The Ethiopian Rift Valley hosts the longest record of human co-existence with volcanoes on Earth, however, current understanding of the magnitude and timing of large explosive eruptions in this region is poor. Detailed records of volcanism are essential for interpreting the palaeoenvironments occupied by our hominin ancestors; and also for evaluating the volcanic hazards posed to the 10 million...

Streams of high speed dust particles originate from Jupiter’s innermost Galilean moon Io. After release from Io, the particles collect electric charges in the Io plasma torus, gain energy from the co-rotating electric field of Jupiter’s magnetosphere, and leave the Jovian system into interplanetary space with escape speeds over 200 km s. Galileo, which was the first orbiter spacecraft of Jupite...

A large 10 cm per day diastrophism of the crust was experienced between Kozu and Niijima Islands during the Izu-Miyake volcanic eruptions in Japan on 3–4 August 2000. The diastrophism was detected through GPS observation. The seismometer also complied a swarm of earthquakes at this time. Our electromagnetic wave data, observed at 223 Hz at the Omaezaki site, about 110 km and 150 km northwest of...

The origin of plains on Mercury, whether by volcanic flooding or impact ejecta ponding, has been controversial since the Mariner 10 flybys (1974-75). High-resolution images (down to 150 meters per pixel) obtained during the first MESSENGER flyby show evidence for volcanic vents around the Caloris basin inner margin and demonstrate that plains were emplaced sequentially inside and adjacent to nu...

Synthetic aperture radar imagery is widely used to study surface deformation induced by volcanic activity; however, it is rarely applied to quantify the evolution of lava domes, which is important for understanding hazards and magmatic system characteristics. We studied dome formation associated with eruptive activity at Mount Cleveland, Aleutian Volcanic Arc, in 2011–2012 using TerraSAR-X imag...

The main characteristics of the East African Rift System are outlined from selected references. The difference between the Eastern Rift with high volcanicity on two domal uplifts as against the Western Rift of restricted volcanism, but sediment and lake filled grabens is pointed out. This is also evident from the earthquake activity: Large earthquakes occur in the Western Rift, whereas earthqua...

Hawaiian volcanic deposits offer ideal opportunities to assess methanotrophic bacterial colonization of new substrates, and to determine the relative significance of methanotrophy during ecosystem succession. Activity and molecular ecological surveys indicated that significant methanotrophic activity was restricted to vegetated ecosystems characterized by closed-canopy forests and significant s...

In 1991, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched a comprehensive program to study the Earth as one environmental system. Now called the Earth Science Enterprise (ESE), this coordinated monitoring effort was initially comprised of free-flying satellites and Space Shuttle missions, as well as airborne and ground-based studies. The satellite component of the ESE is k...

Plinian and subplinian volcanic eruptions can be accompanied by tephra falls which may last hours or days, posing threats to people, buildings and economic activity. Numerous historical examples exist of tephra damage and tephra casualties. The mechanisms and consequences of roof collapse from static tephra load are an important area of tephra damage requiring more research. This paper contribu...