MAGNETIC MAPPING BY BIKE - Plague's Link to Past Climate Lava Balloons Typhoon-Tossed Data Buoys - Eos.org
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VOL. 98 • NO. 7 • JUL 2017
Earth & Space Science News
MAGNETIC
MAPPING
BY BIKE
Plague’s Link
to Past Climate
Lava Balloons
Typhoon-Tossed
Data Buoys
discovered
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Earth & Space Science News Contents
JULY 2017
PROJECT UPDATE
VOLUME 98, ISSUE 7
12
Understanding Kamchatka’s
Extraordinary Volcano Cluster
An international seismological
collaboration in Kamchatka, Russia,
investigates the driving forces of one of
the world’s largest, most active volcano
clusters.
PROJECT UPDATE
24
New Data Buoys Watch
Typhoons from Within the Storm
Advanced real-time data buoys have
observed nine strong typhoons in the
northwestern Pacific Ocean since 2015,
providing high-resolution data and
reducing the uncertainty of numerical
18 model forecasts.
RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT
COVER
A Bike Built for Magnetic Mapping
40 How Arctic Ice Affects
Gas Exchange Between
Air and Sea
Mounting a magnetic sensor on a bicycle offers an efficient, low-cost method of Scientists begin to fill a major data gap by
collecting ground magnetic field data over rough terrain where conventional vehicles investigating carbon dioxide dynamics in a
dare not venture. remote region of the Arctic Ocean.
Earth & Space Science News Eos.org // 1
Contents
DEPARTMENTS
Editor in Chief
Barbara T. Richman: AGU, Washington, D. C., USA; eos_ brichman@agu.org
Editors
Christina M. S. Cohen Wendy S. Gordon Carol A. Stein
California Institute Ecologia Consulting, Department of Earth and
of Technology, Pasadena, Austin, Texas, USA; Environmental Sciences,
Calif., USA; wendy@ecologiaconsulting University of Illinois at
cohen@srl.caltech.edu .com Chicago, Chicago, Ill.,
José D. Fuentes David Halpern USA; cstein@uic.edu
Department of Meteorology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pennsylvania State Pasadena, Calif., USA;
University, University davidhalpern29@gmail
Park, Pa., USA; .com
juf15@meteo.psu.edu
Editorial Advisory Board
Mark G. Flanner, Atmospheric Sciences Jian Lin, Tectonophysics
Nicola J. Fox, Space Physics Figen Mekik, Paleoceanography
and Aeronomy and Paleoclimatology
10
Peter Fox, Earth and Space Science Jerry L. Miller, Ocean Sciences
Informatics Thomas H. Painter, Cryosphere
Steve Frolking, Biogeosciences Sciences
Edward J. Garnero, Study of the Philip J. Rasch, Global Environmental
Earth’s Deep Interior Change
28–38 AGU News Michael N. Gooseff, Hydrology
Brian C. Gunter, Geodesy
Eric M. Riggs, Education
Adrian Tuck, Nonlinear Geophysics
In Appreciation of AGU’s Kristine C. Harper, History of Geophysics Sergio Vinciguerra, Mineral
Susan E. Hough, Natural Hazards and Rock Physics
Outstanding Reviewers of 2016; Emily R. Johnson, Volcanology, Andrew C. Wilcox, Earth and Planetary
Scientists’ Freedom to Work Entails Geochemistry, and Petrology Surface Processes
Responsibilities to Society. Keith D. Koper, Seismology Earle Williams, Atmospheric
Robert E. Kopp, Geomagnetism and Space Electricity
and Paleomagnetism Mary Lou Zoback, Societal Impacts
John W. Lane, Near-Surface Geophysics and Policy Sciences
39–42 Research Spotlight
Staff
Water Quality Database Offers New
Production and Design: Faith A. Ishii, Production Manager; Melissa A. Tribur, Senior
Tools to Study Aquatic Systems; Production Specialist; Elizabeth Thompson, Production and Editorial Assistant; Travis
What Led to the Largest Volcanic Frazier and Valerie Friedman, Electronic Graphics Specialists
Eruption in Human History?; How Editorial: Peter L. Weiss, Manager/Senior News Editor; Mohi Kumar, Scientific
Content Editor; Randy Showstack, Senior News Writer; JoAnna Wendel, News Writer;
Arctic Ice Affects Gas Exchange Liz Castenson, Editorial and Production Coordinator
Between Air and Sea; Global Marketing: Jamie R. Liu, Manager, Marketing; Angelo Bouselli and Tyjen Conley,
42 Drought Clustering Could Mean Big Marketing Program Managers; Ashwini Yelamanchili, Digital Marketing Coordinator
Advertising: Tracy LaMondue, Director, Development; Tel: +1-202-777-7372;
Losses for Mining; Stream Network
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Geometry Correlates with Climate;
©2017. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. Material in this issue may
Alteration Along the Alpine Fault
3–8 News be photocopied by individual scientists for research or classroom use. Permission
Helps Build Seismic Strain. is also granted to use short quotes, figures, and tables for publication in scientific
Tornado Casualties Depend More on books and journals. For permission for any other uses, contact the AGU Publications
Storm Energy Than on Population; Office.
Between Outbreaks, Did Plague
43–47 Positions Available Eos (ISSN 0096-3941) is published monthly by the American Geophysical Union,
2000 Florida Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20009, USA. Periodical Class postage paid
Lurk in Medieval England?; New Current job openings in the Earth at Washington, D. C., and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address
Technique Reveals Iceberg Calving and space sciences. changes to Member Service Center, 2000 Florida Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20009,
Process; Balloons of Lava Bubble USA.
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Researchers set up a seismometer
Use AGU’s Geophysical Electronic Manuscript Submissions system to submit
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9 Meeting Report Views expressed in this publication do not
Predictive Capability for Extreme necessarily reflect official positions of the American
On the Cover Geophysical Union unless expressly stated.
Space Weather Events.
A scientist collects geomagnetic Christine W. McEntee, Executive Director/CEO
readings across Israel’s Bet She’an
10–11 Opinion basin using a specially equipped
Acquiring a Taste for Advocacy. bicycle.
facebook.com/AmericanGeophysicalUnion @AGU_Eos linkedin.com/company/american-geophysical-union youtube.com/user/AGUvideos
2 // Eos July 2017
NEWS
Tornado Casualties Depend More Fear Becomes an Obsession
Tyler Fricker grew up hearing his father’s
on Storm Energy Than on Population stories of the 1974 Xenia, Ohio, tornado that
killed 33 people and injured more than 1000
others. Fricker, now a geographer at Florida
State University in Tallahassee and the lead
author of the new study, has also lived
through a few tornadoes of his own. He
explains his fascination with tornadoes as
“fear becoming an obsession.”
