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Morning sun over Los Angeles, USA.

2023 was the hottest summer in two thousand years

14 May 2024

Researchers have found that 2023 was the hottest summer in the Northern Hemisphere in the past two thousand years, almost four degrees warmer than...

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Volcano erupting near El Paso, La Palma, Spain

Effect of volcanic eruptions significantly underestimated in climate projections

23 Jun 2023

Researchers have found that the cooling effect that volcanic eruptions have on Earth's surface temperature is likely underestimated by a factor of...

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An illuminated manuscript from the late 14th to the early 15th century, depicting two individuals observing a lunar eclipse

Medieval monks accidentally recorded some of history’s biggest volcanic eruptions

05 Apr 2023

By observing the night sky, medieval monks unwittingly recorded some of history’s largest volcanic eruptions, according to a new analysis of 12th and...

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Fagradalsfjall volcano, Iceland

Lava from 2021 Icelandic eruption gives rare view of deep churnings beneath volcano

16 Sep 2022

After centuries without volcanic activity, Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula sprang to life in 2021 when lava erupted from the Fagradalsfjall volcano...

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Mount Rinjani in Indonesia, which had one of the largest eruptions in the last millennium in 1257 (magnitude 7).

Risk of volcano catastrophe ‘a roll of the dice’, say experts

17 Aug 2022

While funding is pumped into preventing low-probability scenarios such as asteroid collision, the far more likely threat of a large volcanic eruption...

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Etna Volcano Eruption 12 January 2011

Scientists 'see' puzzling features deep in Earth’s interior

19 May 2022

New research led by the University of Cambridge is the first to obtain a detailed 'image' of an unusual pocket of rock at the boundary layer with...

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Earliest human remains in eastern Africa dated to more than 230,000 years ago

12 Jan 2022

The age of the oldest fossils in eastern Africa widely recognised as representing our species, Homo sapiens, has long been uncertain. Now, dating of...

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Climate change will transform cooling effects of volcanic eruptions, study suggests

12 Aug 2021

Researchers have shown that human-caused climate change will have important consequences for how volcanic gases interact with the atmosphere.

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Clouds of ash rising up from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in 2010

Minor volcanic eruptions could ‘cascade’ into global catastrophe, experts warn

06 Aug 2021

Researchers call for a shift in focus away from risks of 'super-volcanic' eruptions and towards likelier scenarios of smaller eruptions in key global...

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Site of the Toba supereruption

Early humans were sheltered from worst effects of volcanic supereruption

05 Jul 2021

A massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia about 74,000 years ago likely caused severe climate disruption in many areas of the globe, but early human...

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Golden Hour at Kīlauea

Scientists track veil of toxic metals carried in Kīlauea’s gas plumes, revealing hidden dangers of volcanic pollution

25 May 2021

A team of volcanologists who observed the colossal 2018 eruption of Kīlauea, Hawai’i, have tracked how potentially toxic metals carried in its gas...

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Deccan Traps, India

Scientists zero in on the role of volcanoes in the demise of dinosaurs

29 Mar 2021

Researchers have uncovered evidence suggesting that volcanic carbon emissions were not a major driver in Earth’s most recent extinction event.

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