In the Company of Volcanoes

- Dr. Janine Krippner and Dr. Alison Graettinger Conferences mean many things. We get to see our co-blogger in person, go on field trips where we learn about new volcanoes from the people who have studied them, attend workshops and panels, make new friends, and race from talk to poster sessions to take in as much volcano science as we can. The International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) 2017 conference is being held in Portland Oregon this August. The theme is 'Fostering Integrative Studies of Volcanism'. The conference will be attended by more than 1,000 volcanologists from around the world and many will be sharing their experience on Twitter using the hashtag #IAVCEI2017 . This year we are both going on field trips and presenting some of our recent research at this conference so there will be a lot of conference to share. Janine will be presenting her work on the Shiveluch dome collapse events and block-and-ash flow (BAF...

- Dr. Janine Krippner We are fortunate that there is a large availability of volcanic eruption videos online for all of us to enjoy (see below warning), and we can learn a lot from them too. When I am looking at my satellite images of dome collapse block and ash flow and column collapse pyroclastic flow deposits on Shiveluch and Mount St. Helens volcanoes I have videos of these processes running through my mind. This is a short guide to what you are seeing in these incredible videos. WARNING: There are very dangerous and life threatening hazards associated with retrieving this footage, and here at In the Company of Volcanoes we strongly discourage anyone from trying to take your own. It is never, ever worth risking your life. --- This video shows the dome at Unzen volcano undergoing a partial collapse in 1991. This shows how a near-solid body of rock rapidly fragments down to smaller pieces of rock and ash, creating a billowing ash plume rising from the block and ash...

-Janine Last month I had the amazing opportunity to do field work on Tolbachik volcano in Kamchatka, Russia. I spent a week on one of the lava flows produced during the 2012-2013 eruption and was blown away by the formations and textures that the flowing rock can create. Here are some of the features that caught my eye while I was coming to the realization of just how awesome basalt can be. I'm sure you can imagine the molten rock flowing and fracturing, then oozing out when the opportunity presents itself. NASA Advanced Land Imager (ALI, on the Earth Observing-1 satellite) false color image showing the hot lava flow on December 1st, 2012. Image courtesy of the NASA Earth Observatory . View of the main Tolbachik complex from camp, right next to the lava flow. This tongue of lava formed a solid shell then the still-fluid lava inside cracked it open so it could keep moving forward. Not too far under the crust is a bright oxidation discoloration - this tells us that ...

- Dr. Janine Krippner I am pretty excited this week. Next week I am flying back to Kamchatka (Russia) for field work. I get to join a team of Russian scientists to look at deposits on Tolbachik volcano which produced a beautiful flank fissure eruption over 9 months, starting November 2012. Tolbachik erupting on 22 December, 2012. Image courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory . A common reaction I get when I say I am studying a Russian volcano is some variation of "there are volcanoes in Russia?". Yes. Yes there are. And they are amazing! So first off, Kamchatka is the eastern-most peninsula off Russia which sits on top of a subduction zone. Here the Pacific plate moves westward underneath Kamchatka - hence all the volcanic activity. Here, the Map of Active Volcanoes in Kamchatka and Northern Kuriles shows the current activity levels using the aviation color codes . Map of active volcanoes of Kamchatka and Northern Kuriles. Note the subduction zone to the east show...