http://cache.io9.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/io9.com.png http://io9.com/tag/volcanoes http://io9.com/tag/volcanoes

In the summer of 1997, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration picked up a sound from deep beneath the Pacific. The sound seemed to come from an animal far larger than any we've ever seen. This was the Bloop. More »
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You're looking at an image of Tharsis Tholus, an extinct Martian volcano that by Earthly standards is positively massive: towering 8km above its surrounding terrain, the dormant giant's tallest peak almost matches that of Mt. Everest. More »
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There are volcanoes all over the world, but while some trickle out the sides, some burst high into the sky. To find out why, you can do a demonstration in your own kitchen. If you have a mop. More »
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In this io9 interview with Earth Scientist Jim Webster at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, you'll learn why the technological revolution is dependent on volcanoes. They're the source of most metals we use in our machines. More »
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This video of the Grimsvotn volcano was captured by Jon Gustafsson on behalf of the Helicopter Service of Iceland. The music by Veigar Margeirsson is just the gravy on this spectacle. More »
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Last Saturday, the Icelandic volcano Grimsvotn stirred from its slumber and shot out a 7-miles plume of gas and ash. A massive airport shutdown shouldn't happen this time around, but the view from the ground is certainly dramatic. More »
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Early this morning, Italy's Mount Etna erupted, spewing lava and ash high into the air. Most of the lava flowed into uninhabited areas and no humans were harmed. An airport in Catania shut down when its runway was covered in lava. Here's an amazing video of the eruption, from the BBC. More »
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Jupiter's moon Io is a hotbed of geological activity, with over 400 active volcanoes. Because of this high level of activity, scientists have been debating for years about what's going on under the moon's surface. Now we know. More »
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Imagine a life of almost complete isolation, spent on a barren island constantly hit by a mix of volcanoes, tsunamis, and long, brutal winters. For thousands of years, that's what people have endured on the Kuril Islands, an archipelago stretching from Russia to Japan that just might be the most extreme place humans have ever lived. More »
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About 250 million years ago, the world suffered through an extinction event that makes the death of the dinosaurs look like a minor hiccup by comparison. And now we have our best understanding yet of what caused the Great Dying. More »
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The ultimate fate of the Neanderthals remains a major mystery. We know they went extinct, but why did they die out when our ancestors thrived? New evidence suggests massive, deadly volcanoes killed off the Neanderthals while completely sparing our ancestors. More »
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We've become very adept at finding extrasolar planets, but we're still working on the trickier task of figuring out what those planets' atmospheres look like. Now astronomers have found a way to test whether an Earth-like exoplanet has active volcanoes. More »
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Even at the the far edge of the mud and ash that came from the Pompeii volcano's explosion, the heat was sufficient to instantly kill everyone, even those inside their homes. More »
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What a difference giant volcanic ash makes. Watch the skies change completely in this time-lapse video, showing air traffic returning to normal after being grounded due to the volcano. It gets pretty busy up there. More »
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On May 8, 1902, Mt. Pelee in Martinique erupted, destroying the city of St. Pierre and instantaneously killing more than 30,000 people. The city's sole survivor was Ludger Sylbaris, a felonious drunk who was rotting in this cell. More »
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We're not quite back to the pre-plane era, but air travel over and around the north Atlantic might get a lot more disrupted in the coming years. More »
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There's a volcano in Iceland that's spewing so much ash into the air that it's grounding flights all over northern Europe. More »
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Last week, a long-dormant volcano erupted in Iceland, creating a 1 kilometer vent in the earth and spewing lava and steam. Now the continuing eruption has opened a massive, second fissure in the icy ground. More »
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Yellowstone National Park boasts dozens of geysers and broiling eruptions. But they're nothing compared to the massive volcano that bubbles beneath the park, and could unleash a world-altering blast. Check out these images of the megablast-in-waiting. More »
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Life on Earth probably wouldn't be extinguished by a comet strike alone. Mass extinctions require at least two kinds of mega-events, one of which is often a volcano that erupts for thousands of years. More »
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After the Cassini spacecraft flew by Saturn's moon Titan, scientists were left with some puzzling evidence. Flows on the moon's surface appeared to be eruptions of frozen oxygen, methane, and ammonia. Just as volcanoes on Earth spew liquid magma that cools into rock, Titan may be spewing gases that harden into ice. More »
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Witness the glory of one of the two massive volcanoes erupting today in Alaska. Here you can see a satellite's-eye-view of the plumes from Okmok Caldera, floating out between the clouds over the coast. Though Okmok has been erupting for several days, it was joined recently by Mount Cleveland, off the coast in the Aleutian Islands. More eruption below. More »
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Ever since the International Astronomical Union demoted Pluto to a dwarf planet (does it even deserve a capital "P"???) in 2006, astronomers around the world have been at odds to describe just what they mean when they say the word "planet." For the moment, the solar system is holding steady with eight of them, but late last week evidence returned from the Mercury MESSENGER mission showed that the smallest planet left is shrinking. One has to wonder: how long will it be before Mercury gets plutoed? More »
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