Article Image

IPFS News Link • Geology

Predicting Volcanoes' Activity Is Tricky, and for Iceland, Nerve-Racking

• arclein

"Volcanoes are really difficult to predict because they are so nonlinear," said Pall Einarsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland. "They can suddenly decide to do something very different." Dr. Einarsson studies the earthquakes that usually accompany volcanic activity, caused by hot rock, or magma, rising within the earth and creating stresses and fractures. Seismic monitoring is essential for helping to determine if and when an eruption will occur and how it will proceed, but scientists also study the deformation of a volcano's surface ?" a sign of increasing pressure within ?" using G.P.S. units and satellite-based radar, and they also monitor gases and other indicators like the melting of snow or ice.


www.universityofreason.com/a/29887/KWADzukm