Unique Supervolcano Eruptions

Using models and simulations, volcanologists have determined that supervolcanoes erupt by very different mechanisms than smaller volcanoes, with the buoyancy of the molten rock creating stress that cracks open the top of the chamber instead of underground pressure building until it breaches the surface.

Signs of Volcanoes on Mars

High-resolution images of a group of valleys near the Martian equator named the Athabasca Valles show more than 250 coiling spiral patterns that resemble the lava flows on the Big Island of Hawaii, suggesting once-active volcanoes on Mars.

Interior of the Moon

A new study using data from Apollo-era seismic equipment and rock samples returned from those missions has determined the deepest parts of the lunar mantle to be up to 30% molten yet the absence of active volcanoes on the surface is prevented as this lunar magma is too dense to rise to the surface.

Predicting Volcanic Eruptions

New studies suggest the recharge of the magma reservoir beneath certain volcanoes with silicic magma and associated crystal growth in the century before an eruption may provide a means of predicting an eruption decades before the actual event.

Volcanoes Triggered Little Ice Age

A new study suggests a 50-year period that included four massive eruptions of tropical volcanoes triggered the "Little Ice Age," a period of extended cooling due to decreased solar radiation that lasted from about 1300 A.D. into the nineteenth century.

Death Valley Volcano Active

A new analysis of California's Death Valley Ubehebe Crater suggests that the volcanic blast that created the feature occurred more recently that previously believed, some 800 years ago instead of several thousand, recent enough to consider the volcano still potentially active.

New Zubair Island in Red Sea

A volcano in the Zubair island group in the Red Sea has erupted to create a new permanent island off the coast of Yemen, a barren and unnamed land mass measuring 1730 by 2300 feet.

Volcanoes on Far Side of Moon

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has found dormant rare silicate volcanoes on the far side of Earth's Moon, different from the more common basaltic types previously seen and revealing a more complex geology on the Moon than previously known.

Antarctic Subsea Volcanoes

A string of a dozen underwater volcanoes has been discovered in the Antarctic seas south of the South Sandwich Islands, many of them still active and some as tall as 10,000 feet above the ocean floor.

Yellowstone Magma Plume

Conductivity readings of the magma plume feeding the Yellowstone area have provided the first "geoelectric" three-dimensional image of the underground hotspot, revealing that the buried supervolcano may be larger than originally thought.

Pompeiians Killed by Heat

A new study and simulation reveals that the Pomepeiian victims of Mount Vesuvius were killed by one of six pyroclastic surges of hot gases and ash that swept over the area, and likely died instantly of heat shock from temperatures in excess of 300°C instead of asphyxiation, as previously believed.

Swarm of Saudi Earthquakes

With more than 30,000 earthquakes recorded between April and June 2009 in the northwest corner of Saudi Arabia, an ancient lava field known as Harrat Lunayyir, this area is shown to be unexpectedly volcanically active.

Undersea Asphalt Volcanoes

Seven huge mounds of extinct asphalt volcanoes have been discovered on the floor of the Pacific Ocean about 10 miles off the coast of California, the largest as tall as a six-story building and estimated to be about 35,000 years old.

Venus Is Geologically Active

New data from the ESA's Venus Express mission has shown evidence of recent lava flows on the surface of Venus, making it one of the few bodies in the solar system to be geologically active within the past 3 million years.

Devastating Ancient Volcano

A recent study has shown that the Sumatran volcano Toba, which erupted about 73,000 years ago, released about 800 cubic kilometers of ash into the air that blanketed the planet for about six years, dropping temperatures about 16°C and triggered an Ice Age that lasted 1800 years.

Ancient Supervolcano Eruption

A recent study provides "incontrovertible evidence" for the eruption of the supervolcano Toba on the island of Sumatra 73,000 years ago, an event that deforested much of India and initiated an "instant Ice Age" lasting about 1800 years and which threatened the human race with extinction.