Plumes of ash from an erupting volcano in Iceland have closed most of the airspace in northern Europe since last Thursday.
A NASA research team is using satellites and artificial intelligence to speed up estimates of the heat and volume of lava escaping from the volcano, called Eyjafjallajökull (pronounced “Aya-fyatla-jo-kutl”).
Images from NASA's spacecraft last Thursday of the aftermath of Iceland's volcanic eruption. Image credit: NASA GSFC/JPL
But while the scientists are using the very latest equipment and software to understand the volcano and follow the huge clouds of ash across Europe, some of the earliest pioneering work on volcanoes and earthquakes was conducted by an Irish scientist in the 19th century.
Father of seismology
Robert Mallet (1810-81) is often regarded as the father of modern seismology – he coined the terms “seismology” and “epicentre”.
One of his most important papers showed how volcanic heat is caused by disturbances in the crust of the earth.
These disturbances lead to the formation of lines of fracture, down which water finds its way and, if the temperature generated is sufficient, volcanic eruptions of steam or lava ensue.
NASA’s ‘sensor web’
The science of volcanoes has come a long way since Mallet’s day. On 20 March the volcano in Iceland awakened for the first time in 120 years. That day, a NASA “sensor web” – a network of sensors on the ground and on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 satellite (called EO-1) – automatically alerted researchers to the new volcanic hot spot.
The artificial intelligence software directed imaging instruments to target the volcano on EO-1′s next passes over Iceland later in March.
Then NASA’s computers in Pasadena, California, automatically analysed the images and created maps and estimates of heat loss and eruption flow rate.
The system means the spacecraft can react quickly and downlink the data rapidly for processing in less than 24 hours. If the researchers had to rely on previous manual processes, the information wouldn’t have been available for at least three weeks.
Learn more
Read more about Robert Mallet’s pioneering work
Learn about volcanoes on the “How Stuff Works” website
