Tiny Secret
Magma's movements tracked
Kilauea's current eruption is still going strong after 29 years.
The secret movements of magma deep inside a volcano can be detected by tracking the subtle changes in gravity they cause. Surprising readings from a Hawaiian volcano have researchers hoping to better understand volcanic activity through gravity monitoring. Continuous gravity measurements of active volcanoes are relatively rare, with most results coming from Mount Etna in Italy. "One problem is the expense," researcher Michael Poland, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, explained. "Gravity measurements have always been a really expensive endeavor. The big users are oil and mining companies." Now scientists have monitored the gravity at Kilauea, a popular tourist destination on Hawaii's Big Island, and discovered a regular cycle of fluctuations that suggest magma is churning a kilometer (0.6 miles) below the surface. The way magma churns in underground chambers below volcanic vents is key to understanding how persistent volcanoes are, and whether or not they might catastrophically erupt in the future. However, what goes on deep under the Earth's surface is difficult to monitor.
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