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Airplanes are being warned to avoid airspace near an erupting Alaska volcano as it spews ash 30,000 feet above sea level. The National Weather Service said Saturday ash is being blown to the west and northwest of Pavlof Volcano. Pavlof began erupting three days ago, pushing lava out from a vent near its summit. On Friday, the ash cloud reached 16,000 feet. Alaska Volcano Observatory Geophysicist Dave Schneider says the eruption intensified at 6 a.m. Saturday, sending the ash cloud higher.

Alaska's Mount Churchill volcano erupted some 1,200 years ago, spreading ash from Canada to Germany... Mount Churchill is also an impressive volcano, the tallest on land in the United States and one of the towering, snowy peaks of Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias Mountains. But Churchill's blast in A.D. 843 ejected just 12 cubic miles (50 cubic km) of ash, a layer now called the White River Ash, according to the new study, published in the September 2014 issue of the journal Geology... If moderate volcanic eruptions can spread ash for thousands of miles, then these blowouts may be more hazardous than...

Ajai RajSeptember 8, 2014 Last Friday's eruption at Iceland's Bardarbunga volcano had many worried about the possible impacts of a larger eruption on air travel. Another eruption at Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has caused a state of emergency to be declared on Big Island, as lava flows from the ongoing eruption have advanced within a mile of a residential zone. That's just one example of how much danger volcanoes pose to the U.S. — and we aren't doing much about it. Compared with Iceland, the U.S. is much more vulnerable to volcanic disasters — and has been failing at monitoring these...

<p>If Yellowstone erupted into a massive, ash-spewing volcano, how far might the plume travel across the continental United States? From coast to coast, blanketing every city in ash, according to an unsettling new study.</p> <p>Geophysicists developed a computer model of a Yellowstone “super eruption” that would spew 330 cubic kilometers of volcanic ash into the sky. The resulting ash cloud, depending on wind conditions, would blanket the continental United States in ash deposits of varying thickness, according to the study, published late August in the journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems.</p>

August 18, 2014Myles UdlandThere's a (increased) chance a huge volcano in Iceland could blow.Lorcan Roche Kelly at Agenda Research tipped us off to the news that the Icelandic government on Monday changed the status of Bardarbunga, a volcano in Iceland located under Europe's largest glacier, to "orange," meaning there is a heightened risk of eruption and ash cloud. A report from Reuters on Monday noted that this is the second-highest risk level on the government's five-level risk scale. "Presently there are no signs of eruption, but it cannot be excluded that the current activity will result in an explosive subglacial...

Mount Rainier, one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the U.S. and in the world, is widely expected to erupt again. The only unknown facing scientists is when the massive stratovolcano, 4,392 meters tall and located 87 kilometers southeast of Seattle in Washington state, will finally explode. Scientists from the United States and Norway recently mapped the electric and magnetic signatures of magma flows beneath Mount Rainier (pronounced “ray-near”). They’ve also discovered a mammoth magma reservoir below the mountain that will fuel any eruption with massive magma flows. The research found out that magma or fluid molten rock is trapped...

'Catastrophic' event at Campi Flegrei 39,000 years ago Volcanic eruption near Naples may have killed Neanderthals Some researchers are suggesting that Neanderthals were driven to extinction by a massive volcanic eruption near Naples. The suggestion is one of the topics under debate this week at a conference at London's British Museum examining what forces led to the destruction of the Neanderthals and what led to the triumph of the homo sapiens. One new theory holds that a gigantic eruption of the volcano in the Campi Flegrei area near Naples 39,000 years ago was catastrophic for the Neanderthals. That was the...

The Neanderthals were a hardy species that lived through multiple ice ages and would have been familiar with volcanoes and other natural calamities. But the eruptions 40,000 years ago were unlike anything Neanderthals had faced before, Cleghorn and company say. For one thing, all the volcanoes apparently erupted around the same time. And one of those blasts, the Campanian Ignimbrite, is thought to have been the most powerful eruption in Europe in the last 200,000 years... The researchers acknowledge that there are gaps in the volcanoes theory. For instance, the time line needs to be better defined -- did...

Researchers have securely dated a prehistoric human stone tool industry that is thought to have been used by early modern humans, or possibly late Neanderthals, around the time when early modern humans were beginning to emerge in Europe, arguably sometime between 40,000 to 50,000 years B.P... The Uluzzian, a prehistoric stone tool techno-tradition represented by lithic artifacts unearthed by archaeologists at cave locations primarily in Italy and Greece, has been a central contender as a possible "transitional" industry between the typical stone tool types (the Mousterian) used by late European Neanderthals and those (Aurignacian, Châtelperronian) of the earliest modern human...

During the Late Bronze Age, the Aegean volcanic island of Thera erupted violently, spreading pumice and ash across the eastern Mediterranean and triggering frosts as far away as what is now California. The Theran town of Akrotiri was completely buried. Tsunamis up to 12 meters high crashed onto the shores of Crete, 110 kilometers to the south, and the cataclysm may ultimately have sped the demise of Crete's famed Minoan civilization. For nearly 30 years, archaeologists have fought over when the eruption took place. Those who rely on dates from pottery styles and Egyptian inscriptions put the event at roughly...

