Predicting when volcanoes will blow could be made easier after a study explored their “plumbing systems”. Two years ago flights out of the UK were suspended by an ash cloud from the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano eruption in Iceland. Researchers say their understanding of when volcanoes are about to erupt has changed after looking at volcanoes in Ethiopia and Iceland. The studies, published in Nature Geoscience, reveal new information about where magma is stored underground and how it moves through the geological “plumbing network” . Scientists used images taken by the European Space Agency satellite Envisat to measure how the ground moved before, during and after eruptions. Data in one study showed magma chambers that fed an eruption in November 2008 in the Afar rift of Northern Ethiopia were only about 1 km below the ground. Dr Carolina Pagli from the University of Leeds' School of Earth and Environment, who led the study, said: “It was a complete surprise to see that a magma chamber could exist so close to the Earth's surface in an area where the tectonic plates move apart so slowly. “The results have changed the way we think about volcanoes.” Dr Tim Wright from the School of Earth and Environment, who leads the international Afar Rift Consortium, added: “Our work in one of the hottest place on Earth is having a direct impact on our understanding of eruptions from the frozen volcanoes of Iceland.”
