#volcanology
Lecture This Friday: “The Volcano Lover”
Professor Gillen Wood will deliver a talk at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library on Friday titled “The Volcano Lover: Sir William Hamilton’s
Campi Phlegraei and the Craze for Vesuvius.” Join us to learn more about Sir William Hamilton’s research on Mount Vesuvius and see Campi Phlegraei for yourself!
This event is free and open to all. Refreshments will be served. More details here.
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Meet volcanologist Kayla Iacovino.
Part science-fiction sleuth, part mountaineer, Kayla works to unearth the mysteries deep within volcanos on Earth and in space! So how does her love of ‘Star Trek’ fuel her passion for science?
MORE ABOUT THIS EPISODE
When volcanoes erupt, gases blast from the earth in fast-moving pyroclastic flows destroying everything in their path. Torrents of molten magma create new landscapes. Massive calderas launch explosive boulders miles away.
But how do these destructive forces work? Scientists don’t have a full picture yet. It is currently impossible to fully understand the geochemical forces that lead to these destructive scenarios. But what if we could unravel this mystery by examining millennia-old cooled rocks and soils from these same eruptions?
Kayla Iacovino—part science fiction sleuth, part mountaineer—is doing just that. By hiking mountainous terrain or meandering through a city built on a dormant volcanic crater, the volcanologist collects rock samples from across the world in order to better understand the forces that created them.
At her experimental petrology lab at Jacobs-NASA Johnson Space Center, she subjects these samples to extreme pressure and temperature in “mini magma chambers” to recreate the conditions under which they formed. Ultimately, understanding how the molten materials deep within the Earth became rocks provides Iacovino insights about the overall geological makeup and origins of Earth.
We are so excited to unveil the latest season of Breakthrough, a short film anthology from Science Friday and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) that follows women working at the forefront of their fields. Breakthrough hopes to inspire a future generation of women to lead careers in STEM. New episodes drop weekly OR catch the entire series now on Alamo On Demand.
Learn more at BreakthroughFilms.org. If you are an educator or career counselor, don’t forget to check out the Breakthrough Inclusive Action Tool Kit.
This wall-like feature is a left over from a plumbing system of an ancient volcano and is called a dykeordike. When this volcano was active, this dyke would have served as a duct through which magma was transport to feed the surface lava eruption, or alternatively it could have been an off-shoot from the magma chamber that froze up within a body of a volcano.
Now, ~15 million years later the erosion has removed much of this volcano and so its internal magma plumbing system is nicely exposed and is dominated hard crystalline rocks which are much harder to erode. Thanks to this contrast in erosion we have a beautiful landscape of the Warrumbungle National Park.
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The Champagne Pool of the Waiotapu geothermal fields is located on North Island, New Zealand. This hydrothermal pool is always steaming as its waters are heated by volcanic activity deep underground. Array of colours in the pool that you can see, come from either arsenic and antimony metal-based minerals or microbial life that can thrive in extremely acidic, toxic and hot environments.
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Dirt + rock + acid + water = mud pool.
A mud pool that developed in a collapsed pit. Slow loss of water by evaporation or reduced recharge from groundwater caused this mud pool to slowly dry out.
Wai-O-Tapu geothermal fields
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Life on the geothermal fields has many benefits and of course fair few downsides too. Hot steam gushing out of the ground during cold winter provides more than just warmth. Locals actually slow cook their dinners over the steam outlets!
In the morning before work, pop a tray with meat and veggies into the steam built on top of the vent, and when you come back from work, dinner is beautifully cooked and ready for you to dig in! Or, if you prefer a boiled food, just put it all in a net and chuck into a hot spring pool for a bit and you got yourself cooked meal.
Hot springs are rich in alkalis and therefore work well as communal baths, which leave your skin clean and healthy. Obviously, communities assign a purpose for each pool, so no one bathes where others cook!
Whakarewarewa Village, New Zealand
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Volcanic gases puffing out of the ground at the Wai-O-Tapu geothermal fields in New Zealand. Main gases coming out of this vent are water vapour and carbon dioxide, however, many other gases can also be present in trace amounts, but this chemistry is dependent on the geological environment. Sulphur is definitely present in this mixture as can be observed by the yellow sulphur crystals forming around the mouth of the vent.
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Collapsed chamber with sulphur coated walls from volcanic gases. Sulphur is picked up from the rocks deep underground by the steam, that was heated by the magma ponding at depths. At the surface, exsolving gases precipitate the sulphur as the gases mix with the atmosphere.
Wai-O-Tapu, New Zealand
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Inside the plumbing system of an ancient volcano
A fossil plumbing system of an ancient Waitakere Volcano. Though the volcano went extinct and was largely eroded away, the lava flows that once spew from it are now preserved along the Maori Bay coast. The radial feature is an internal view of lava flow lobe that shows rosette style columnar jointing. This feature forms when large lava flow moves and cools slowly, allowing columns to grow, which at the same time are bent due to ongoing lava movement.
Muriwai, New Zealand
A detailed description of this flow is available in the following article:
Bear, A.N. and Cas, R.A.F., 2007. The complex facies architecture and emplacement sequence of a Miocene submarine mega-pillow lava flow system, Muriwai, North Island, New Zealand. Journal of volcanology and geothermal research, 160(1-2), pp. 1-22.
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etna just doin’ his thing…