In the new research, he and his colleagues
analyzed 872 c asualty-causing tornadoes that
swept through parts of the United States
between 2007 and 2015. They defined “casu-
alty” as a death or an injury related to a
storm. “By understanding tornado behavior
better…we get a deeper understanding of
what may be causing the death and destruc-
tion we see in these storms,” Fricker said.
The team borrowed a principle of econom-
ics known as elasticity to investigate how a
tornado’s casualty toll scaled with its energy
and the size of the nearby population. Elas-
ticity is commonly used by economists to
investigate how two measurements—for
example, supply and demand—are related.
The researchers used National Weather Ser-
vice data to determine the energy dissipated by
a tornado. They calculated this energy as pro-
portional to the area of a tornado’s path multi-
plied by its average wind speed raised to the
third power. Knowing this quantity for each
tornado allowed the team to uniformly define
the intensity of each storm. The researchers
then collected population measurements in
roughly 1-kilometer by 1-kilometer squares for
A scene of destruction in Concord, Ala., after the 2011 T
uscaloosa–Birmingham tornado, which caused more than 1500 the path of each tornado using a database of
casualties. A new study indicates that storm intensity is a better predictor of casualty counts than the size of the local world population maintained by Columbia
population. Credit: National Weather Service University in New York.
Predicting Casualties
W
hen a dark, swirling funnel cloud Now, in a new study, researchers have used a Armed with these two parameters and the
dips toward the ground, people liv- principle of economics to show that a torna- published casualty counts for each of the tor-
ing in a U.S. region in and near the do’s casualty count depends more strongly nadoes in their sample, Fricker and his col-
Great Plains popularly known as Tornado Alley on the energy of the storm than on the size leagues investigated how casualties scaled
know to move to a safe spot. Tornadoes can of the local population. with storm energy and the size of the nearby
destroy concrete buildings and send railcars This work is “likely to spur conversation population. The scientists found that storm
rolling, and these violent wind- energy was a better predictor of
storms account for roughly 20% of “By understanding tornado behavior the number of s torm-r elated
natural hazard–related deaths in injuries and deaths: Doubling the
the United States. better…we get a deeper understanding energy of a tornado resulted in
Despite tornadoes’ danger, 33% more casualties, but dou-
the correlations among the
of what may be causing the death and bling the population of a
number of storm-related casual- destruction we see in these storms.” t ornado-p rone area resulted in
ties, a twister’s energy, and the only 21% more casualties. These
size of the population in its path results, which the team reported
are not well understood. Better in April in Geophysical Research
understanding of those relationships could and additional research,” said Todd Moore, a Letters (http://bit.ly/GRL-tornado), can
help scientists, policy makers, and emer- physical geographer at Towson University in inform emergency planning, the team sug-
gency management personnel predict future Towson, Md., who was not involved in the gests.
tornado deaths and injuries based on trends study. “It provides a framework that can be The relatively larger impact of tornado
in population growth and tornado activity. modified to include additional risk variables.” energy on casualties might be cause for con-
Earth & Space Science News Eos.org // 3
NEWS
cern, Fricker and his colleagues note. If cli-
mate change is triggering more powerful tor- Between Outbreaks, Did Plague Lurk
nadoes, an idea that’s been suggested and
debated, emergency managers might have to in Medieval England?
contend with larger casualty counts in the
future. But scientists are by no means certain
that larger tornadoes are anticipated. “There
is no doubt climate change is influencing
hazards, but for tornadoes, we just simply
don’t know to what extent yet,” said Stephen
Strader, a geographer at Villanova University
in Villanova, Pa., who was not involved in the
study.
It is “far more likely” that the population,
rather than the tornado energy, will double in
the future, notes Victor Gensini, a meteorolo-
gist at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn,
Ill., who also was not involved in the study.
Effective communication and good city plan-
ning might help reduce storm-related casual-
ties, Fricker and colleagues suggest. “It’s
hard to control the behavior of tornadoes, but
it’s somewhat within our control to smartly
advance how we organize cities and suburbs,”
said Fricker.
“You might have only
10 or 15 minutes to
get to a safe spot.”
Many More Factors
Of course, changes in storm energy and popu- Dead carts, such as the one depicted in this antique engraving, were used in London to collect corpses during the last
lation can’t fully explain all variations in major bubonic plague epidemic in England, from 1665 to 1666. Credit: iStock.com/duncan1890
storm-related deaths or injuries. “There are
also more factors that combine to determine a
R
casualty, one of the most important being esearchers of the bubonic plague, also Austria. Her findings (http://bit.ly/EGU
what type of structure a person is in when the known as the Black Death, have long -plague) suggest that the bacterium lingered
tornado strikes,” said Gensini. debated why the disease broke out silently in rodents during periods between
Fricker said that he and his colleagues look repeatedly in medieval Europe: Did traders plague flare-ups, only to threaten humans
forward to examining factors such as how a from elsewhere bring the dreaded pestilence again when the rodent population exploded.
victim’s age, socioeconomic status, and race with them from infected areas, thus sparking
might correlate with vulnerability to harm new epidemics? Or was the Yersinia pestis bac- Rediscovering Past Climate
from a tornado. “Maybe we’ll be able to profile terium, now known to cause the plague, pres- A climate historian, Pribyl reconstructed
communities more susceptible to casualties ent but for some reason inactive during the English climate between 1256 and 1431 using
based on all of these other determinants,” he 5 to 12 years that typically passed between indirect evidence, for example, the date of the
said. outbreaks? start of the grain harvest. She wondered
The team hopes that their findings will be Now a researcher has found a pattern of whether she might discover in these data the
useful to emergency personnel, who could tar- recurrence by looking at ancient records of the influences that triggered plague epidemics or
get these most vulnerable populations when Black Death and climatic conditions in what quelled them. She realized that she needed to
they disseminate information about tornado today is an eastern region of England called extend her climate record to the end of the
preparedness, for example. After all, “you East Anglia. “It looks like, after a run of 1, 2, or 15th century, when public health measures
might have only 10 or 15 minutes to get to a 3 years of relatively average or slightly cool such as quarantining were introduced, which
safe spot,” said Fricker. summers, once there is a jump to warm and confined outbreaks and lowered their impact.
