Cracking Volcanoes

This is a guest post by Becky Coats , a volcanology postgraduate here at the University of Liverpool. She has written about her amazing recent fieldwork to Unzen volcano in Japan!   Meet the A Team: Mission Unzen-Fugen, feat. (left to right, top to bottom) Claire Harnett , Paul Wallace , Dr. Mark Thomas , Dr. Takahiro Miwa , James Ashworth ,  Dr. Jackie Kendrick , Prof. Yan Lavallée , and me! This trip was a collaboration between the University of Liverpool (Jackie, Yan, Paul, James and myself), the University of Leeds (Mark and Claire) and the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention, Japan (Taka). Those of us from UK universities were in Japan from the 8th to the 20th of May and were granted permission for 6 days work on the lava dome each armed with our own specialist tasks but with one collaborative question: How stable is the dome today? My assignment was to collect samples from a near by pyroclastic deposit that represent the ...

Another week, another cheeky self-promoting post. This time, I have published a new paper in Solid Earth   on my research on the eruption of Unzen volcano in Japan. The project involves a volcanic spine, thousands of volcanic earthquakes, and a whole medley of analytical tools. Interested? Read on... Incandescent glow seen on the newly forming lava dome at Unzen volcano in 1991. Pyroclastic density current deposits can be seen in the foreground. These currents, also known as pyroclastic flows, were derived from collapses of the highly unstable dome. Photo credit: Fumiaki Kobayashi Let's start from the beginning. Lava spines are a curious and spectacular formation found at volcanoes around the world. These plugs of lava are squeezed out of lava domes during eruptions, grinding as they go, and eventually reaching hundreds of metres in size. One such spine grew at Unzen volcano in Japan in 1994, and is the focus of the new paper. Extensive field and experimental investigatio...

It's time to dust the cobwebs off this blog! This post is a guest post from my friend and colleague Adrian, a fellow volcanology postgraduate here in the University of Liverpool. He is writing about his research on Unzen volcano in Japan, which was published last week. Enjoy!  My first paper, created in collaboration with Oliver and a host of co-authors from the University of Liverpool, Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich and research institutions in Kochi, Nagasaki and Tsukuba, Japan, looks at the mechanics of a spine growth episode at Mt. Unzen volcano, Japan. Left: The 'Tower of Pelée' spine at Mt. Pelée, Martinique, 1902. Photo credit: unknown. Middle: The 'whaleback' spine at Mount St Helens in 2005. Photo credit: USGS, taken Feb 22 2005.  Right: The remnant of the spine at Mt. Unzen. Photo credit: Yan Lavallée.  Lava spines are a spectacular feature of some lava dome volcanoes. They appear as massive, cohesive blocks that pierce through the...

For my first proper post on this blog, I thought I should follow up the post about my research  with some short introductions to the volcanoes that I'm studying. These volcanoes are: Volcán de Colima, Mt St Helens, Santiaguito, and Mt Unzen. Why have I chosen these volcanoes? One simple reason really, all of them have produced or are currently producing lava domes within the past 20 years. Instead of focusing on just one volcano or one eruption, I can compare and contrast my findings from multiple sources and hopefully gain a better understanding of the processes I'm looking at. Volcán de Colima View of Volcán de Colima from the north-west in August 2012. The large lava flow in the foreground was formed in 2004.  Volcán de Colima, located in mid-western Mexico is the most active volcano in North America and it is one of two volcanoes on this list that is erupting today. It has been erupting almost continuously since 1998, with the exception of an 18-month hiatus fr...