In the Company of Volcanoes

- Dr. Janine Krippner Today marks another anniversary of the deadly eruption of Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington, USA. This eruption was one of those events where most remember where they were around the world when they heard the news. It changed the lives of those around the volcano - those who lost friends or family, their homes, their view of the local landscape, and their belief that 'i…

- Dr. Janine Krippner Mount St. Helens, May 18, 1980 . Top information resources for volcanic ash: USGS Volcanic Ash Impacts and Mitigation The International Volcanic Health Hazard Network GNS Be Prepared: Volcanic Ashfall Global Volcanic Hazards and Risk List of Volcano Observatories Items to stock before ashfall As you read this, there are likely around 20 volcanoes actively erupting right now.…

Dr. Alison Graettinger The scale of geologic history is not just spread over a larger time span than many of us are used to thinking about, but also a larger physical scale. To help train future geologists to be comfortable with these large scales, and three dimensional challenges of our planet's history, we take students out into the field and make them map, the old fashioned way, by hand. I wen…

Wow, it is the two year anniversary of this blog! We wanted to take a moment to thank all of our readers who have visited the blog over 100,000 times! While we write because we love talking about volcanoes and our work studying them, it is nice to see that there is interest in what we’ve taken the time to write about.  So a heartfelt thank you! Alison and Janine in Puerto Varas Chile, attending C…

- Dr. Janine Krippner I am NOT giving my own interpretations of the data and what the data means. I am NOT, and CANNOT tell people what this volcano might or might not do. Please always refer to all official source links below. The utmost respect must be given to the local authorities monitoring Agung, they have a large amount of data from different sensors to monitor Agung. I am not in Bali,…

- 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 t…

- Dr. Janine Krippner YELLOWSTONE is gonna BLOW... is something you see in tabloid headlines in some form or another far too often. Let me start off with saying how sick I am of seeing all of you being lied to about this volcano. Let's chat about the facts, where to find the facts, and how to spot the junk 'news' on Yellowstone. So what is actually happening with this volcano, or "supervolcano" t…

- Dr. Janine Krippner and Dr. Alison Graettinger Conferences mean many things. We get to see our co-blogger in person, go on field trips where we learn about new volcanoes from the people who have studied them, attend workshops and panels, make new friends, and race from talk to poster sessions to take in as much volcano science as we can. The International Association of Volcanology and Chemistr…

- Janine and Alison Wow it has been a few years, hasn't it? We lost access to our blog for a while there and are excited to have it back. The world has been changing a lot over the past few years and we have not been immune to this, so where are we now? Dr. Janine Krippner Hello! Due to the pandemic and impending visa changes I moved home to New Zealand/Aotearoa after 6 months of the pandemic in …

- Dr. Janine Krippner Watching the Agung eruption unfold showed me firsthand some of the points of confusion when it comes to talking about volcanoes and eruptions. You can see the types of information and resources I gave during that time here . Below are resources that can help understand terminology and processes, and find authoritative sources of information. There are definitely more trustwo…

- Guest blogger Dawn C.S. Ruth @rockdoc11 Keeping time with volcanoes Hi everyone. I’m neither Alison nor Janine. My name is Dawn C.S. Ruth and, like our fearless leaders, I also study volcanoes. However, where Alison uses experiments to delve deeper into volcanic processes, and Janine uses satellites to spy on volcanoes, I look at the minerals to see how magma moves and behaves before an …

-Alison How does it make you feel when a headline reads "molten magma beneath your feet"? It sure sounds exciting, and when it’s followed immediately by some line about disaster or cataclysm it can be quite stressful. Before we tackle the details, let’s start off with-- there is very little magma down there. Most of the Earth’s mantle is quite solid, it is hot, but not much of it is liquid. Some …

- 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…

- Dr. Janine Krippner How many times are women told 'family or career' ? How many times have we heard about women being treated differently because they have, or want to have, a family? We have heard that it's even a career killer . If we have kids - your career will suffer. Your kids will suffer . You will basically fail at everything . This is the message I have seen over and over again. I have…

A guest post: Hello! We are three of Alison’s students at the University of Missouri – Kansas City. Kadie Bennis is a Master’s student in the Department of Geosciences researching subaqueous volcanism while combining both field observations and experimental techniques to characterize sediment-magma interfaces. Sierra McCollum is a Senior undergraduate Geology major researching morphology and micr…

- Janine Krippner Originally published on 20/9/2021 here: http://janinekrippner.weebly.com/la-palma when we did not have access to our blog. I am honestly angry about how misinformation about a small eruption has put so many people in a state of pure fear across multiple countries. There is enough stress and fear in the world and I truly feel for everyone being impacted by this. It is incredib…

- Dr Janine Krippner Misinformation is not new. Sometimes confusion reigns and wrong information is innocently shared. Sometimes tabloids make clickbait headlines that are wildly misleading, so you visit their website and they make money. Now we also have people on social media posting misinformation for likes in stressful and even dangerous situations. I am following the situation around Santori…

- Dr. Janine Krippner This is a scary blog post to write. Why? Because even if you follow every bit of advice here you could still get hurt on a volcano. No one wants to give inadequate advice but I do not want to see any of you get hurt. The only way to eliminate the risk of getting injured or killed on a volcano is to not be there. I repeat: The only way to eliminate the risk of getting hurt or…

- Dr. Janine Krippner At the end of 2017 I dropped everything in my life to communicate the Agung crisis online. Just me, my two cats, and my laptop at the kitchen table. All night, every night, for just over three months. I am going over the notes that I took during the Agung crisis in order to prepare a talk that I will be giving at the Cities on Volcanoes conference next month. From the beginn…