Part 2: The Volcanoes In this part we are touring the volcanoes of São Miguel. I wanted to write a good tour post on these and as told in part one it is meant as an accompany that you read on your phone when you are visiting the island. São Miguel Island consists of six…
Part 1 Introduction to São Miguel After writing my Ionian articles (there will be more Io later, since after all it has the solar system’s most magnificent active volcanoes) I felt it is time to return to Earth again, to a much smaller scale volcanism which we can visit in person. The Azores is a…
By Jesper Sandberg 1. The variety of moons out there and the discovery of Io’s true nature After writing my article on the Pillan Pateras 1997 eruption, it is time to return to Io with a general overview, because there are not many articles on this. Jupiter’s Moon Io is by far the most volcanic…
My own expedition into Etna’s center Jesper Sandberg Introduction I have always been addicted to volcanoes, and that addiction has resulted in many volcanic visits over my last 27 years of life, and I have indeed made many volcanic visits. The highpoint of that was seeing the live lava flows at Kilauea: of course Kilauea…
Introduction Jupiter’s Moon Io is the most volcanic place in the solar system. The most powerful active volcanoes known to exist cannot be found here on Earth, but on Io, a small moon of Jupiter, and it is therefore an enormous fascination for me. Io is a volcanic powerhouse, so volcanic it is very much…
This is the last part of my article series, and it will be about the most complicated stuff: a look at the behaviour of Nyiragongo’s lava and how fluid it really is. In part three we had a look at how unusual its low silica magma chemistry is, and how this led to the famous…
Introduction In part one I took a close look at the large scale forces that drive volcanism in Africa, at continental rifting in its different stages and the types of magma chemistry that form because of it. I also discussed the origin of the forces that created Nyiragongo and Virunga in the first place. In…
Nyiragongo history of activity and nature of its eruptive activity (See here for Part I) Nyiragongo’s beautiful steep cone, encased in its unsettling night glow, towers over the densely populated Kivu region that is home to millions of people. The volcanic edifice itself measures around 13 kilometers wide and rises to 3470 meters above lake…
Introduction Nyiragongo is one of my favourite volcanoes and one of the most peculiar and most unusual of all active volcanoes on this planet. It’s also a very problematic volcano, close to a huge population center that is rapidly growing, and there is a lot of risks associated with its volcanism as well as with…