Volcanic activity encompasses all processes associated with the movement and eruption of magma and volatiles from Earth’s interior to its surface, including effusive lava flows, explosive eruptions, degassing, and the formation of associated edifices and deposits. It is governed by magma generation in the mantle and crust, melt composition, temperature, volatile content, and tectonic setting (e.g., subduction zones, rifts, hotspots). Volcanic activity is studied through petrology, geophysics, gas geochemistry, geodesy, and remote sensing to quantify eruption dynamics, magma ascent rates, and hazard potential, and it exerts major controls on crustal growth, surface morphology, and volatile fluxes to the atmosphere and hydrosphere.
Volcanic eruptions can have dramatic consequences. But how can we anticipate this phenomenon, which unfolds up to tens of kilometers beneath the surface?
Earth Sciences
Aug 27, 2025
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Volcanoes that blast gases high into the atmosphere not only change global temperatures but also influence flooding in unusual ways, Princeton researchers have found.
Earth Sciences
Aug 26, 2025
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Hawaii's Kilauea volcano resumed erupting Friday by shooting an arc of lava 100 feet (30 meters) into the air and across a section of its summit crater floor.
Environment
Aug 23, 2025
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Atmospheric waves from a massive 2022 South Pacific volcanic eruption created seismic waves that penetrated Earth to at least 5 kilometers in Alaska, creating an opportunity to employ an unusual method of peering into the ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 21, 2025
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148
Lava shoots high into the sky. Molten rock erupts from two vents simultaneously. The nighttime sky glows red and orange, reflecting the lava oozing across a summit crater.
Environment
Aug 19, 2025
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What do volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tropical storms have in common? More than it seems—especially when they occur on fragile volcanic islands like the Galápagos. This iconic archipelago, world-renowned for its unique ...
Environment
Aug 7, 2025
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A volcano on Russia's far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula erupted overnight into Sunday for what scientists said is the first time in hundreds of years, days after a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake.
Environment
Aug 4, 2025
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A volcano in Russia's far east erupted on Wednesday, Russian scientists said, hours after a major quake prompted evacuations and tsunami alerts across parts of the Pacific coast.
Environment
Jul 30, 2025
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52
Earth's continents may look fixed on a globe, but they've been drifting, splitting and reforming over billions of years—and they still are. Our new study reveals fresh evidence of rhythmic pulses of molten rock rising beneath ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 20, 2025
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Yellowstone, a popular tourist destination and namesake of an equally popular TV show, was the first-ever national park in the United States. And bubbling beneath it—to this day—is one of Earth's most seismically active networks ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 19, 2025
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