Questions tagged [volcanic-hazard]
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Has Earth's geological activity calmed down in the past 250 million years?
In the past, the Earth's ecosystem has experienced catastrophic mass extinctions as a result of large-scale volcanic eruptions. One example is the event known as the "Great Dying", 252 ...
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Did the Geothermal Power Plant contribute to Pahoa's Lava Fissures?
There was lava in the area near the wells that the Puna Geothermal Venture facility created.
The plant has nine wells that run as deep as 8,000 feet, according to Wil Okabe, managing director for ...
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Eruptive fissures in Hawaii associated with Kilauea; what are they? What is really happening?
I hear news of "eruptive lava fissures" opening up in Hawaii, nine of them at last count. But I don't understand what these are really.
Are these existing, older lava tubes that are suddenly opening ...
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Volcanic activity in Taiwan, ever in recorded history, much chance in the near future?
News of Hawaii has got me thinking...
I've lived in Taiwan for many years and hiked many kinds geologically interesting mountain and seashore rock formations, seen steaming, sulfury fumaroles, even ...
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Would a Yellowstone eruption destroy global agriculture?
Someone recently claimed in my hearing that if the Yellowstone caldera were to erupt, the resulting ash cloud would end all agriculture for a year or two. (The speaker is not a scientist, and neither ...
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How are data from tiltmeters used to monitor volcanic activity?
I've just learned in this answer that tiltmeters (which I assume measure changes in tilt) are used near active volcanos. (Saw a mention in item 4. here also.)
What kind of geological (volcanological?)...
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How are flying drones and unmanned vehicled used for exploring volcanoes? [closed]
And what kind of vehicles and drones are used or are planned for now and for near future?
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Yellowstone Eruption Possibility?
What is the probability of the Yellowstone supervolcano erupting during any given year? I had heard that it erupts once every 100,000 years. Does that mean there is a .001% chance of it erupting ...
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Would a global cooling event disable solar energy usage?
Imagine that we've improved the level quality, affordability, and ease of use of photo-voltaic solar, and it's use is widely distributed in the USA. We've improved the grid for power distribution, we ...
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Is there a 'standard size' for volcanic eruptions in terms of gas output?
We saw recently the Iceland volcano Eyjafjallajökull produced significant gaseous output that impacted the flight paths of several planes.
When we look at volcanic gas components, we see they ...
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Can human activity affect volcanoes?
As part of a course on Natural Disasters, I have a group presentation in which we focus on a specific natural disaster. One of the questions we have to address is how human activity may have affected ...
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How big a risk is Mount Vesuvius for the local population?
How much of a risk does Mount Vesuvius pose for the population of the surrounding area?
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Earthquake severity during supereruption at Yellowstone caldera?
Theoretically, I ponder what type and strength a supereruption would generate, say for example at the Yellowstone caldera? The last supereruption was roughly 70,000 years ago when Toba erupted. It's ...
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how are the global effects of local environmental disasters?
Are there any local environmental catastrophes that affected another places in the world?
There is a huge list of environmental disasters on Wikipedia that I have found: https://en.wikipedia.org/...
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Can we reduce the scale of volcanic eruptions by drilling some canals or bombing some holes in the crater?
As we know, when large scale volcanic eruptions occurs, large amounts of ashes and lava rushed out at short time, is it possible to drill some canels or bomb some holes in the crater so that the gas ...
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Volcano magma chamber [duplicate]
If I use a really big drill and drill all the way down to a magma chamber what exactly would happen?
From what I understand we cant drill to a Magma Chamber because it is really hot, but I have a ...
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Are Pompeii and Herculaneum unique?
Has anyone ever found or gone looking for similar locations, i.e. volcanic eruption sites in which unfortunate victims – human and non-human – have been entombed in the volcanic ash, with the ...
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Can volcanos change the climate?
I have heard politicians claiming that volcanoes are the sole cause of global warming and using so called "NASA data" to show that the Earth is actually cooling instead of warming.
While the nature ...
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What caused a measurable patch of Mt. St. Helens' ash to be deposited across Oklahoma?
Looking at the ashfall distribution map from the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens (below), there is a measured 'patch' of ash depth significant enough to be measured occurring in Oklahoma.
What caused ...
user889
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What causes the entrainment of atmospheric gases towards a volcanic ash/tephra plume?
I understand that volcanic ash plumes can only rise to great heights (e.g. 50km) with the help of some other processes, as the velocity of the material ejected isn't great enough to send it high into ...
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Predicting volcanic eruptions by experimentally proven volatile outgassing observations
In the abstract for the article Forecasting Etna eruptions by real-time observation of volcanic gas composition (Aiuppa et al. 2007), the authors assert that real time monitoring of volcanic volatiles,...
user889
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Is there any consensus of what caused the Lusi Mud Volcano eruptions in Indonesia?
In May, 2006, the Lusi Mud Volcano in eastern Java, Indonesia came to life, smothering much of the surrounding land in mud.
According to the article Indonesia's Infamous Mud Volcano Could Outlive ...
user889
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Pyroclastic flow protection
Related to the question Why don't scientists use fire entry suits to study volcanoes?, where the issue of volcanologist protection against lava splatter and bombs is discussed. Another major and ...
user889
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Why don't scientists use fire entry suits to study volcanoes?
It seems like the only personal protective equipment
(PPE) that volcanologists use are aluminized suits that don't provide any protection from direct contact with lava, making an unexpected splash ...
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Will a volcano erupt in Australia soon?
A Science Daily article Volcanic eruptions long overdue in SE Australia (University of Melbourne, 2011), suggests that a volcanic eruption is potentially "long overdue" in south-east Australia (south-...
user889
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What geological processes affect the speed of Kilauea lava flows?
The recent lava flows from the current eruption from the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii have generated a considerable amount of interest and concern for property.
In the article slow-motion disaster as ...
user889
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What would be the precursors to a repeated Lake Toba super eruption?
Lake Toba, Indonesia is a supervolcano which was the site of
a massive supervolcanic eruption estimated at VEI 8 that occurred 69,000 to 77,000 years ago, representing a climate-changing event. It ...
user889
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Why would volcano eruption cause cardiac arrest?
Following recent eruption of Mt Ontake and the sad news of over 30 people found in 'cardiac arrest', why would the eruption cause it?
My initial thought would be that the cause of death would ...
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Why does volcanic dust pose such a hazard to air travel?
What properties does volcanic ash have that make it a hazard to aircraft jet engines which are not posed by other sources of atmospheric dust, such as Saharan dust? Is it merely a question of ...
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