The Kilauea volcano, in the southeast of the island of Hawaii, is one of the most active on Earth. Mild rashes are common here. But it remains difficult to predict explosive eruptions. Josh Crozier and Leif Karlstrom, from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oregon, offer a lead: analyze the “music” of seismic waves recorded around its lava lakes. In an article published in the journal Science Advances and 1is June, the researchers describe how these vibrations translate properties of the magma likely to cause an explosion. “We hope this will inspire more work to understand what these signals mean for Kilauea,” says Josh Crozier. Such a method should also work for many volcanoes that have a lava lake, the researchers believe.
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