According to a recent international study, the volcano of the island Santorini, Greece, erupted in the 16th century BC and not earlier. The survey characterized a number of research studies that took place in the past and have indicated that Santorini's volcano may have erupted a century earlier, as unreliable because the method based on tree-ring measurements that they used, could not provide them with accurate results. An international team of researchers led by Paolo Cherubini from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) has demonstrated in the scientific journal Antiquity, that this method cannot provide...

Geological testing was done at the site in 2005, for the purpose of placing pillars in solid ground so that the stability of the roof would not be an issue in the event of an earthquake. What they found while using high resolution travel time tomography, a method of getting images from under the surface of the earth using waves of energy, were underground cavities. These were both man made and natural. The man made gaps in the earth were filled with rocks, ceramics, and other items of interest to archeologists. Before drilling the new shafts and setting the pillars...

Although ancient ruins in Akrotiri were discovered in 1860 by workers quarrying volcanic rock for the Suez Canal, large scale excavations there didn't begin until 1967. An archeologist by the name of Spyridon Marinatos suspected there were extensive ruins beneath the farmlands at Akrotiri and wrote about his theory in 1936. Due to the outbreak of World War II and the Greek Civil War, he had to postpone his explorations. Earlier digs in the area had been destroyed by plowing of the fields and there were no written records of where they had taken place or what the findings were....

While approximately forty buildings have been uncovered at Akrotiri, there are six that have been given more attention than the others. The architecture and function of each building is different. The largest building uncovered so far, Xeste 4, is three stories high and believed to be a public building because of its dimensions. The staircase had fragments of frescoes on either side depicting males ascending in a procession. The second largest building, Xeste 3, was at least two stories high, with fourteen rooms on each floor. The rooms were decorated with paintings and some had more than one door. One...

With the archeological site at Akrotiri closed, and no firm date set for it to reopen, many visitors to the island of Santorini have been disappointed not to see what is inside the Akrotiri enclosure. Although it doesn't replace seeing the amazing number of buildings that have been uncovered, around 40 so far, the museums on the island hold a fair amount of artifacts and photographs of wall paintings. If archeology is at the top of your list of reasons for visiting Santorini, here are some helpful phone numbers to call and confirm hours and days they are open. The...

The excavations at the archeological site at Akrotiri in Santorini are ongoing, so there is scaffolding everywhere and supports in place to stabilize walls, windows and doorways that might otherwise collapse. You need to use your imagination to put yourself back in prehistoric times, but with the help of guides or signs posted along the walkways, you can get a fair idea of what life was like. An excavated toilet, pictured in the slide show, has been left in view for the amusement of the tourists and to demonstrate how advanced the plumbing and drainage system was. The inhabitants had...

At least six U.S. airlines canceled more than 40 flights into and out of Mexico City and Toluca airports Thursday after the Popocatépetl volcano spewed out ash, steam and glowing rocks, airport officials said. Mexico City airport spokesman Jorge Gomez said U.S. Airways, Delta, United, American and Alaska Airlines canceled 47 flights as a precaution. But he said the airport otherwise continues to operate normally and that by Thursday afternoon no ash had reached the area, about 40 miles (70 kilometers) from the volcano. …

Lightning bolts appear above and around the Chaiten volcano as seen from Chana, some 30 kms (19 miles) north of the volcano, as it began its first eruption in thousands of years, in southern Chile May 2, 2008. Cases of electrical storms breaking out directly above erupting volcanos are well documented, although scientists differ on what causes them. Picture taken May 2, 2008. REUTERS/Carlos Gutierrez (CHILE) The Etna volcano in Sicily rumbled back to life on Tuesday with a "seismic event" followed by a burst of ash, volcanologists said three days after minor eruptions shook the cone. A "seismic...

Source: American Geophysical Union Date: November 28, 2006 Landslide At Mt. Etna Generated A Large Tsunami In The Mediterranean Sea Nearly 8000 Years Ago Geological evidence indicates that the eastern flanks of Mt. Etna volcano, located on Italy's island of Sicily, suffered at least one large collapse nearly 8,000 years ago. Pareschi et al. modeled this collapse and discovered that the volume of landslide material, combined with the force of the debris avalanche, would have generated a catastrophic tsunami, which would have impacted all of the Eastern Mediterranean. Simulations show that the resulting tsunami waves would have destabilized soft marine...

Europe's biggest volcano spews lava as earthquakes signal latest return to life By Cahal Milmo 28 October 2002 Mount Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe, exploded into life again yesterday, spurting molten rock 650ft into the air above Sicily and producing streams of lava that engulfed small buildings on the island. Officials evacuated the area in the path of the lava flows after a new vent opened early yesterday morning. There were no reports of injuries. By late afternoon, the eruption had destroyed a line of ski-lift pylons used to reach the summit, as well as a pine forest....