dry weather, there is a large likelihood” of a Pribyl found the data she needed in the
plague epidemic, said Kathleen Pribyl of the work of a Dutch independent climate histo-
By Katherine Kornei (email: hobbies4kk@gmail University of East Anglia in Norwich, U.K., in rian, Jan Buisman, who has been compiling
.com; @katherinekornei), Freelance Science Jour- April during the General Assembly of the reports on weather phenomena and climate in
nalist European Geosciences Union in Vienna, the Low Countries, the coastal region now
4 // Eos July 2017
NEWS
occupied mostly by the Netherlands and Bel- ton, Ont., Canada, who did not participate in
gium. This area, lying only 200 kilometers east Pribyl’s study, told Eos that he found Pribyl’s
of East Anglia across a stretch of the North conclusion that the plague did not enter
Sea, was close enough for its weather records Europe again and again but resided in a
to be suitable to supplement the English data, rodent reservoir “convincing and interest-
Pribyl told Eos. Buisman’s records date from as ing.” Poinar took part in an investigation of
early as 764 C.E. the genome of a strain of Yersinia pestis that
With a sufficiently long temperature record was found in Marseille, France, in the teeth of
thus established and with data on rainfall buried victims of one of the last outbreaks in
readily available via tree ring sequences, Pribyl Europe, in 1722. Last year, his group reported
could characterize each year: Was the winter that this strain had descended from bacteria
cold or not? Was the summer cool, warm, dry, identified in 14th-century victims in London.
wet? At first, just like researchers before her, So genetics, too, points at the plague emerg-
she saw no particular circumstances that ing repeatedly from a reservoir in or near
would coincide with a plague outbreak. But Europe, Poinar said.
that changed when she grouped summers not Could the source of the repeated English
by their temperature but by the difference in outbreaks have been in England itself, and
average temperature from the preceding sum- A scanning electron micrograph shows the bubonic could the field voles that Pribyl suspects
mer. If a warm summer followed a normal plague bacterium Yersinia pestis (yellow green) infesting indeed have been the reservoir? It’s quite pos-
one, then a plague outbreak was much more the digestive tract of a flea. Credit: NIAID, CC BY 2.0 sible, Poinar said. “All these small, human-
likely, she found. (http://bit.ly/ccby2-0) a
ssociated rodents could be important. All
This pattern, according to Pribyl, shows that these should be tested. If she has samples,
it was not repeated arrivals from outside we’d be happy to test them!” he said.
England that made the plague return again leagues analyzed a data set of 7711 plague out-
and again but the waxing and waning of the breaks in Europe and compared them to pre-
population of some host animal. Knowing the cipitation records from tree ring samples from By Bas den Hond (email: bas@stellarstories.com),
preference of Yersinia pestis, it was likely a Europe and Asia. Weather conditions that Freelance Science Journalist
rodent, she explained. might have caused
rodent numbers to
Vole Toll spike, they reported,
In England, the field vole and the common generally did not
vole are likely candidates to have played the coincide with out-
role of plague reservoirs, and these species breaks. They con-
have naturally fluctuating population sizes. A cluded that most
normal year or, better yet, a few normal years, outbreaks of the
followed by a warm year, said Pribyl, is just plague must have
what sets up the population structure, the been caused by
food situation, and the number of predators renewed introduction
for a population explosion. This increase will, of Yersinia pestis from
in turn, bring these rodents, and the fleas they Asia, brought into
carry, into closer contact with humans than in Europe by rats on
normal times, “especially after the population merchant ships.
collapses again, which always happens at Pribyl, however,
some point,” she said. “Because then the fleas questions that
will try to move to other hosts, and humans research team’s
are as good as anything else. And that’s when analysis. “They
transference of the disease becomes quite looked at climate
likely.” fluctuations for the
Other signs from climate data also point to whole of Europe and
rodents as the reservoir. A slightly cold winter expected to find one
seems to have helped the plague: More snow kind of pattern. But
would have insulated and hid the voles’ bur- that’s actually quite
rows. But outbreaks almost never occurred unlikely. With my
after a very cold winter, which would have data, I could look at
killed a lot of voles, or a very mild one, when just one region,” she
abundant rain would have flooded many bur- noted.
rows.
Genes, Too
Imported Outbreaks? Hendrik Poinar, an
In an earlier study (http://bit.ly/pnas-plague), evolutionary biolo-
Boris Schmid, an evolutionary biologist at the gist at McMaster
University of Oslo in Norway, and his col- University in Hamil-
Earth & Space Science News Eos.org // 5
NEWS
New Technique Reveals wanted to somehow enter the glacier,” said
Jouvet. For that, the researchers turned to
Iceberg Calving Process modeling.
Hundreds of Artificial Glaciers
Members of the research team, which
included scientists from ETH Zurich and
W
alking near the end of a massive there by some of the same researchers using Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan, sim-
tongue of glacial ice rising hundreds automatic cameras, GPS measurements, and ulated on a computer more than 100 versions
of meters above the sea, a group of ice-penetrating radar. This time, however, the of the terminus of Bowdoin Glacier, each
scientists spotted an unexpected and ominous scientists brought with them a piece of tech- characterized by different internal properties
sign. About 100 meters from the edge of the nology that’s becoming popular in geophysics such as bedrock topography, friction between
glacier was a crack a few meters wide. The research: a UAV. bedrock and ice, and ice stiffness. They also
crack was fresh—there had been no sign of it Team members mounted a camera on the modeled whether, at the time of the 16 July
the day before. “We decided we wouldn’t walk battery-powered craft. Then, on 11 July, after second flight, the crack might have been par-
farther,” said Guillaume Jouvet, a glaciologist overcoming reliability issues with the UAV’s tially filled with water, a condition that would
at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. compass related to the nearby North Pole, have widened it more than had it been empty.
