Cracking Volcanoes

A selection of the large eruptions that Santiaguito has produced in 2016. Left: 11 April (Source: INSIVUMEH ). Middle: 19 May (Source: INSIVUMEH ). Right: 17 June (Source:  Stereo100Noticias ). Last week Anthony Lamur and I were back in Guatemala to collect more observations from Santiaguito volcano . The fieldwork was prompted by the occurrence of several very large eruptions at the volcano in 2016 (like those in the image above), a departure from the regular but relatively small explosions that are typical of the place. What we wanted to know was what mechanism is driving the much larger explosions? Our campsite on Santa Maria on the morning of June 13th. The shadow of Santa Maria (3,772 m high) stretches far into the distance.  Our task for the trip was simple: we would camp on Santa Maria and watch Santiaguito for a few days with optical and thermal cameras to record any explosions. We also deployed a temporary acoustic microphone to record the infrasound prod...

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 now been a year since I started my PhD here at the University of Liverpool. To commemorate the occasion, I thought it would be great to list some interesting numbers related to all the things I have managed to do in that time. Here goes: Published 1 paper based on the work I did for my masters thesis at the University of Oxford. I'm delighted to finally have it published and very thankful for Tamsin Mather, David Pyle, Nick Varley, Patrick Smith and Emma Liu for all their help!  Attended 3 conferences: VMSG in Edinburgh in January, EGU in Vienna in April, and BGA right here in the University of Liverpool. Attended no less than   6   workshops: the workshops covered a wide range of topics (e.g. environmental geophysics, volcano deformation, magma, glasses and melts) and took me across Europe (e.g. Lake District, Iceland and Munich).  Started this very blog in April, and this is post number  6 . I have no plans to stop any time soon! Visited 7  ...