As Magma Rises Rapidly, Cornell Experts Monitor Ancient Uturuncu Volcano
Cornell graduate students Jennifer Jay and Scott Henderson are part of the research team. Uturuncu last erupted about 300,000 years ago.
Pritchard says:
“Uturuncu — a volcano in the Bolivian Andes Mountains — was thought to be inactive. The region is populated by ‘supervolcanoes’ that erupted between 1 and 10 million years ago.
“Now the Uturuncu magma is accumulating in the crust and we’re observing whether it is moving upward toward the surface. Right now, we have no reason to think that an eruption is imminent.
“The area at Uturuncu has had hundreds of shallow earthquakes per year, but the rate of earthquakes increased briefly due to last year's tremors in Chile. These characteristics are unusual for a volcano that has not erupted in 300,000 years.”
Media Contact
More Information:
http://www.cornell.eduAll latest news from the category: Earth Sciences
Earth Sciences (also referred to as Geosciences), which deals with basic issues surrounding our planet, plays a vital role in the area of energy and raw materials supply.
Earth Sciences comprises subjects such as geology, geography, geological informatics, paleontology, mineralogy, petrography, crystallography, geophysics, geodesy, glaciology, cartography, photogrammetry, meteorology and seismology, early-warning systems, earthquake research and polar research.
Newest articles
Trotting robots reveal emergence of animal gait transitions
A four-legged robot trained with machine learning by EPFL researchers has learned to avoid falls by spontaneously switching between walking, trotting, and pronking – a milestone for roboticists as well…
Innovation promises to prevent power pole-top fires
Engineers in Australia have found a new way to make power-pole insulators resistant to fire and electrical sparking, promising to prevent dangerous pole-top fires and reduce blackouts. Pole-top fires pose…
Possible alternative to antibiotics produced by bacteria
Antibacterial substance from staphylococci discovered with new mechanism of action against natural competitors. Many bacteria produce substances to gain an advantage over competitors in their highly competitive natural environment. Researchers…
