It was June 1893, and the Fram expedition had just set off. On board the Fram were Otto Sverdrupp as captain, Fridtjof Nansen as science lead, and 11 other crew members. The goal was to reach the North Pole with the least amount of effort and the largest amount of risk. They would sail east…
Volcanology involves a lot of watching. It has that in common with another science: astronomy. Both are sciences where it is not really possible to do experiments. Instead we have to wait until nature decides to do something, and study events as and when they happen. In volcanology, the event itself may last hours to…
Imagine. You are being put in charge of planning for a future major volcanic eruption. All you have is an incomplete list of volcanoes in the world, some experience of past eruptions, and a few volcanologists as consultants. The politician who gave you the task has little idea of what might be involved and although…
Japan’s largest volcano lies hidden. It can be found, if you know where to look, by starting from the southern island of Kyushu. Find the active volcano Sakurajima. (We will come back to it later. But this is not that volcano.) Sakurajima lies in-between two bays, the twin calderas Aira and Ata: follow the bay…
Some fault systems in the world are well known for their destructive potential. Examples are Turkey’s North Anatolian fault and California’s San Andreas. In both cases, large events in the not-too-distant future are widely predicted. In Turkey, the march of magnitude-7 earthquakes towards Istanbul has drawn attention. The fault is both locked and stressed close…
Whirlwinds come in variations. The weaker category is known as dust devils, and the range extends to full-blown tornadoes – and even hurricanes can in some ways be seen as an outsized members. What they have in common is whirls, winds and heat. You can find them anywhere, from the deserts of Mars to the…
It was perhaps the most destructive event in Hawai’i in memory. And it was raised again in the blog comments recently. It turns out we have published a post on it in the past, written by Hector: https://www.volcanocafe.org/mauna-loa-from-1852-to-1868-part-2-the-1868-eruption-and-disaster/ Still, I had some bits together for a post on it so wrote it up anyway. Not…
The Southern Peninsula (Suðurnes) is the western part of the Reykjanes Peninsula; the border is drawn to exclude Reykjavik and its suburbs. Suðurnes is the first point of call for most visitors to Iceland. The main international airport, Keflavik, is located here: the road to Reykjavik runs along the entire northern coast of Suðurnes. It…
From Sinuessa to Misenum the coast forms a vast gulf; beyond this is another gulf still larger, which they name the Crater. It is enclosed by the two promontories of Misenum and the Athenæum. It is along the shores of these [two gulfs] that the whole of Campania is situated. This plain is fertile above…
It began 2 April 1991, 35 years ago this month. Hidden targets There are many volcanoes in the world. At any one time, perhaps 20 volcanoes may be erupting. Over a full year, on average around 50 volcanoes erupt. Some of these may erupt several times – as Kilauea has done episodically in spectacular fashion,…