Washington, DC – U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) today reintroduced bipartisan legislation to reauthorize a domestic program focused on detecting and warning about volcanic threats. Their bill – cosponsored by Senators Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) – will enable the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to continue to improve its volcano […]
A new radar-based volcano monitoring system developed by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and U.S. Geological Survey will expand across the U.S. and beyond. The expansion, funded by NASA, could lead to earlier detection of volcanic unrest. The Alaska Volcano Observatory at UAF has been using a prototype of this system, named VolcSARvatory, since early 2022. Its […]
Earthquakes have a well-known and easily recognizable connection to volcanoes. The sudden onset of ground shaking can indicate near-term or imminent volcanic activity. Volcanic tremors, however, are difficult to detect. These are semi-continuous seismic or acoustic signals, or both, that continue for just a few seconds or persist for a year or more. They, like earthquakes, carry […]
Scientists have wondered what happens to the organic and inorganic carbon that Earth’s Pacific Plate carries with it as it slides into the planet’s interior along the volcano-studded Ring of Fire. A new study suggests a notable amount of such subducted carbon returns to the atmosphere rather than traveling deep into Earth’s mantle. The finding […]