On December 9, 2019, a cloud of steam and volcanic gases blasted out of New Zealand’s Whakaari, or White Island, volcano. Relative to eruptions at other volcanoes, the explosion was small. But it claimed the lives of 22 people and injured another 25, many of whom suffered severe burns.
Volcanologists typically use instruments on the ground to help warn of eruptions, monitoring changes in gases, such as carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide, that quietly seep from volcanoes between blasts. But only around 50 of the world’s volcanoes are monitored in this way. Satellites have been used to study the plumes of large volcanoes, but the orbiting crafts haven’t been used to detect gases emitted by small eruptions.
Compared with large eruptions, like the blast that decapitated Washington’s Mount St. Helens in 1980, small-scale eruptions occur more often. So they pose a greater threat to people, says volcanologist Mike Burton of the University of Manchester in England.
Volcanologists typically use instruments on the ground to help warn of eruptions, monitoring changes in gases, such as carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide, that quietly seep from volcanoes between blasts. But only around 50 of the world’s volcanoes are monitored in this way. Satellites have been used to study the plumes of large volcanoes, but the orbiting crafts haven’t been used to detect gases emitted by small eruptions.
Compared with large eruptions, like the blast that decapitated Washington’s Mount St. Helens in 1980, small-scale eruptions occur more often. So they pose a greater threat to people, says volcanologist Mike Burton of the University of Manchester in England.
