Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology

Fire, Fog, Frost, Famine – French Revolution? The Lakagígar eruption in Iceland, 1783-1784 [Part 2]

Will Hutchison May 22, 2018

PART II: Were the Haze Hardships caused by Men? Famine Before the Lakagígar eruption, the population of Iceland was 48810 people; four years later, it was down to 38518. Disregarding about 1500 deaths which were caused by a smallpox epidemic, the eruption may still have killed about 1/6 of the population [5]. These deaths were not directly caused by the lava or by toxic gases. The main cause was h ...[Read More]

Fire, Fog, Frost, Famine – French Revolution? The Lakagígar eruption in Iceland, 1783-1784 [Part 1]

Will Hutchison May 9, 2018

“On the 8th of June 1783, at Whitsun, there gushed forth from the mountains behind the summer pastures a fire which devastated land, cattle and humans with its effects, both nearby and far away”, wrote Reverend Jón Steingrímsson of Kirkjubæjarklaustur in his autobiography [2]. The “fire” which welled up from a volcanic fissure now known as Lakagígar (the craters of Mount Laki) was the biggest floo ...[Read More]

Building a lava dome: one block at a time

Will Hutchison February 7, 2018

Lava domes form when lava is extruded from a volcanic vent, but is too viscous to flow far away. Think of thick treacle that does not flow as easily as runny honey, and so when it is extruded, it forms a “lava pile” around the vent. Lava domes commonly form within the crater of a larger volcano (e.g. Mt. St. Helens), but can also stand alone or form part of a “dome complex”. A lava dome can take o ...[Read More]

Living with volcanic gases

Will Hutchison January 30, 2018

Professor Tamsin Mather, a volcanologist in Oxford’s Department of Earth Sciences reflects on her many fieldwork experiences at Masaya volcano in Nicaragua, and what she has learned about how they effect the lives of the people who live around them. Over the years, fieldwork at Masaya volcano in Nicaragua, has revealed many secrets about how volcanic plumes work and impact the environment, ...[Read More]

A little fracture can go a long way: How experiments illuminate our understanding of volcanic eruptions

Will Hutchison December 1, 2017

$A little fracture can go a long way: How experiments illuminate our understanding of volcanic eruptions$

What controls how violently a volcano erupts? Stratovolcanoes like Mount St Helens (USA), Gunung Merapi (Indonesia), or Volcán de Colima (Mexico) tend to erupt in two distinct ways: effusively and/or explosively. Effusive eruptions are eruptions where lava is extruded without any major explosions. Although effusive eruptions can be dangerous, at stratovolcanoes they tend to be restricted to volcan ...[Read More]

Update on the Agung volcanic eruption in Indonesia

Will Hutchison November 29, 2017

Since our last blog, Agung has had two months to reflect and has recently begun a strong ash venting process, with incandescence visible at night in the summit. Updates from Magma Indonesia, the official communications hub for natural hazards in Indonesia, have highlighted an elevated level of volcanic tremor and an evacuation zone to 12 km radius around the volcano is being enforced. You can foll ...[Read More]

Ongoing unrest at Agung Volcano, Indonesia

Will Hutchison September 29, 2017

Agung volcano, a 3.1 km high cone located in the east of Bali, Indonesia, which last erupted in 1963 killing ~1500 people (Self and Rampino, 2012), is currently undergoing seismic unrest, and steam/gas emissions have been observed at the surface. This has led the Indonesian authorities to evacuate areas around Agung which could be affected by volcanic hazards, leading to the displacement of over 7 ...[Read More]

Unseen but not unfelt: resilience to persistent volcanic emissions

Will Hutchison September 28, 2017

The last decade has been inundated with reports of environmental disasters impacting the lives of billions of people around the world. While news coverage of floods, hurricanes, earthquakes or wild fires are always accompanied with spectacular images of destruction that emphasise the speed at which they strike, a myriad of slow and latent hazards have been left in the shadow of the public attenti ...[Read More]

The Fractional Crystallization Freak Zone

Will Hutchison August 31, 2017

A large majority of igneous rocks on Earth are formed by a process known as fractional crystallization (summarized in the diagram below). To understand this process, start by imagining a large liquid magma (melt) body. As we cool the magma, mineral phases become stable and crystals start to form. The newly formed minerals are likely to have a very different density from the magma causing them to f ...[Read More]

Welcome to the new GMPV blog!

Will Hutchison August 24, 2017

Welcome to the brand-new blog for the EGU Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology (GMPV) Division! The aim of this blog is to provide a unique space for all mineral geeks, volcanophiles and rocking chemists to tell the world about their latest research and exciting new ideas! The GMPV Division covers a huge range of themes including: the nature, composition, structure of the Earth’s ...[Read More]