New research methods may lead to earlier predictions of volcanic eruptions.
Although there are telltale signs that a volcano is likely to erupt in the near future – an uptick in seismic activity, changes in gas emissions, and sudden ground deformation, for example – accurately predicting such eruptions is notoriously hard.
This is, in part, because no two volcanoes behave in exactly the same way and because few of the world’s 1,500 or so active volcanoes have monitoring systems in place. Under the best of circumstances, scientists can accurately forecast an eruption of a monitored volcano several days before it happens. But what if we knew months or even years in advance?
Using satellite data, scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks have developed a new method that brings us closer to that reality. The research was recently published in Nature Geoscience.
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