Topic description and stories

View from Baliau village, Manam

New drone technology advances volcanic monitoring

30 Oct 2020

Specially-adapted drones, developed by an international team involving scientists from the University of Cambridge, are transforming how we forecast...

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Driftwood in Siberia

The testimony of trees: how volcanic eruptions shaped 2000 years of world history

28 Sep 2020

Researchers have shown that over the past two thousand years, volcanoes have played a larger role in natural temperature variability than previously...

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Above and beyond: measuring volcanic emissions with drones

06 Dec 2019

Dr Emma Liu travels to some of the world's most active volcanoes to understand what makes them erupt. Her latest work is helping a Pacific community...

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Women in STEM: Fiona Iddon

15 Aug 2019

Fiona Iddon is a PhD student in the Department of Earth Sciences, where she studies volcanoes. Here, she tells us about making science accessible...

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Magma erupting at the Holuhraun lava field in August 2014

‘Crystal clocks’ used to time magma storage before volcanic eruptions

18 Jul 2019

The molten rock that feeds volcanoes can be stored in the Earth’s crust for as long as a thousand years, a result which may help with volcanic hazard...

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Women in STEM: Victoria Honour

20 Jun 2019

Victoria Honour is a PhD candidate in the Department of Earth Sciences, who studies magma and emulsions. Emulsions are generally studied for making...

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Kīlauea eruption, 2018

Size matters: if you are a bubble of volcanic gas

06 Aug 2018

The chemical composition of gases emitted from volcanoes – which are used to monitor changes in volcanic activity – can change depending on the size...

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Volcanic eruption influenced Iceland’s conversion to Christianity

19 Mar 2018

Memories of the largest lava flood in the history of Iceland, recorded in an apocalyptic medieval poem, were used to drive the island’s conversion to...

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ISS013-E-24184 (23 May 2006) --- Eruption of Cleveland Volcano, Aleutian Islands, Alaska is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 13 crewmember on the International Space Station.

Link identified between continental breakup, volcanic carbon emissions and evolution

20 Jul 2017

Researchers have found that the formation and breakup of supercontinents over hundreds of millions of years controls volcanic carbon emissions. The...

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Tree rings pinpoint eruption of Icelandic volcano to half a century before human settlement

29 Jun 2017

An international group of researchers has dated a large volcanic eruption in Iceland to within a few months. The eruption, which is the oldest...

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Kiauea

‘Bulges’ in volcanoes could be used to predict eruptions

28 Jun 2017

A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge have developed a new way of measuring the pressure inside volcanoes, and found that it can be...

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Drones used to analyse ash clouds from Guatemalan volcano

11 Apr 2017

A team of volcanologists and engineers from the Universities of Cambridge and Bristol has collected measurements from directly within volcanic clouds...

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