In the Company of Volcanoes

- Dr. Janine Krippner I am excited about an upcoming set of Google Hangout sessions with 6th graders talking all about volcanoes, why they erupt, why some erupt more violently than others, what their hazards are, and what we, as volcanologists, are doing to try and help people that live near them. So I sent out a request to the world of Twitter and volcanologists (links to their twitter feeds included, also full of information and resources - many more twitter volcanologists can be found) from around the world got back to me with great ideas and resources, and here they are! This is an open blog, I will add more resources as they come to my attention, so if there is something missing please contact me and I will add it for everyone to enjoy. Volcanologist @kenhrubin has put together a list of Twitter volcanologists, volcano watchers, and volcano-related organizations so you can keep an eye on the latest activity and volcano news. You can watch the list Here . This looks like a...

- Janine and Alison This morning I (Janine) was researching the May 18, 1980 Mount Saint Helens eruption to begin the next phase of my research. Reading through the descriptions of the start of the eruption - when massive blocks of the volcano slid to the north, I enthusiastically jumped out of my chair surprising my office mates. Marking out 1 meter with my feet I looked up at them and told them "this is one meter, now imagine 50 of these. Now imagine a massive chunk of rock moving 50 of these in one second! 50 m per second! This is nuts!" The joys of sharing an office with an over-enthusiastic volcanologist... 50 m/s is how fast the side of the mountain began to travel down and away from the volcano, taking chunks of rock the size of 30 story buildings northward. As the slide evolved into a debris avalanche, the sediment mass began flowing, the blocks reached speeds of up to 80 m/s [1]. So this got us talking about the insane speeds involved in volc...