In the Company of Volcanoes

- Volcanologist Dr Janine Krippner The photo above was taken by Santorini volcanologist Sandy Drymoni. Last updated: 25 Feb 2025 (New Zealand time) 24 February Greece time. The Greek version of this page is here , where updates may be staggered as this is a joint effort with Sandy Drymoni. With the ongoing crisis in the area around Santorini in Greece, here are links to websites and information that we will update as we see it. I am working behind the scenes with scientists around the world to watch out for questions, misinformation, and concerns, and provide information where we can. There is high uncertainty involved.  This is a very complex and evolving situation and we do not know where this will lead. Our thoughts are with the local communities experiencing the activity, and the local scientists working tirelessly to figure out what is happening. We are not forecasting what might happen next, we are not an observatory. This is simply to try to help with providing information...

- Janine Krippner I am in the Canary Islands working on the 2021 La Palma eruption, specifically how it impacted the local communities and thinking about how we can help during these events in the future. While on the island of Tenerife between field work in La Palma, there has been some deep seismic activity pretty much below our feet. Learning from the experiences of La Palma, and communication efforts during eruptions in the past, my colleagues and I are getting information out immediately to help people to understand what is going on now, increase awareness and understanding for future eruptions, and help identify the official sources of information. We want to drive the open flow of information to empower people with knowledge moving forward. The release below is being shared across platforms and will be updated on social media and the GeoTenerife website as we move forward. This deep, small magnitude seismicity might not lead to anything this week or month, but this volcanic isla...

- Janine and Jeannie Curtis Tree planting Gunung (Mount) Merapi's west flank Many of us online know of and had interacted with Leopold Kennedy Adam - @LeopoldAdam on twitter, and the administrator of volcano communication websites such as Gunung Slamet . We know him through his excellent communication of the activity and hazards of Indonesian volcanoes, in particular, Sinabung. This ongoing disaster has been largely forgotten by international media and it is through efforts of those in Indonesia, like Leo, that have helped keep the world aware of the volcanic and human impact of these events. In August of 2010 Sinabung volcano (Gunung (Mount) Sinabun(g)) entered a phase of unrest. Since then the volcanology community has been watching. Many of us have been watching from a distance like myself, through social media, videos of incredible and dangerous pyroclastic flows, and using Google Translate to read official and media reports of the sometimes deadly eruptions. It is...

-Alison and Janine The largest geoscience conference happens every year in San Francisco. The American Geophysical Union (AGU)  meeting draws more than 20,000 participants from around the world every December. We gather to share our new results, catch up with friends and colleagues, and drink beer. Janine and Alison will both be attending this year. Although we have been to conferences in three other countries together, this will be Janine's first AGU and the first conference in the US where we both be in attendance. Both of us have posters to present on our research, and then will spend the rest of the visit stuffing our brains full of new information and names of new colleagues. If you are going to AGU we'd love you to stop by and chat! Janine and Alison in Japan for the IAVCEI conference in 2013. So what sort of topics get covered in a 20,000 person conference? Way more than we could fit in a blog post, but you can get the idea just from our examples....

- Dr. Janine Krippner On the afternoon of the 22 nd of April I was working on my PhD research and I distracted myself for a second to check twitter (which is all volcano and remote sensing tweets, so it counts as work for a volcanologist, right?). SERNAGEOMIN had just posted that Calbuco volcano was now on Red Alert (from green) and incredible photos and videos of the ash column exploded onto the internet. Social media gave me a window, not only into the volcanic eruption, but into the lives of those who were affected. (Translations are indicated in italics, please excuse any mistakes, I rely on the internet for help.) To be honest I hadn’t even heard of Calbuco volcano before this moment: #VolcánCalbuco pasa desde este momento a alerta Roja. 22 de abril de 2015: 18: 10 horas. pic.twitter.com/JEAEuiXDep — Sernageomin (Chile) (@Sernageomin) April 22, 2015 (#VolcánCalbuco now on Red Alert. April 22, 2015: 18:10 hours.) That short distraction turned into hours on the ...