In the Company of Volcanoes

-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...