• Question: do you investigate the causes of different volcanic eruptions to compare them to others?

    Asked by 11mahoneyhar to Angus, Christian, Hannah, Laura, Simon on 21 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Simon Holyoake

      Simon Holyoake answered on 21 Jun 2013:

      I’m afraid I don’t do any work with volcanos myself, I hope the other scientists have better answers than me!

    • Photo: Laura Roberts Artal

      Laura Roberts Artal answered on 21 Jun 2013:

      I don’t anymore, but I used to.

      Sometimes, volcanoes erupt because they come into contact with water. It can either be water trapped inside rocks (an aquifer) or because the volcano erupts into the sea or a lake. I studied a volcano to try and work out whether it had interacted with sea water or an aquifer. Eruptions which happen because of mixing with water can be very violent, so it is important we understand them better.

      Check this video out of the an island in Iceland being born in the ocean and see how violent the eruption was.

    • Photo: Christian Maerz

      Christian Maerz answered on 21 Jun 2013:

      Sorry, don’t do any work on volcanic eruptions… but we do use the traces of previous volcanic eruptions as time markers in our sediment cores. The ashes contain minerals that you can very precisely date.

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