Volcanoes

volcanoes

USGS fights false Yellowstone warning

Blogging on EARTH

14 Jan 2009

Swarm of earthquakes rattles Yellowstone

An abnormally high number of earthquakes has shaken up Yellowstone National Park in the past week. Since Friday, a “swarm” of more than 250 low-magnitude, shallow quakes has repeatedly rattled an area under Yellowstone Lake, with the highest-magnitude tremor — a magnitude-3.9 quake — on Saturday. The seismic activity has raised fears that the quakes may foreshadow a larger earthquake, or a volcanic eruption — but scientists say there isn’t yet reason to fear an eruption.

31 Dec 2008

AGU: Mount St. Helens has gone back to sleep

SAN FRANCISCO — After more than three and a half years of continuous eruption, Mount St. Helens in Washington quieted earlier this year. Following intense monitoring efforts, the volcano is officially “asleep,” researchers reported Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

18 Dec 2008

AGU: Aloha, magma! Geothermal engineers drill into surprising lava

SAN FRANCISCO — While drilling deep into Earth, geothermal engineers struck geological gold, opening a never-before-seen window into a classic geologic process: how basalt magma becomes granite. The find, they announced at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union on Tuesday, could amount to the first magma observatory on Earth.

16 Dec 2008

Travels in Geology: Taking in Hawaii's Big Island

For a bit of money, visitors to Hawaii can indulge their touristy impulses with a single night of mai tais and luaus. But take on Hawaii’s geologic hallmarks, and you’ll embark on a low-cost safari that will last you all week.

26 Sep 2008

Beads of water on the moon

During the Apollo missions, NASA astronauts shoveled, bagged and sent back to Earth close to 400 kilograms of lunar rocks and soil. But researchers studying these samples never found water. Now, after decades of coming up dry, scientists have found evidence that the moon’s interior once held — and perhaps still holds — water.

28 Aug 2008

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