named Ka'ena, erupted 5 million years ago in the deep waters south of Kauai. It was the first of three volcanoes that would form the island of Oahu. Researchers recently showed that Ka'ena was a separate volcano,...

Jul 31, 2015

Unforgettable Images Capture Volcano Rumbling to Life

The towering volcano of Cotopaxi, which looms over Ecuador, recently began erupting. Photographers Jorge Castillo and Lucas Bustamante recently captured photos of the stunning ash plumes emerging from the volcano. The volcano has blanketed nearby towns and villages with a fine dusting of ash, as the locals wait to see...

Aug 31, 2017

3 People Die After Falling into Volcanic Crater

Three members of a family have died after falling into a volcanic crater in Italy, according to news reports. The family of four from northeastern Italy was on vacation in Pozzuoli, viewing the sulfurous Solfatara crater. Their 11-year-old son ran through a safety barrier and went onto an unstable portion...

May 31, 2018

The Science Behind Hawaii's Surprising 2018 Volcanic Eruption

Kilauea volcano is spewing lava and belching hazardous gases on Hawaii's Big Island, forcing more than 1,700 people to evacuate their homes. Eruptions aren't anything new on Kilauea. In particular, the Pu'u 'Ō'ō vent, where lava is visible, has erupted almost continuously since January 1983. But the latest eruption took...

Jan 31, 2018

8 Trillion 'Gallons'! Huge Blob of Magma Found Atop Undersea Volcano

A giant undersea caldera near Japan hosts a lava dome made from 8 trillion gallons of molten rock. The dome, which is 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) wide and 1,968 feet (600 meters) tall, is solid rock now, and it doesn't presage an impending eruption. However, it does add a new...

Dec 31, 2017

Tiny Volcano Crystals Could Help Predict Eruptions

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Predicting when a volcano is going to explode is a very difficult task. Every volcano has its own unique and complex maze of tunnels that feed magma to the...

Oct 31, 2020

Huge eruption of Italian volcano sends ash hundreds of feet into the air

An explosion on the slopes of Stromboli sent an avalanche of pyroclastic flow rushing down the side of the Italian volcano on Monday (Nov. 16). The stronger-than-usual explosion was captured on cameras operated by the Istituto Nazionale Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). Imagery shared by Il Mondo dei Terremoti on Twitter...

Mar 23, 2021

Drone footage reveals dramatic Iceland volcanic eruption

After a 900-year nap, a volcano in Iceland erupted Friday (March 19), spewing tendrils of molten lava down its flanks and bathing the cloudy night sky in an ominous orange-red. Gorgeous and fiery photos show the Fagradalsfjall volcano, located about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Reykjavik near the Reykjanes...

Apr 9, 2021

Explosive volcanic eruption rocks Caribbean island, as evacuations continue

A volcano on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent erupted on Friday (April 9) following increased seismic activity and mandatory evacuations in the area, spewing ash tens of thousands of feet into the air. At 9:08 a.m. ET, St. Vincent and Grenadines' National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) tweeted that the...