The eruption of Mauna Loa is a profound spiritual experience for many Native Hawaiians. An anthropologist explains Native American beliefs on the living Earth and volcanic lava.
Magma fountains through a fissure on Mauna Loa, becoming lava, on Nov. 30, 2022.
K. Mulliken/USGS
A scientist who led one of the first projects to map the Hawaiian Islands’ deep volcanic plumbing explains what’s going on under the surface as Mauna Loa erupts.
Drones can be used to collect gas samples from active volcanoes, where it is too dangerous for researchers. This data can be then used to predict the frequency and severity of eruptions.
A previously unknown filtering process inside some volcanoes can cause magma to shoot out like champagne from a bottle - and perhaps even make it easier to forecast when a volcano is about to erupt.
This isn’t a painting or a stained-glass window — it’s a microscope image of light shining through the Earth’s mantle.
Heather Handley
I look at fragments of the Earth’s mantle under a microscope to learn how fast molten rock moves from deep in the Earth to the surface. This can help us prepare for future volcanic eruptions.
Exploration of ancient magma chambers in fossil volcanoes has the potential to provide new sources of metals that will facilitate environmentally friendly technologies.
Sound waves let researchers visualize what’s happening below the surface.
Emilie Hooft
Geophysicists use sound waves to build a picture of the magma and rock beneath this active volcano, most of which is underwater. It’s like CT scanning the Earth.
The 2018 eruption of Kilauea volcano was preceded by damage of the magma plumbing system at the summit.
Courtesy of Grace Tobin, 60 Minutes
Compared to Earth, more “oomph” is required to bring magma to the surface of Mars, and this is probably why we haven’t seen any recent eruptions on the red planet.
Lifeguards and volunteers run across an ash covered slope after the June 3 eruption of the Fuego volcano in Guatemala.
Esteban Biba/AAP
Important points about volcanoes: location matters, explosiveness can be predicted to an extent, and fast-moving flows of volcanic materials (known as pyroclastic flows) are deadly.