He and his colleagues were on a 2015 expe- they guided the craft over the terminus of By comparing the properties of these arti-
dition to Bowdoin Glacier in northwestern Bowdoin Glacier. ficial glaciers with the actual surface features
Greenland for the express purpose of of Bowdoin Glacier, the team found a
deepening scientists’ understanding best fit model indicating that the
of when, how, and why such fissures crack was water filled and 175 meters
form. But the fissures were just a deep, roughly two thirds of the total
means to an end; the team was out to thickness of the glacier. “The fractur-
piece together the series of events ing process was quite advanced” by
from the start of a crack to the then, said Jouvet.
moment when an iceberg breaks free He and his colleagues didn’t
at the glacial front. attempt to predict exactly when Bow-
The international team of research- doin Glacier’s massive iceberg would
ers, including Jouvet, led by glaciolo- detach. That happened on 27 July,
gist Martin Funk, also of ETH Zurich, about a week after the researchers
recently reported in The Cryosphere had left Greenland. A roughly
(http://bit.ly/bowdoin-calving) that 1-kilometer-long section of the gla-
they used images collected by an cier calved off as an iceberg, which
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to then broke apart in the water. “Fish-
model how ice fractures propagated in A large crack splits the ice about 100 meters from the face of Bowdoin Gla- ermen saw a lot of icebergs coming
this glacier, which is about half the cier in Greenland. Credit: Julien Seguinot, ETH Zurich from Bowdoin Fjord” that day, Jouvet
area of Manhattan Island. The crack noted.
resulted in a 1-kilometer-long iceberg He added that the team’s technique
breaking away from the front of the glacier. The camera snapped roughly 1000 overlap- of modeling ice fractures could “absolutely”
Combining observations of visible ice frac- ping photographs during the 30-minute be applied in more places than just Greenland.
tures with modeling of a glacier’s interior, as flight. The researchers then used computer For instance, the method could be used to
the team has done, is a powerful technique for software to construct a three-dimensional infer the properties of the enormous crack
better understanding, and potentially predict- model of the glacier from the data. The result- that’s currently developing in Antarctica’s
ing, when and where glaciers will produce ice- ing image was “like a satellite view, but [of] much larger Larsen C ice shelf, which spans
bergs, the researchers suggest. very high resolution,” said Jouvet. hundreds of square kilometers. However, he
This work “yields insights into the produc- The next day, the team explored the glacial said, monitoring such a large area might be
tion of icebergs, which are increasingly affect- front and noticed the crack near the glacier’s better accomplished with satellite images
ing human societies,” said Mark Carey, a gla- edge. But when they later reviewed the previ- than with UAV images.
cier researcher at the University of Oregon in ous day’s UAV images, they saw no sign of the Now Jouvet is leading a project to actually
Eugene, who was not involved in this research. crack. predict the formation of cracks responsible for
The current number of icebergs drifting into Five days later, the team launched the UAV massive icebergs. The project is deploying a
North Atlantic shipping lanes is “among the again and assembled another t hree- fleet of UAVs in northwestern Greenland this
highest in a century,” he added. dimensional image of Bowdoin Glacier. This summer to collect its first data. Jouvet said
A video (http://bit.ly/bowdoin-video) that time, the researchers found the crack easily: It that he hopes to record a large event, from the
the researchers made of this revealing field- had grown to 750 meters long. By comparing initiation of the first crack in the ice to the
work includes footage taken by the UAV’s the two h igh-resolution UAV data sets using a final launch of the iceberg.
camera. feature-tracking algorithm, Jouvet and his
colleagues traced how the ice moved and cal-
Flying Eye culated its velocity at 1-meter intervals. But By Katherine Kornei (email: hobbies4kk@gmail
The team’s 2015 observations of the glacier the UAV images revealed only the glacier’s .com; @katherinekornei), Freelance Science Jour-
built on previous studies of the flowing ice surface—the real mystery lay within. “We nalist
6 // Eos July 2017
NEWS
Balloons of Lava Bubble sented his theory at the AGU Chapman Con-
ference on submarine volcanism in January in
into the Ocean from Seafloor Blisters Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
A Rare Thing to Behold
Lava balloons are hollow pieces of cooled
basalt, a fine-grained dark lava rock. These
rough ellipsoids can be as small as 50 centi-
meters and as long as 3 meters. They rise to
the sea surface during some submarine erup-
tions, and after a few minutes of bobbing on
the surface, they absorb water and sink back
down to the seafloor.
“When they’re floating at the sea surface,
they’re a bit like icebergs,” Küppers said.
“They’re mostly below the surface.”
So far, humans have documented the
appearance of lava balloons only five times:
off the coast of the island of Hawaii in Febru-
ary 1877; near the Mediterranean island of
Pantelleria, Italy, in October 1891; near the
Mexican island of Socorro in late 1993 and
early 1994; off the coast of the Azores, from
1998 to 2001; and in the Canary Islands, Spain,
in October 2011.
But Küppers suspects that lava balloons
may occur more often than volcanologists
think. Because they float on the surface for
only a few minutes, it’s hard to catch them in
the act. Only for the Socorro, Azores, and
Canary Island eruptions have scientists been
able to directly observe the balloons while
measuring other aspects of the eruption, like
Lava balloons are pieces of hollow, cooled lava burped up from the seafloor after some types of undersea volcanic seismicity and water temperature.
eruptions. This balloon was recovered from the 1998–2001 eruption near the Azores, Portugal. Credit: Ulrich Küppers
How Did the Balloons Get There?
After studying data—some collected by him,
I
magine you’re a fisherman at sea and sud- The balloons are a strange and rare phe- some collected by others—from the most
denly your boat is surrounded by dozens of nomenon that serve a scientific purpose: They recent three eruptions, Küppers noticed a few
floating pieces of hot, dark rock, hissing alert researchers to underwater eruptions that common traits. The balloons didn’t seem to
and spewing vapor. Some rocks are no bigger might otherwise go unnoticed, said Ulrich explode or implode as they rose in the water
than footballs and some are larger than refrig- Küppers, a volcanologist at the University of column, and their size didn’t change along
erators. But just a few minutes later, the mys- Munich in Germany. their journey to the sea surface. Maps of the
terious chunks sink below the surface with no seafloor around the eruptions revealed that
hint of where they came from. the balloons all emerged from submarine
That is exactly what happened to a group of Fishermen described the eruptions in shallow water no deeper than a
fishermen in the Azores, Portugal, in late
1998. It turns out that they were witnessing
balloons as “hot steaming few hundred meters.
“There’s really a lot of open questions still
the appearance of lava balloons: floating stones whose high about how...they form, but we have now a
lumps of hollow, cooled lava burped up from good couple of data sets about eruptive activity
the seafloor after an undersea volcanic erup- temperature caused ongoing at the ocean floor,” he said.
tion.
