Mt Ruapehu is the largest mountain on the North Island of New Zealand. As well as being a popular ski resort, Ruapehu is an active andesitic stratovolcano. Formed approximately 200,000 years ago, activity is currently confined to the Crater Lake vent; this deep depression fills with water from snow melt between eruptive episodes. Similarly to the recent eruption of Mount Ontake in Japan, Ruapehu h ...[Read More]
Alumnus profile #6 – Dr Sam Engwell
Dr Sam Engwell Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher, INGV PhD title “Dynamics and Deposits of Large Explosive Eruptions” 1) The Twitter Challenge: Describe your PhD in 140 characters Investigation of eruption processes during supereruptions by analysis of deposits in deep-sea sediments.
Phreatic eruptions – the silent assasins
The recent eruption of Mt Ontake, Japan tragically killed at least 50 hikers who were on the volcano at the time. Within hours of the eruption taking place, social media was flooded with first-hand video footage illustrating just how close many survivors came to perishing in an onrushing pyroclastic flow. Despite having a sophisticated seismic and geodetic monitoring system, many news reports stat ...[Read More]
Review of the BGS myVolcano iPhone app
A few months ago, Elspeth posted a review of her top geology-themed mobile phone apps. Since then, the resourceful folk at the British Geological Survey (BGS) have come up with a new contender; here we take a look at myVolcano. Before we get started, the important details: myVolcano is free to download but is only currently available on Apple’s iOS (an Android version is in the pipeline). Yo ...[Read More]
Science Snap (#25): Vesuvius, Andy Warhol
Quite simply, volcanoes are inspiring. I’ve yet to meet someone who disagrees. The majestic volcanic landscape has thus been an inspiration to many an artist and author, whether intentional or not. Furthermore, artwork itself can be a valuable tool to help decipher and understand eruptions and their effects on the climate. Pictured here is Vesuvius erupting in all its glory and is one of my ...[Read More]
Science snap (#23): Pacaya Volcano
Pacaya Volcano, Guatemala, is almost continuously erupting, making it one of Guatemala’s most active volcanoes and a popular tourist destination. The volcano last erupted on March 2, 2014, shown in the image here taken by the MODIS instrument on the Terra satellite. Although the volcano has been kicking off since January, in March Pacaya erupted with small explosions and diffuse ash plumes, ...[Read More]
Tolbachik – a mineralogist’s paradise
Tolbachik is a basaltic volcanic massif lying at the southern end of the Kliuchevskoi group in Kamchatka, Russia. It comprises two overlapping cones: Plosky Tolbachik, a Holocene shield volcano extending to 3 km in diameter; and the older (Pleistocene) Ostry Tolbachik, a sharp-topped stratovolcano reaching some 3,700 m in height.
Using garnet geochemistry to investigate the lithospheric mantle beneath northern Tanzania
Sorcha McMahon is a third year PhD student in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. Sorcha is investigating how strange igneous rocks called carbonatites may have formed, using both natural samples and high-pressure experiments. As part of my undergraduate MSci course at the University of Cambridge, I carried out a project investigating a collection of thin sections from perid ...[Read More]
What’s up in Bolivia?
James Hickey is a PhD student in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. A geophysicist and volcanologist by trade, his PhD project is focussed on attempting to place constraints on volcanic unrest using integrated geodetic modelling. To many, Bolivia is just an unassuming landlocked country in South America, perhaps most famous for its coca tea obsession and ‘gap yah’ alpaca wo ...[Read More]
Rocky secrets – fifty shades darker?
Mel Auker is an Earth Sciences PhD student in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. A mathematician by trade, Mel’s PhD uses numerical approaches to better understand past, present, and future global volcanic hazard and risk. You might remember Charly’s “Fifity Shades of Grey” post, highlighting the colourful spectrum of rocks; fifty shades of grey they are not. On a pur ...[Read More]