We are happy to continue our tradition of April-1 stories that are almost true. Some of the science is correct – although we do NOT recommend sulphur-sniffing! April-1 should be a time of happiness. If you would like to re-read our previous ‘almost true’ stories The Sicilian affair Iceland eruption postponement Lava lake to provide…
Lanzarote ranks as one of the most obviously volcanic places on the planet. The island is covered with craters, cones and lava fields. The dry and frost-free climate means that volcanic features weather only slowly, and vegetation has had a hard time gaining any meaningful foothold on the land. The cones and lava go back…
This post was published by the author at https://peakbook.org/Þróndeimr/tour/437021/Vulkanutbrudd+på+La+Palma.html, and is reproduced and translated) here by kind permission by the author. Volcanoes have fascinated me since I was little but it was not until the eruption on Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 that I looked at the possibilities and began to reflect on the idea of going…
Guest post by Tallis Humans have always had some fascination with rankings, some of the most popular videos and articles on the internet have dealt with comparisons and rankings. However, this doesn’t mean that it is just another useless fad, on the contrary, a well thought-out “Top 10 list” can be very informative. For disasters,…
A guest post by Tallis The very worst case scenarios are rarely considered for disasters and for usually a good reason. They are either so unlikely or so boring that there is no point in worrying or thinking about it. The worst case impact event is one that would completely destroy the Earth and make…
Some things are so easy to miss and once they are noticed, we either crawl into a fetal position and cry ourselves to sleep or become very excited over the new prospect. I have done both recently and formulated my own hypothesis, concerning silicic systems and their dynamics. After looking at the previously mentioned supercomplexes,…
One from the archives (from 2013, with small additions). Karen Z on Snowdonia The British Isles have an extreme diversity of geology. Travel 20 miles from just about anywhere, and you’ll find a region with a very different history. Almost every geological division of time left a mark somewhere here. I live on ice age…
Big intrusions = Big bangs? With mafic systems hogging all the attention, as a felsic guy, I feel compelled to represent my magma type. Large felsic systems are a slow burn, they spend plenty of time accumulating magma and give frequent small eruptions before releasing huge amounts of material in one eruption. These systems usually…
Carl This post was written by Carl in 2012, during an eruption of Soputan. Some updates have been done and some hindsight has been added. Some volcanoes just can’t catch a break. Imagine for a little while that you are a bona fidé supervolcano. You are the largest of your type on the planet, you…
Guest post from Tallis If you were to ask a volcano enthusiast “What is the most dangerous volcano on the planet?” you’d get a range of answers. From a novice, Yellowstone, from someone who only knows of American calderas, the Long Valley caldera. The generic but not wrong, Vesuvius, Mt Rainier, Campi flegrei, Paektu, Santorini,…