A map from 1794 shows Fuego Volcano next to Antigua and Nueva Guatemala.
British Library Board Add.MS 17650d
Fuego and other volcanoes are considered sacred in the Maya culture, but forced Spanish colonisers to move their new capital city.
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.
Deadly volcanic eruption in Guatemala.
EPA-EFE
Pyroclastic flows are biggest danger in these eruptions.
A massive fast moving lava flow from Kilauea consumes everything in its path, as the flames from the remnants of one home burns on the left, while it approaches another on the right.
EPA/Bruce Omori/Paradise Helicopters
The current eruption of Kilauea on Hawai'is big island can tell us a lot about what is going on beneath the volcano and may provide lessons for future eruptions.
Lava flows from Kīlauea.
EPA
At Kīlauea in Hawai'i, a recent volcanic eruption has created some of the most spectacular sights in nature. But also danger for those around it.
An ash plume rises from the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island.
AAP Image/CrowdSpark/Jillian Marohnic Volcano Hideaways
The Kīlauea volcano on Hawai'i’s big island is threatening to produce violent and energetic eruptions not seen since 1924.
Lava flow moves in the Leilani Estates subdivision near Pahoa on the island of Hawaii, May 6, 2018.
USGS via AP
Fountains of lava from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano are dramatic, but the most deadly impacts of volcanic eruptions are toxic gases and ash and mud flows.
Google Earth. Data SIO, NOAA, US Navy, NGA, GEBCO
East Africa Rift is undergoing a process that will see the Horn of Africa split from the rest of the continent.
Although it is very hot, when lava flows over the ground, it generally does not melt the soil or rock.
Marcella Cheng/The Conversation
The short answer is that while lava is hot, it’s not hot enough to melt the rocks that make up the side of the volcano.
Mayon Volcano erupts in Legaspi city, Philippines on 25 January 2018.
Francis R. Malasig/AAP
It feels as if volcanoes in our region are going off at a high rate right now - but it’s reasonably normal activity for the “Ring of Fire” belt running around the Asia Pacific.
Seismic shockwaves after a meteorite’s collision could affect systems all over the planet.
solarseven/Shutterstock.com
Research suggests a new threat to life on Earth from the meteorite’s crash: Via seismic waves, the impact triggered massive undersea eruptions, as big as any ever seen in our planet’s history.
Shutterstock
A new study has found a way to predict eruptions at Mount Etna within two weeks.
Cristobal Garciaferro / shutterstock
We asked three volcanologists what to look out for in the year ahead.
The Mount Agung volcano spews smoke, as seen from Karangasem, Bali.
EPA-EFE/MADE NAGI
Robots, like drones, are filtering the natural world through algorithms and turning the world into data.
Made Nagi / EPA
And will the aviation sector implement vital lessons learned from Icelandic disruption in 2010?
Drones being used to find survivors after an earthquake in Ecuador in 2016.
Fotos593
Stand by for drones, robots and sensors to the rescue.
International passengers at Ngurah Rai International Airport, Bali, Indonesia on November 29 th, 2017. Thousands of tourists were stranded and could not go home after Mt Agung volcano erupted.
Reuters/Johannes P. Christo
Until late November, Bali’s high economic dependence on tourism led its Tourism Board to dismiss the dangers of the Mount Agung volcano. This severely undermined the reputation of destination Bali..
Children observe the eruption of Mount Agung on Bali, November 29, 2017.
Muhammad Fauzy Chaniago/AAP
‘Volcano forensics’ involves a mixture of modern day monitoring and analysis of past eruptions. Geologists use volcanic rocks as a kind of time capsule to assess what happened previously.
Where there’s smoke, there will be lava?
U.S. Geological Survey via AP
How do scientists predict volcanic eruptions? To do so with accuracy, they need to know the individual volcano and its history very well.
The eruption of Mount Agung viewed from Muncan Village in Karangasem district, Bali, on November 28, 2017.
Muhammad Fauzy Chaniago/AAP
The world watches and waits to see what will happen next at Bali’s Mt Agung, an active volcano.