I take it where I left it in my last post. Using volcanic signals (mainly sulfate spikes) in the Greenland and Antarctica ice cores, I listed the most powerful explosive eruptions between the years 1500 and 1900: Largest explosive eruptions, from 1900 to 1500 AD. Many of these eruptions have written records, so it was…
Figuring out the eruption history of Afar volcanoes is taking longer than I expected, so in the meantime, I will have to post about other topics. And lately, one that has been present in my volcano discussions, here and elsewhere, has been about caldera volcanoes. It’s nothing new that calderas generate all sorts of admiration…
Did you know that there is an international treaty on eruptions? In truth, there isn’t. But there is a treaty on nuclear explosions, and there are similarities between explosive volcanic eruptions and nuclear explosions. Banning eruptions would go a bit above the United Nations powers. Could a volcanic eruption appear as a nuclear test? There…
Volcanoes can be quite predictable, in a general sort of way. We know that Grimsvotn will erupt – just not when, although it is fairly likely to be within the next two years. Similarly, Mount Rainier will erupt some day, although this could be centuries or millennia off. Six years ago, we predicted that Mauna…
As the numbers for the Hunga Tonga eruption continues to come in it is becoming ever clearer that something truly momentous happened, something not seen or heard in 139 years. With a columnar height of 55 kilometres, an explosive pressure wave travelling several laps around the planet, forming a medium sized deadly tsunami, gouging out…
As more information comes in, it is time for a brief update, and for a theory on why the eruption of Hunga Tonga was so destructive for what was, after all, a fairly small volcano. The death toll of the tsunami at the moment stands at five, three at Tonga and two in Peru. There…
It seemed to come out of nowhere. In the midst of a quiet interlude, after the hugely damaging La Palma had ended, when the hugely touristic eruption at Fagradalsfjall failed to re-appear, and the hugely underwatched eruption at Kilauea continued to be underwatched, whilst we were waiting for Reykjanes (which some had predicted to recur…