Tech
How Technology Has Helped In Controlling Volcano
Controlling a volcano is a tough gig. You’ve got to know what’s going on but getting too close is a deadly suggestion.
Fortunately, technology has given rise to it easier than ever to keep tabs on magma- and ash-spewing mountains around the globe. Much of this technology allows researchers to keep their way ago (even watching volcanoes from space) while keeping a close eye on volcanic movement. Some of these technologies can even penetrate cloud-swathed volcano peaks, allowing researchers to “see” ground changes that could signal an imminent eruption or hazardous lava dome collapse.
Surveying volcanoes used to be a matter of getting boots on the ground. In-person fieldwork still happens today, of course, but now scientists have far more tools at their disposal to track changes around the clock.
For example, researchers at one time had to troop to volcanic gas vents, pull out a container to capture the gas, and then send the sealed bottle to a lab for estimation. That technique was time-consuming and dangerous, considering that a great number of volcanic gases are lethal. Now, scientists much more continually turn to technology for these dirty jobs. Ultraviolet spectrometers, for example, measure the amount of ultraviolet light from sunlight absorbed by a volcanic plume. This measurement authorizes researchers to determine the amount of sulfur dioxide in the cloud.
Another tool, in use at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory since 2004, is the Fourier transform spectrometer, which works similarly but uses infrared light instead of ultraviolet. And one of the observatory’s newest tricks combines ultraviolet spectrometry with digital photography, using cameras that can capture several gas measurements per minute in the field. All of this gas information helps researchers figure out how much magma is under the volcano and what that magma is doing.
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory has more than 60 global positioning system (GPS) sensors tracking movement at the state’s active volcanic sites. These GPS sensors aren’t much different from those in your car’s navigation system or your phone, but they are extra sensitive.
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Kilometers, which are exactly what they sound like, measure how the ground tilts in a volcanic area, another telltale sign that something might be stirring below ground.
Having an eye in the sky is handy for tracking volcanic changes, too. Satellite imagery can reveal even minute elevation changes on the ground. One popular technique, called interferometric synthetic aperture radar (or InSAR), involves two or more satellite images taken from the same spot in orbit at different times. Changes in how quickly the satellite’s radar signal leaps back into expanse reveal modest deformations in the Earth’s texture. Using this data, scientists can create maps demonstrating ground modifications down to the centimeter.
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