You are browsing the archive for volcanoes Archives - Page 4 of 8 - Magma Cum Laude.
8 February 2011
Volcano analogies for kids
I just had a great time talking with a first-grade class about volcanoes this afternoon – something that I love to do with kids of any age (and those who never really grow up, too). They came up with excellent, insightful questions about volcanoes and volcanic processes, and I was definitely kept on my toes when it came to answering. In fact, I definitely find it more challenging to talk to kids about geology than I do to adults, because kids are still learning about the world around them – they don’t necessarily have the background knowledge that an adult would, so I have to choose carefully how to explain things. It’s not a matter of “dumbing down” my answers at all, but a matter of putting them into context. This is where geologic analogies come into play.
2 February 2011
Foliage vs. Geology: Plants on volcanoes
What plants really do like to live on volcanoes – and what kinds have I come across? Plant types on volcanoes could be divided into two rough categories: rock and soil dwellers. A rock dweller might thrive on a young or an old volcano, but plants that need soil are only going to do well on an older volcano (which has had time to form soil), or a tropical one (where soil formation is accelerated because of the climate). Volcanic rocks are often (but not always) full of vesicles, which makes them porous and ideal for retaining water. Volcanic soils are generally referred to as andisols, which are soils that form on volcanic ash and contain volcanic glass and compounds of elements such as Fe, Al and Si. (Ions of those elements, which are released by leaching and weathering of volcanic rock, can form complexes with organic matter; in addition to an andisol’s ability to retain water, this can make for very fertile growing conditions.) Andisols in the US are, not surprisingly, concentrated in the Cascades and northern California – where we have large stratovolcanoes and an excellent supply of volcanic ash.
7 December 2010
Let it snow! But maybe not on that volcano…
In honor of the snow (finally) reaching the north of Buffalo, I thought I’d write a post about volcanoes with chilly tops – i.e., ones covered in snow or glaciers. Although we tend to think of volcanoes as ‘hot’ geologic features, it’s fairly common for a volcano to be snow- or glacier-topped. More so for stratovolcanoes (like Rainier in the Cascades, or Fuji in Japan, or pretty much any volcano in Alaska), but it can happen at shield volcanoes too (such as Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa in Hawaii
20 November 2010
Eruption rates at volcanoes
One of the things that I come across when I’m working on my thesis is details about how much lava is being produced at a volcano (usually in a volume flux, such as cubic meters/second). In my case, it has to do with how quickly a lava dome is growing, though this also applies to more fluid eruptions as well. But it can be hard to put these numbers into …
29 October 2010
Geological Frightfest: El monstruo de los volcanes
Tonight’s post will be a short one, because it’s Friday and I just spent the last hour carving a pumpkin. This Frightfest offering comes via the suggestion of a devoted reader (thanks, Mom!), and I had to post it, even though I can’t find out a lot about the movie. This is the best I could dig up for El Monstruo de los Volcanes: A yeti-like creature with the power …
20 September 2010
Distinguishing deposits from andesitic eruptions
Telling apart different kinds of deposits associated with volcanic eruptions isn’t always easy. There are a lot of factors that can affect their appearance: the location and type of eruption, the magma/lava type, where they’re emplaced, etc. On Montserrat, volcanologists are lucky to have both ancient and modern deposits; they can look at what’s currently being erupted and compare it to the older volcanics on the island. We did quite …
8 September 2010
February 2010 dome collapse deposits at Soufriere Hills
If you ever want to visit a post-apocalyptic wasteland, someplace that’s been run over by pyroclastic flows would be a great choice. On February 11 of this year, a partial dome collapse on the northeastern flank of the Soufriere Hills lava dome produced spectacular pyroclastic flows, surges, and a 50,000 ft (~15 km) high ash plume. The pyroclastic flows extended the eastern coastline significantly in the area of the old …
24 August 2010
In the Humorous Vein #14
I’m still getting ready for the semester here, so at the suggestion of A Lifelong Scholar, I’m resurrecting an old series I was working on and giving you a humorous interlude. (This is one of the photos from my travels this summer; can anyone guess where it was taken?)
19 June 2010
The Santiaguito Volcano Observatory needs your help!
While I was in Guatemala working at the Santiaguito lava dome complex, my field group had a lot of help from the Instituto Nacional de Sismologia, Vulcanologia, Metereologia e Hidrologia (INSIVUMEH). And when I say a lot, I mean “helped organize every logistical detail of the trip and gave us a place to stay at the Santiaguito Volcano Observatory“. I could never have done any of this work without their help, …
18 June 2010
Volcano Vocab #5: Caldera
Part of my research this summer involves visiting Los Alamos to learn how to work with a computer model; in addition to one of the world’s greatest research laboratories, northern New Mexico also hosts the Valles caldera, a major volcanic center north of Albuquerque. (Pretty much everything around me is volcanic, which means that whenever I drive or bike anywhere, I’m always staring at the scenery and going “holy crap, …
Jessica Ball is a volcanologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, researching volcanic hydrothermal systems and stability, and doing science communication for the California Volcano Observatory. She previously worked at the Geological Society of America's Washington DC Policy Office, learning about the intersection of Earth science and legislative affairs. Her Mendenhall postdoc and PhD focused on how water affects the stability of volcanoes, and involved both field investigations and numerical modeling applications. Her blogging covers a range of topics, from her experiences in academic geosciences to science outreach and communication to her field and lab work in volcanology.