The fishermen described the balloons as
minor damage to fishing After gathering balloons from the Azores
eruption and analyzing data from the other
“hot steaming stones whose high temperature ropes.” four eruptions, Küppers has come up with a
caused minor damage to the fishing ropes,” hypothesis for how the balloons emerge.
with “fire coming out from the seawater Every now and then during a submarine erup-
spreading on the air like sparks of fireworks,” tion, gas accumulates just below the interface
according to a report (http://bit.ly/lava Küppers is trying to find out how and why between the volcano’s magma and the water
-balloons) by Portuguese scientists who were these weird features form. He suspects that above.
called to the scene. The fishermen later they are the result of trapped magmatic gas The gas continues to rise because it’s less
noticed a “large quantity of dead or injured pushing upward through lava during some dense, bringing a coating of magma along with
fish” at the sea surface. kinds of undersea eruptions. Küppers pre- it. The magma that rises above the interface is
Earth & Space Science News Eos.org // 7
NEWS
and Risk Assessment explored the eruption
area with a remotely operated vehicle.
The team got lucky—they spotted some of
these balloons as they rose and filmed them
with the vehicle’s camera. Küppers and other
researchers studied the footage and found gas
bubbles emanating from the balloons that
had traveled through the water column.
“If that was water steam, in contact with
water in the Azores at 20 degrees [Celsius], it
would instantly quench, condense, and the
bubble would implode, disappear,” he said.
“These bubbles survive over several frames,
and this is reason for me to believe that these
bubbles are primarily filled with carbon diox-
ide.”
He suspects that the carbon dioxide origi-
nates from the magma but separates from the
melted rock and accumulates below the lava
interface, bulging it outward, perhaps trigger-
ing the process of lava balloon formation.
Lava Blisters
During a research expedition to the Azores in
July 2016, Küppers and his colleagues studied
the 1998 eruption site in detail. “We have
observed many balloon fragments in a heap
Lava balloons floating in the ocean on 18 January 2012 during an eruption off the coast of the Canary Islands, Spain.
at the seafloor,” so lava balloons have been
Credit: Laura García-Cañada, CC BY 3.0 (http://bit.ly/ccby3-0)
launching at the spot for quite some time, he
said. “I call it making lava blisters.”
Küppers hopes next to quantify the condi-
instantly quenched when it meets cold seawa- sea surface, whereas others absorb water and tions of blister and balloon formation, such
ter, creating a thin crust of cooled lava over a sink back to the seafloor. as how much gas is needed to bulge the lava
gas-filled interior. interface, drive the lava out, and make it
The rising gas keeps pushing the shell up. What Gas Propels the Balloons? detach from the seafloor.
Under the right conditions, the balloon Lava balloons appeared intermittently during
becomes buoyant enough that it detaches the Azores eruption, which continued until
from the seafloor and rises through the water early 2001. At one point, researchers from By Lauren Lipuma (@Tenacious_She), Contribut-
column. Some are light enough to reach the Portugal’s Research Institute for Volcanology ing Writer
Open Up Your Science
Earth and Space Science welcomes original
research papers spanning all of the Earth,
planetary, and space sciences, particularly
papers presenting and interpreting key data
sets and observations.
earthspacescience.agu.org
8 // Eos July 2017MEETING REPORT
Predictive Capability Workshop participants noted that despite
major developments in space weather mod-
for Extreme Space Weather Events
els, space weather forecasting is still in an
early stage. One of the challenges they dis-
cussed is the dearth of spacecraft monitor-
Workshop on Modeling and Prediction of Extreme Space Weather Events ing the solar wind between Earth and the
College Park, Maryland, 22–24 August 2016 Sun. At present these are limited to the
L1 point, where Earth’s and the Sun’s gravi-
ties balance out and where several spacecraft
are stationed (Advanced Composition
S
pace weather research is motivated by potential consequences of space weather Explorer (ACE), Deep Space Climate Obser-
the quest to understand the effects of events for everyday life on Earth. This event vatory (DSCOVR), Wind, and Solar and
solar activity on the near-Earth space sparked auroras as far south as the Carib- Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)).
environment and the severe impacts these bean and blew out telegraph systems. A Because of this dearth of data, a strategy
effects can have on infrastructure systems and comparable storm today would be devastat- for integrating data and modeling is essen-
technologies in space and on Earth. As this ing. tial, attendees noted. They agreed that the
sensitive infrastructure grows, so does the vul- Several recent intense geospace storms example of terrestrial weather forecasting
nerability of our society to solar storms. The also serve as a warning. In particular, the provides compelling guidance: Data assimi-
growing importance of extreme space weather 23 July 2012 solar storm, which had a magni- lation and ensemble forecasting have pro-
events underscores the need to develop mod- tude comparable to the Carrington Event, duced dramatic improvements in predic-
eling and predictive capabilities for these low- narrowly missed Earth but provided clear tions. Such a strategy should aim to
probability but high-impact events. evidence of the likelihood of such intense overcome the “valley of death”—the diffi-
A workshop last August brought together events. culties in the transition from research to
participants from universities, research cen- The U.S. government has provided a operations that infamously claim so many
ters, and federal agencies. Participants strong impetus to study space weather. In promising ideas.
assessed current capabilities in modeling October 2015, the White House Office of Sci-
severe space weather events, and they ence and Technology Policy released the A Need for Advanced Modeling
addressed potential approaches for developing National Space Weather Strategy (see http:// Capabilities
capabilities that can facilitate preparedness bit.ly/space-weather-strategy) and an At the workshop, participants discussed chal-
and transition from research to operational accompanying action plan (see http://bit.ly/ lenges in modeling and prediction of extreme
forecasting. space-weather-action). A 13 October 2016 events in general. However, they agreed that
presidential executive order calls for space the severe consequences of such events
A Developing Response weather preparedness and efforts to mini- require developing strategies or frameworks
to an Established Risk mize the extent of economic loss and human that combine the capabilities of first
The famous solar storm referred to as the hardship from space weather (see http://bit principles and data-driven approaches. Data-
Carrington Event of 1859 illustrates the .ly/space-weather-EO). driven modeling is based on complexity sci-
ence and does not require modeling assump-
tions, so it is an important framework that
has provided methods to quantify uncer-
tainty. In space weather, such approaches are
very relevant, especially considering the cur-
rent state of numerical models.
