Venus is home to some of the weirdest volcanoes in the solar system—massive, flattened domes that look like planetary pancakes left to cool on the world’s blistering surface. Scientists have long suspected these “pancake domes” formed from thick, slow-moving lava. But a new study suggests that Venus’ bendy crust may be crucial to the formation […]
Earth’s Core Is Leaking Gold Into Volcanoes, Scientists Say
Earth’s core is apparently a bit leakier than scientists expected. In a new study published in Nature, researchers describe evidence that traces of precious metals from Earth’s metallic core, including ruthenium and gold, are seeping up into volcanic rocks on the surface. The University of Göttingen-led team examined lava from Hawaii’s volcanic islands and discovered […]
Monitoring Tree Leaves From Space Could Help Predict Volcanic Eruptions
Forecasting volcanic eruptions is difficult, but not impossible. By keeping an eye on features such as ground deformation, changes in gas emissions, and ground tremors, volcanologists can sometimes make successful predictions, which save countless lives. NASA and the Smithsonian Institution are now teaming up to monitor another volcanic harbinger, but from space: leaves. Scientists already […]
An Early Mass Extinction Event Cooked Our Planet and Erased Most Life
252 million years ago, volcanic eruptions in modern-day Siberia spewed 100 trillion metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere over the span of a million years. This natural disaster, called the “Great Dying,” killed most animals on the planet. New research shows that it also dramatically changed Earth’s ecosystems. An international team of […]
Massive Supereruptions Might Not Trigger the Apocalypse, Just Decades of Chaos
Finally, there’s some good news on the climate apocalypse front. Climate experts have long believed that a volcanic supereruption—a mind-bendingly powerful explosion capable of altering Earth’s atmosphere—could wipe out a significant portion of life. But a new survey of geological records suggests the aftermath wouldn’t be quite as apocalyptic. It would still be bad—just not […]
Preserved in Glass: How Mount Vesuvius Locked This Roman’s Brain in Time
Nearly 2,000 years ago, Mount Vesuvius erupted, swallowing the nearby Roman towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii in a superheated cloud of ash, dust, and volcanic material. The environment was so hot that a team of researchers say it turned at least one resident’s brain into glass. Not only did the individual’s once-squishy, pinkish-white organ get […]
This Ethiopian Volcano Just Burped a Staggering Amount of Methane
There’s something odd happening under an Ethiopian national park. Volcanic and seismic activity were on the rise under a volcano named Mount Fentale, but the gas that began spouting out of the ground wasn’t what you’d expect from an impending eruption. Canadian greenhouse gas monitoring company GHGSat said in early February that the amount of […]