“Popocatépetl provides an excellent example of how the perception of risk is strongly influenced by the recent eruptive history and not by a full geological record, particularly among the people dwelling in the endangered areas and the media.” I think the above is probably a good quote that describes one of the biggest issues that…
In 1997 I spent a couple of weeks in an old rust bucket of a merchant ship in the company of navy people trying their best to look like Philippine merchant mariners. Just seeing them hurting over not being allowed to make the ship look ship shape and Bristol ready was a hoot, they were…
Some volcanoes just can’t catch a break. Imagine for a little while that you are a bona fidé supervolcano. You are the largest of your type on the planet, you are highly active, and by gosh you have shown what you are capable of. In a perfect world your 20 by 30 caldera explosion should…
The Amsterdam St Paul hotspot is one of the weaker hotspots around. It has created the St Paul and Amsterdam Islands, the now active Boomerang Seamount (last known eruption 1995), and an elongated chain of seamounts called the Chain of Dead Poets. These are remnants of the eruptive wake of the Amsterdam St Paul hotspot…
Glowing avalanches, pyroclastic flows or nuees ardentes, or whatever you want to call them, are probably the most feared and deadly of the volcanic solid products pouring down the flanks at speeds up to 100km/h+ at temperatures of 500°C or more (lead melts at 330°C, glass softens at 550°C). They are composed of incandescent rock…
VolcanoCafé 
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