(Press-News.org) A better way to pinpoint where volcanic eruptions are likely to occur has been produced by an international team of geophysicists.
Scientists from the universities of Leeds, Purdue, Indiana and Addis Ababa, investigated volcanic activity occurring in the remote Afar desert of Northern Ethiopia between 2005 and 2009.
By studying a rare sequence of 13 magmatic events – where hot molten rock was intruded into a crack between the African and Arabian plates – they found that the location of each intrusion was not random. They showed that they were linked because each event changed the amount of tension in the earth's crust.
The findings, published in Nature Geoscience, will help scientists to more accurately predict where volcanic eruptions could strike and contribute to efforts to limit the damage they can cause.
Lead author Dr Ian Hamling, who completed the analysis as part of his PhD in the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds said: "It's been known for some time that a large earthquake has a role to play in triggering subsequent earthquakes, but until now, our knowledge of volcanic events has been based on isolated cases. We have demonstrated that volcanic eruptions can influence each other. This will help us predict where future volcanic eruptions are likely to happen."
The team studied the region around a large volcanic dyke – a vertical crack which is created when Magma seeps from underground through rifts in the surface of the earth – which erupted in the Afar desert in September 2005.
he Magma - hot molten rock - was injected along the dyke between depths of 2 and 9 km, and altered the tension of the earth. The team was able to watch the 12 smaller dykes that subsequently took place in the same region over a four year period.
By monitoring levels of tension in the ground near where each dyke was intruded they found that subsequent eruptions were more likely in places where the tension increases.
Dr Hamling said: "If you look at this year's eruptions at Ejafjallajokull in Iceland, by estimating the tension in the crust at other volcanoes nearby, you could estimate whether the likelihood of them eruption has increased or decreased. Knowing the state of stress in this way won't tell you when an eruption will happen, but it will give a better idea of where it is most likely to occur."
INFORMATION:
The paper 'Stress transfer between thirteen successive dyke intrusions in Ethiopia' by Drs Ian Hamling and Tim Wright of the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds; Eric Calais and Laura Bennati of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Purdue University, Indiana, and Elias Lewi of the Geophysical Obervatory, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, is available online in Nature Geoscience.
For more information contact: Press office, University of Leeds, 0113 343 4031, or pressoffice@leeds.ac.uk
Notes to editors
The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise showed the University of Leeds to be the UK's eighth biggest research powerhouse. The University is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. The University's vision is to secure a place among the world's top 50 by 2015.
Ian Hamling was funded through a studentship from the UK National Centre for Earth Observation, and is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy. Tim Wright is a Royal Society research fellow at the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds and the principle investigator of the NERC-funded Afar Rift Consortium (http://see.leeds.ac.uk/afar).
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Santa Cruz, CA, USA and Oxford, UK, 27 September 2010: Research published this week in Nature Nanotechnology shows a new method of enzyme-controlled movement of a single strand of DNA through a protein nanopore. The paper, by researchers at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC), represents a key step towards nanopore sequencing of DNA strands.
The publication describes the observation of single stranded DNA (ssDNA) as it translocates through a protein nanopore, alpha hemolysin (AHL). Movement of the ssDNA was controlled by polymerase-facilitated replication ...
SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 27, 2010 – If drivers are yakking on cell phones and don't hear spoken instructions to turn left or right from a passenger or navigation system, they still can get directions from devices that are mounted on the steering wheel and pull skin on the driver's index fingertips left or right, a University of Utah study found.
The researchers say they don't want their results to encourage dangerous and distracted driving by cell phone users. Instead, they hope the study will point to new touch-based directional devices to help motorists and ...
STANFORD, Calif. - People go to emergency departments when they've broken a leg, been stabbed or otherwise need urgent care. But a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine finds that 90 percent of EDs nationwide also offer preventive-care services.
The high prevalence was surprising, said M. Kit Delgado, MD, the study's lead author and a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford's Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research, and it likely stems from less-than-ideal conditions.
"It's more evidence that our health-care system is dysfunctional," said Delgado, ...
A new analysis finds that men whose partners have breast cancer are at increased risk of developing mood disorders that are so severe that they warrant hospitalization. Published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that clinicians should address the mental health of cancer patients' loved ones.
Diseases can compromise the mental health of not only affected patients but of their closest relatives as well. Partners in particular are at risk because they may feel stressed and may be deprived of emotional, social, ...
Working to solve the puzzle of when people develop celiac disease has led researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine Center for Celiac Research to some surprising findings. They have found that the autoimmune disorder is on the rise with evidence of increasing cases in the elderly. An epidemiological study published September 27 in the Annals of Medicine supports both trends—with interesting implications for possible treatment and prevention.
"You're never too old to develop celiac disease," says Alessio Fasano, M.D., director of the University of ...
Preliminary findings from an upcoming new report by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) show alarming projections and reveal the poor state of post-fracture care in the Russian Federation and many other countries in the region. The findings were announced today at a press conference in St. Petersburg at the IOF Summit of Eastern European and Central Asian Osteoporosis Patient Societies.
Osteoporosis, a disease of the bone which leaves people at increased risk of fracture, is most common in the older population. Population projections for most countries in ...
Exposure to common viruses in daycare puts children with a chronic lung condition caused by premature birth at risk for serious respiratory infections, according to a study from Johns Hopkins Children's Center published in the October issue of Pediatrics.
The researchers say their findings should prompt pediatricians to monitor their prematurely born patients, regardless of age, for signs of lung disease and to discuss the risks of daycare-acquired infections with the children's parents. These risks, the researchers found, include increased emergency room visits and ...
The use of device-assisted enteroscopy, a technique that allows complete examination of the small bowel, may be just as successful pediatrics as it has been in adult medicine, according to a study from Nationwide Children's Hospital.
One of these techniques known as Double-Balloon Enteroscopy (DBE), a procedure readily available in adults, allows doctors to reach parts of the small intestine that cannot be reached using standard endoscopic procedures. Due to access issues and size limitations, DBE is rarely considered an option in pediatrics. As a result, little is known ...
Western Australia's Minister for Child Protection, Community Services and Women's Interests, Hon. Robyn McSweeney is one of the featured speakers who will be speaking about WA's "Safe at Home Program" during the 2010 Global Domestic Violence Conference. Over the last decade, action to address violence against women has become a priority in many countries. However despite these advances, violence against women and girls is a global pandemic. The problem remains universal, with women and girls affected by violence in every region and every country.
The year 2010 is an ...
You may be wondering what's happening in downtown Fuquay-Varina toward the end of September. Several iconic video game characters have been seen walking the streets including Mario, Link from Zelda, Lara Croft from Tomb Raider, Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy and many others. Recently the character crew was spotted at the "Taste of Fuquay-Varina" festival on Saturday the 25th as well as Fuquay's GameStop, Fuquay Gun & Gold and many other locations. The characters are in town to help promote a new business opening its door on October 16th, 2010 called Strafe Gaming Lounge. ...