Workshop participants identified the need
for increasing open access to models in space
weather research. To move toward forecast-
ing, testing and validating models are essen-
tial, which requires that models be readily
accessible to the community. As in the case of
terrestrial weather, there is a fundamental
need for o pen-access numerical models to
accelerate model development and their
transition from the research community to
operational use.
This workshop was funded by NSF/
PREEVENTS grant AGS 1638499.
Artist’s representation of the Sun-Earth connection. When storms on the Sun emit solar flares and coronal mass ejec- By A. Surjalal Sharma (email: ssh@astro.umd
tions, the effects can extend to electrical grids and telecommunications systems on Earth. At a workshop last August, .edu) and Eugenia E. Kalnay, University of Mary-
experts looked at current capabilities for modeling severe space weather events and discussed how they could land, College Park; and Michael Bonadonna,
develop ways to help with preparedness and forecasting for such events. Credit: NASA/GSFC/SOHO/ESA, CC BY 2.0 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra-
(http://bit.ly/ccby2-0) tion, Silver Spring, Md.
Earth & Space Science News Eos.org // 9OPINION
Acquiring a Taste Our democratic system means that I expect
power to be mutable. But I also expect the
for Advocacy
rules to stay more or less the same, and these
days that’s not such a sure bet.
Sitting in that basement room, listening to
the people who argue for our work to the peo-
ple who use what we learn (and pay for our
curiosity), I knew that even if I’m unwilling to
O
n the Sunday before last year’s AGU This disengagement isn’t just unreasoned advocate for particular policies in my role as a
Fall Meeting—about a month after the distaste. Some years ago, prompted by a scientist, I am more than ready to advocate for
U.S. elections—I found myself in a request from a scientist I greatly admire to what we do and to make the case for stability,
windowless room, deep in the basement of the sign a policy statement I wholeheartedly intellectual freedom, and openness in how we
San Francisco Marriott Marquis Hotel. It was agreed with, I thought long and hard about do it.
8:00 a.m., and I was shaking off jet lag to whether to engage in political discourse as a
attend a science communications workshop scientist. A Visit to Congress
hosted by AGU’s Sharing Science program. In the end, after hearing a timely and ter- With this readiness to advocate, I took advan-
Communications, in this context, means rific set of talks (see http://bit.ly/scipolicy), I tage of a trip to Washington earlier this year to
talking about science to people who aren’t sci- did not sign that statement. Instead, I set- spend a day of my own time visiting members
entists. The workshop covered three topics: tled on the idea that science can tell us what of Congress.
interacting with the general public, which I is true but not what to do—that policy might The visits were arranged by AGU’s public
love; talking to journalists, which is what drew be grounded in truth but ultimately reflects affairs staff, the same people who run AGU’s
me; and interactions with politicians. I figured values. Congressional Visits Days. In the weeks before
I’d zone out through that last bit. That principle served me well enough for a the trip, the staff helped me craft a message,
But that isn’t how things turned out. decade, even in the face of growing unease then refine a script with stories and concrete
about increasingly counterfactual arguments requests. They identified whom I could meet
A Eureka Moment against the increasingly deep understanding with and what committee memberships or
Let’s back up a bit. Even when I was a postdoc of climate change. But times have changed, legislative sponsorships would make the visit
in the Washington, D. C., area, almost and it’s become unnervingly normal to most relevant. They joined me on those visits,
2 decades ago, I avoided politics like the advance political agendas by denying the guiding me through a bewildering building
plague. truths that science provides. and an even more bewildering social world.
A sign held at the 21 January 2017 Women’s March in Washington, D. C. Credit: Liz Lemon
10 // Eos July 2017OPINION
The legislative side of the federal govern- My biggest surprise, however, was learning I don’t think so. On the most basic level,
ment is like another country: unfamiliar, firsthand how hard congressional staff work to politicians respond to public pressure and
sometimes uncomfortable, but easy enough to find common ground. For my visit, AGU had opinion, and newly engaged, vocal, and orga-
get the hang of, once I had dusted off my arranged meetings with representatives from nized communities can be valuable support or
interview suit. both political parties, guaranteeing that some formidable opponents.
Capitol Hill runs on young people. More fundamental, politicians have
Most staff are the age of graduate stu- to triangulate an enormous range of
dents, the really senior staff about as Anecdotes make facts personal— priorities. The fate of Earth science is
old as postdocs. Nonetheless, it
quickly becomes apparent that these
and people, after all, are far more rarely the most pressing or compel-
ling. And yet they listen, and I’d like
are smart people with knowledge and important than ideas. to think that positions might change.
power. Musing on the way home from my
Some social customs take getting congressional visit, I couldn’t shake
used to. In everyday conversation, it the image of a stream running over
would be rude to make a request without of the people I met would have viewpoints dif- rocks. The landscape right now might seem so
establishing a connection, but on the Hill “the ferent than my own. And yet every single staff permanent, but then there’s the Grand Can-
ask” is the first thing on the table because this member went out of his or her way to hear yon….
gives your hosts the chance to calibrate who what I had to say, respond thoughtfully, and
you are and how to respond to you. identify one or more points on which our
One-off stories have little value in scien- agendas aligned. By Robert Pincus (email: robert.pincus@colorado
tific arguments, but they are gold in congres- .edu), University of Colorado Boulder
sional offices. That’s partly because time is No Landscape Is Permanent
short (most visits last 30 minutes or less). Of course, no single visit by one scientist is Editor’s Note: For more information on AGU’s
But it’s also because anecdotes make facts going to change any legislator’s well- Sharing Science program and Congressional Visits
personal—and people, after all, are far more developed policy stance. Does that mean the Days, see https://sharingscience.agu.org/ and
important than ideas. visits are pointless or self-indulgent? http://bit.ly/AGUcvd.
