Contemporary evolution of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) is best viewed in the context of the evolutionary history of the species and the dynamic ecosystems they inhabit. Speciation was complete by the late Miocene, leaving c. six million years for intraspecific diversification. Following the most recent glacial maximum, large areas became available for recolonization. Current intraspecific...

Though previous studies have shown that state-of-the-art climate models are rather imperfect in their simulations of the climate response to large volcanic eruptions, the results depend on how the analyses were done. Observations show that all recent large tropical eruptions were followed bywinter warming in the first Northern Hemisphere (NH) winter after the eruption, with little such response...

Unique among animals, humans survive not by superb physical adaptation to our environment, but rather by intelligent, large-scale adaptation of the environment to our needs. We build houses with climate control systems that mimic the environment of sub-Saharan Africa. We safely live in environments where the temperature never rises above freezing and where the level of the sea is higher than th...

An energy-balance numerical climate model was used to simulate the effects of the Mount St. Helens volcanic eruption of 18 May 1980. The resulting surface temperature depression is a maximum of 0.1 degrees C in the winter in the polar region, but is an order of magnitude smaller than the observed natural variability from other effects and will therefore be undetectable.

Fine particles of ash emitted during volcanic eruptions may sporadically influence cloud properties on a regional or global scale as well as influencing the dynamics of volcanic clouds and the subsequent dispersion of volcanic aerosol and gases. It has been shown that volcanic ash can trigger ice nucleation, but ash from relatively few volcanoes has been studied for its ice nucleating ability. ...

Dated records of ice-cap growth from Arctic Canada recently suggested that a succession of strong volcanic eruptions forced an abrupt onset of the Little Ice Age between A.D. 1275 and 1300 [Miller GH, et al. (2012) Geophys Res Lett 39(2):L02708, 10.1029/2011GL050168]. Although this idea is supported by simulation experiments with general circulation models, additional support from field data ar...

The Campanian Ignimbrite (CI) volcanic eruption was the most explosive in Europe in the last 200,000 years. The event coincided with the onset of an extremely cold climatic phase known as Heinrich Event 4 (HE4) approximately 40,000 years ago. Their combined effect may have exacerbated the severity of the climate through positive feedbacks across Europe and possibly globally. The CI event is of ...

[1] Infrasonic airwaves produced by active volcanoes provide valuable insight into the eruption dynamics. Because the infrasonic pressure field may be directly associated with the flux rate of gas released at a volcanic vent, infrasound also enhances the efficacy of volcanic hazard monitoring and continuous studies of conduit processes. Here we present new results from Erebus, Fuego, and Villar...

The large-scale volcanic lineaments in Iceland are an axial zone, which is delineated by the Reykjanes, West and North Volcanic Zones (RVZ, WVZ, NVZ) and the East Volcanic Zone (EVZ), which is growing in length by propagation to the southwest through pre-existing crust. These zones are connected across central Iceland by the Mid-Iceland Belt (MIB). Other volcanically active areas are the two in...

[1] Mass redistribution and deformation cause spatiotemporal gravity changes in active volcano areas. The ability of the gravity measurements to detect subsurface magma movement as a precursor to volcanic eruptions is greatly enhanced if gravity changes are analyzed and modeled jointly with ground deformation data. One effective tool for this analysis is provided by the gravity and elevation ch...