Measuring Mt. Rainier.
Click on image for full size
Image from: U.S. Geological Survey, photo by Lyn Topinka

Volcano Monitoring

This image shows scientists measuring the changing shape of Mt. Rainier in Washington. Scientist often use lasers to perform these measurements.

Scientist monitor many aspects of volcanoes. Any changes they observe might mean that an eruption is possible.


Shop Windows to the Universe Science Store!

Our online store includes a wide range of Nature's Own mineral specimens, as well as a mineral and fossil collection perfect for the classroom.

Windows to the Universe Community

News

Opportunities

You might also be interested in:

The Earth Scientist, Volume XXVI, Issue 1, Spring 2010

This very special issue of The Earth Scientist (our biggest ever!) is sponsored by the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Ocean Research at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and is focused on the world’s oceans....more

Volcano Measurement

This image shows scientists monitoring the changing shape of a shield volcano with lasers. Scientist also use other tools like remote sensing to measure volcanoes. ...more

Volcano Formation

Volcanoes form when hot material from below rises and leaks into the crust. This hot material, called magma, comes either from a melt of subducted crustal material, and which is light and buoyant after...more

Volcanic Ash

Ash is made of millions of tiny fragments of rock and glass formed during a volcanic eruption. Volcanic ash particles are less than 2 mm in size and can be much smaller. Volcanic ash forms in several ways...more

Cinder Cones

Cinder cones are simple volcanoes which have a bowl-shaped crater at the summit and only grow to about a thousand feet, the size of a hill. They usually are created of eruptions from a single opening,...more

Flowing Lava

Lava can move in broad flat lava flows, or it can move through tight channels or tubes. Lava flows tend to cool quickly and flow slowly. The fastest lava outside of channels moves at about 6 mi/hr an easy...more

How Do Plates Move?

Plates at our planet’s surface move because of the intense heat in the Earth’s core that causes molten rock in the mantle layer to move. It moves in a pattern called a convection cell that forms when...more

Clues to Plate Movements

Many kinds of surface features are clues that our lithosphere is sliding. Two types of features can form when plates move apart. At mid ocean ridges, the bottom of the sea splits apart and new crust is...more

Shop Windows to the Universe

The Fall 2010 issue of The Earth Scientist, sponsored by MII/SME, focuses on rocks and minerals. Check out the other publications in our online store, as well as classroom materials.

Generous sponsorship of Windows to the Universe is provided by the Hewlett Foundation, the American Geological Institute, the American Geophysical Union, the National Science Foundation, NASA, NCAR, and the CISM and CMMAP projects. NASA CMMAP AGU CISM NCAR Hewlett AGI NSF