Read it first on
Articles are published on Eos.org before A 1.4-Billion-Pixel Map of the Gulf of Mexico
they appear in the magazine. Seafloor
http://bit.ly/Eos_GOM-seafloor-map
Visit https://eos.org daily for the latest news
and perspectives. Mining Ancient Texts Reveals
Clues to Space Weather of Yore
http://bit.ly/Eos_ancient-spaceweather
Unseasonable Weather Entrenches
Climate Opinions
http://bit.ly/Eos_climate-beliefs
A Sea Change in Paleoceanography
http://bit.ly/Eos_Paleoceanography
Shifting Winds Write Their History
on a New Zealand Lake Bed
http://bit.ly/Eos_NZ-lake-bed
Deep Trouble! Common Problems
for Ocean Observatories
http://bit.ly/Eos_ocean-observatory-problems
Earth & Space Science News Eos.org // 11UNDERSTANDING
KAMCHATKA’S
EXTRAORDINARY
VOLCANO
CLUSTER
By Nikolai M. Shapiro, Christoph
Sens-Schönfelder, Birger G. Lühr,
Michael Weber, Ilyas Abkadyrov,
Evegeny I. Gordeev, Ivan Koulakov,
Andrey Jakovlev, Yulia A. Kugaenko,
and Vadim A. Saltykov
12 // Eos July 2017K
lyuchevskoy volcano, soaring 4750 meters
above the Kamchatka Peninsula near the
western shore of the Bering Sea, is one of
the most active in the world. Many inter-
national flights connecting North Amer-
ica and Asia fly over the peninsula, where
a group of active volcanoes, including Klyuchevskoy,
occasionally fill the air with ash and dust. What drives
the unusually high volcanic activity here? Do these vol-
canoes all feed from the same large pool of magma?
The Klyuchevskoy volcanic group (KVG), a part of the
Kuril-Kamchatka volcanic belt, is located in a subduction
The Klyuchevskoy volcano in eastern Russia during a 2016 eruption. The photo-
graph was taken in July; the eruption began in April and lasted about 6 months.
To the right is the Kamen volcano. Both volcanoes are part of an especially active
group on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, near the Bering Sea. Credit: Segrey Chirkov
Earth & Space Science News Eos.org // 13Fig. 1. KISS project setup. (a) Three-dimensional view of the K
amchatka– reservoirs are connected by one large volcanic supercom
Aleutian tectonic plate junction. The red arrow indicates the location of plex. The instruments also provided a real-time record of
the Klyuchevskoy volcanic group (KVG). The approximate positions of an unfolding eruption: They recorded the full sequence of
the active and extinct volcanic chains are indicated with red and blue events that preceded the most recent eruption of Klyu
dashed lines, respectively. (b) Region surrounding the KVG where the chevskoy, in April 2016.
KISS seismic stations (green circles) collected data from July 2015 to July
2016. Broadband and short-period stations of the permanent seismic
The Klyuchevskoy Volcanic Group
monitoring network are shown with black and white triangles, respec-
Over the past 10,000 years, Klyuchevskoy volcano has
tively. Red arrows show the locations of volcanoes that erupted during
produced an average of 1 cubic meter of erupted rock
the past decade: 1, Klyuchevskoy; 2, Bezymianny; 3, Tolbachik; 4, Shive-
every second [Fedotov et al., 1987]. This eruption rate is
luch; and 5, Kizimen.
much higher than that of most volcanoes associated with
subduction and is comparable to the growth of the Hawai
ian volcanic chain, often considered one of the most vig
orous volcanic systems of modern Earth.
zone where the Pacific oceanic plate plunges beneath the
Besides Klyuchevskoy, the KVG contains 12 other large
tectonic plate that carries the peninsula (Figure 1a). The
volcanoes. Two of them, Bezymianny and Tolbachik, have
strength and variety of volcanic activity in the region
been very active in the past few decades. Two other active
make it a natural laboratory to study where magma sits and
volcanoes, Shiveluch and Kizimen, are located only 60 kilo
how it moves in a subduction zone.
meters north and south, respectively, of KVG (Figure 1b).
Previous surveys have been limited to the area around
A whole spectrum of eruptive styles is present in the
Klyuchevskoy. That changed in 2015–2016, when an inter
KVG, ranging from steady Hawaiian-type eruptions, as
national collaboration conducted the first geophysical
seen during the two most recent eruptions of Tolbachik,
survey of the entire KVG. The effort was named the Klyu
to the strongly explosive eruptions of Bezymianny in
chevskoy Investigation–Seismic Structure of an Extraor
1956, which were among the world’s largest in the 20th
dinary Volcanic System (KISS) experiment.
century. (The word bezymianny means “unnamed” in
Data from KISS’s instrument network offer an unprec
Russian. Until the 1956 eruption, the volcano was consid
edented look at one of Earth’s most active volcanic
ered to be extinct, so no one bothered to give it a name.)
regions and could reveal whether the underlying magma
The region’s exceptional volcanic activity is related to
the unique tectonic setting of the KVG, located at the
sharp corner between the K uril-Kamchatka and Aleutian
trenches. This corner is where the H awaiian–Emperor
seamount chain, the underwater mountain range that
stretches down to Hawaii, is subducted, and the KVG is
perched above the edge of the subducted slab (Figure 1a).
Geodynamic models that attempt to explain the volu
minous volcanism in the KVG are complex and include
many factors. These include the release of fluids from the
thick, highly hydrated H awaiian-Emperor crust [Doren-
dorf et al., 2000], the mantle flow around the corner of the
Pacific plate [Yogodzinski et al., 2001], and the recent
detachment of a portion of the slab due to an eastward
jump of the subduction zone beneath Kamchatka [Levin
KISS experiment fieldwork often took place in remote locations. Here, a et al., 2002]. The large variability of lavas and eruption
Kamaz truck and Robinson helicopter transport equipment and field styles reflects the complexity of the feeding system of
crews. Klyuchevskoy (erupting) and Kamen volcanoes are seen in the magma sources and reservoirs in the upper mantle and
background. Credit: Sergey Chirkov the crust.
14 // Eos July 2017 he Klyuchevskoy volcanic group in northeastern Russia, as seen from the International Space Station, viewed from the southeast. Credit: Earth Sci-
T
ence and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center
A Unique Natural Laboratory tem requires an investigation of subsurface structures at a
Because of its strong and variable activity, the KVG is a much larger scale.
unique natural laboratory for studying volcanism in a
subduction zone. Understanding how this zone functions The KISS Project
requires detailed knowledge about the configuration of To undertake such a l arge-scale seismological investiga
the subducted oceanic plates and about the distribution of tion of the KVG, we formed a consortium of institutions
magma conduits and reservoirs within the mantle wedge from Russia, France, and Germany and designed the KISS
and the crust. A particularly important question is experiment. We operated a temporary network of 83 seis
whether the individual KVG volcanoes are fed from inde mographs between August 2015 and July 2016.
pendent magma sources or whether they form a single The experiment took place in difficult terrain; helicop
interconnected magmatic supersystem. ters and o ff-road trucks were needed to transport the
Gathering information about the deep KVG structure equipment and field crews to the installation sites. An
requires the use of geophysical methods. Past seismologi eruption-triggered mudflow destroyed one site, and a few
cal studies [Koulakov et al., 2011] have revealed possible others were wrecked by bears. Despite the harsh environ
pathways of melts ascending from the subducting slab ment, the team recovered data from 77 instruments (Fig
and a multilevel system of magma reservoirs in the crust. ure 1b).
