Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 28, 2023

Yellowstone supervolcano magma chamber has far more melted rock than thought

The amount of melted rock beneath Yellowstone's supervolcano is far higher than previous estimates, a new study has found. While researchers say there is no sign of an imminent eruption, the discovery provides a more detailed view of what's going on in the enormous magma chamber that sits beneath the...

Jun 30, 2023

Ground beneath Italy’s awakening 'supervolcano' rose 66 feet before its last eruption

The ground around Italy’s awakening supervolcano rose by up to 66 feet (20 meters) before its previous eruption, a new study has revealed. In 1538, the ground below Campi Flegrei, near Naples, swelled to a breaking point then burst, burying the Roman-era village of Tripergole beneath a torrent of muddy...

Jul 11, 2023

Were Neanderthals really killed off by Campi Flegrei, Europe's awakening 'supervolcano'?

Deep beneath Earth's surface, the Campi Flegrei supervolcano near the city of Naples might be slowly stirring into life. This epic volcano has a devastating history, and some experts believe an eruption 40,000 years ago could have played a role in the extinction of the Neanderthals. But did it really...

Jul 12, 2023

Earth's newest 'baby' volcano is painting Iceland's Fagradalsfjall region with incandescent lava

Earth's newest volcano has been born via a brand new volcanic fissure that opened up on Iceland's Reykjanes peninsula, spewing fountains of molten rock from the ground. The event marks the third year in a row that the underlying Fagradalsfjall lava field has erupted. The latest eruption occurred on Monday...

Jul 18, 2023

Scientists discover ancient, underwater volcano is still active — and covered in up to a million giant eggs

Researchers exploring an ancient, underwater volcano off the Pacific coast of Canada have discovered it is still active — and covered in thousands of giant eggs. Before the expedition, the team thought the volcano was extinct and the waters around it frigid. However, they found the underwater mountain — which...

Jul 20, 2023

Watch as crater collapses in Iceland's new volcano, spewing rivers of lava

(Video credit: Video courtesy of the National Icelandic Broadcasting Service) In Iceland, the world's newest baby volcano is throwing a temper tantrum: It's overflowing and spewing spatter bombs, or blobs of molten lava, into the surrounding crater. The volcano formed on July 10, when an underground eruption opened a 1.7-mile-long...

Jul 24, 2023

Lava outburst 3 times the size of Texas may have triggered Snowball Earth 717 million years ago

Devastating volcanic eruptions may have been so enormous they turned the planet into Snowball Earth 717 million years ago, a study has found. The volcanic outburst — one of the largest in Earth's history — likely triggered a series of chemical reactions that sucked carbon dioxide (CO2) from Earth's ancient...

Jul 27, 2023

Iceland's 'baby volcano' is still spewing lava rivers, in a tantrum visible from space

New drone footage released Wednesday (July 26) confirms that a volcanic eruption on Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula is still going strong, shooting geysers of molten lava into the sky. In the video, a thick ribbon of glowing red lava can be seen coursing through the charred landscape. Geologists are calling the...

Jul 27, 2023

One of the world's most active volcanoes is spewing out weird rings of smoke

Europe's most active volcano, Mount Etna, is blowing scores of ethereal vortex rings every day from a single vent located in one of its most active craters. On July 23, Boris Behncke, a volcanologist with Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology who is based in Sicily alongside Mount Etna,...

Aug 2, 2023

Iceland's newest volcano is now spewing out tornadoes

Iceland's newborn volcano is announcing its arrival with a bang, spewing out methane explosions and tornadoes to complement the ribbons of lava painting the landscape. Loud bangs echoed from the eruption site on the Reykjanes Peninsula, the Icelandic Met Office reported on July 27, indicating that pockets of methane gas...

Aug 8, 2023

Volcanoes like Kīlauea and Mauna Loa don't erupt like we thought they did, scientists discover

Volcanoes that sit within Earth's tectonic plates don't erupt how scientists thought they did. It turns out, magma within these volcanoes is propelled up and out of the ground by carbon dioxide — not by water, as was previously thought, a new study finds. This magma also shoots up from...

Oct 11, 2023

Massive New Zealand eruption 1,800 years ago flung volcanic glass 3,000 miles to Antarctica

When New Zealand's Taupō volcano erupted 1,800 years ago, its immense blast flung shards of glass all the way to Antarctica. Now, scientists have unearthed some of this ancient volcanic debris — which could help pinpoint the exact year this huge eruption took place. Fallout from the Taupō eruption —...

Oct 24, 2023

California's supervolcano has a massive lid that causes swarms of earthquakes — and that's a good thing, scientists say

A shuddering supervolcano in California is simmering down, not ramping up, thanks to a giant lid that is covering its magma reservoir, new research finds. The Long Valley Caldera in the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains has been unleashing earthquake swarms on a regular basis since 1978, raising concerns that it...

Oct 24, 2023

Perilous expedition to uninhabited island in South Atlantic confirms existence of world's 8th lava lake

In 2001, NASA satellites scanning an uninhabited island near Antarctica in the South Atlantic Ocean detected a thermal anomaly that left scientists reeling. Deep inside an unexplored volcano, they detected the signature of a bubbling lake of molten rock. Only seven such lava lakes were known worldwide. With nothing but...

Oct 31, 2023

Astronaut captures image of a glowering 'skull' lurking in a giant volcanic pit in the Sahara

To celebrate the spooky season, NASA has released a bone-chilling photo of a creepy skull that appears to glower up toward space from the heart of an enormous volcanic pit in Chad. The uncanny image was captured Feb. 12 by an unnamed astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS), as...