However, the structures that these studies illuminated Initial inspection of seismograms indicates that the
are restricted mainly to a few tens of kilometers sur network successfully recorded many tectonic and volcanic
rounding Klyuchevskoy volcano, where most existing per earthquakes and volcanic tremors. The collected data set,
manent seismic stations are located (Figure 1b). A full combined with records from permanent seismic stations,
understanding of the behavior of the KVG magmatic sys will be used to study various types of earthquakes associ
Earth & Space Science News Eos.org // 15The Klyuchevskoy volcano puffs gas during its 2016 eruption. Kamen Moreover, Kamchatka has a well-established record of
and Bezymianny volcanoes are to the left. In 2015 and 2016, an interna- even larger caldera-forming eruptions in the Holocene
tional collaboration conducted a large-scale geophysical survey of the [Braitseva et al., 1995], with the largest of them forcibly
active group of volcanoes that includes Klyuchevskoy. Credit: Benoit ejecting about 150 cubic kilometers of rock fragments
Taisne (tephra).
Considering that at present more than half of Kam
chatka volcanic magmas are generated below the KVG, we
ated with the volcanic and magmatic activity and to image cannot ignore the possibility of a future extreme explo
the crust and upper mantle with multiscale seismic sive event in this region. We expect the results of the KISS
tomography. experiment to help us evaluate such extreme event sce
These results will help us understand why exceptionally narios by improving our knowledge of the size of the KVG
large amounts of melts are generated in the upper mantle crustal magmatic reservoirs, along with the volume of
at the K
amchatka-Aleutian subduction corner and how potentially explosive magmas they might contain.
these magmas are transformed during the ascent through When the Klyuchevskoy volcano rumbled back to life
the crust, producing the vigorous and very variable volca and erupted in April 2016 (see http://bit.ly/Klyuchevskoy
nism we see at the surface. -eruption), the KISS network recorded the full sequence
of reactivation leading up to the eruption. We will use this
Monitoring the KVG for Hazardous Eruptions data set to improve our knowledge of how the rise of
Volcanic eruptions regularly affect a few small settlements magma and the preeruptive buildup of pressure are
located near the KVG, and they pose a significant threat to expressed in the continuous seismic signals. The data will
aviation because many international flights that connect also help refine the routine monitoring of the KVG and
North America and Asia pass over Kamchatka. Large explo other nearby volcanoes performed by the Kamchatka
sive eruptions such as those of Bezymianny in 1956 and Branch of Russia’s Geophysical Survey and by the Kam
Shiveluch in 1964, when about 1 cubic kilometer of erupted chatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team, which is oper
material was ejected, might be particularly dangerous. ated by the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
16 // Eos July 2017Acknowledgments Dorendorf, F., U. Wiechert, and G. Wörner (2000), Hydrated sub-arc mantle: A source
for the Kluchevskoy volcano, Kamchatka/Russia, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 175, 69–86,
The KISS experiment was supported by the Russian Science https://doi.org/10.1016/S0012-821X(99)00288-5.
Foundation (grant 14-47-00002), the French project Labex Fedotov, S. A., A. P. Khrenov, and N. A. Jarinov (1987), Klyuchevskoy volcano, its activity in
1932–1986 and possible development [in Russian], Volcanol. Seismol., 4, 3–16. [Volca-
UnivEarth, and the Université Sorbonne Paris Cité project nol. Seismol., Engl. transl., 9, 501–521, 1990.]
VolcanoDynamics. Sixty seismographs were provided by Koulakov, I., et al. (2011), Feeding volcanoes of the Kluchevskoy group from the results of
Geophysical Instrument Pool Potsdam (GIPP) from the local earthquake tomography, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L09305, https://doi.org/10.1029/
2 011GL046957.
Helmholtz Center Potsdam-GFZ German Research Centre
Levin, V., et al. (2002), Seismic evidence for catastrophic slab loss beneath Kamchatka,
for Geosciences, and 23 were provided by the partner institu Nature, 418, 763–767, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature00973.
tions from the Russian Academy of Sciences: the Institute of Yogodzinski, G. M., et al. (2001), Geochemical evidence for the melting of subducting
oceanic lithosphere at plate edges, Nature, 409, 500–504, https://doi.org/10.1038/
Volcanology and Seismology, the Trofimuk Institute of Petro 35054039.
leum Geology and Geophysics, and the Kamchatka Branch of
the Geophysical Survey. KISS data are stored in the GFZ Seis Author Information
mological Data Archive operated by the GEOFON program Nikolai M. Shapiro (email: nshapiro@ipgp.fr), Institut de
and will be openly available after a 3-year embargo period. Physique du Globe de Paris, Paris, France; Christoph Sens-
We are grateful to Sergey Abramenkov, Benjamin Heit, Pavel Schönfelder, Birger G. Lühr, and Michael Weber, GFZ
Kuznetsov, Ekaterina Kukarina, Roman Kulakov, Alexey Kot German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Ger-
lyarov, Valeriy Gladkov, Petr Voropaev, Dmitry Droznin, many; Ilyas Abkadyrov and Evegeny I. Gordeev, Institute of
Sergey Senyukov, and Vitaly Bliznetsov, who participated in Volcanology and Seismology, Far East Branch of the Russian
the fieldwork. Special thanks are owed to Sergey Chirkov for Academy of Sciences, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia; Ivan
providing field photographs and to the truck driver, Igor Koulakov and Andrey Jakovlev, Trofimuk Institute of Petro-
Uteshev, as well as to the helicopter pilot, Gennady Kroshkin. leum Geology and Geophysics, Siberian Branch of the Russian
Academy of Sciences and Novosibirsk State University, Novosi-
birsk, Russia; and Yulia A. Kugaenko and Vadim A. Saltykov,
References
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Kamchatka Branch of the Geophysical Survey, Russian Acad-
volcanoes in the Kuril–Kamchatka region, Bull. Volcanol., 57, 383–402. emy of Sciences, P etropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia
Earth & Space Science News Eos.org // 17You can also read
