In the January issue of Geophysical Research Letters a Univ. of Hawaii geologist reports evidence that earthquakes can cause or increase intensity of volcanic eruptions, sometimes at a fair distance.
The Star Bulletin‘s Helen Altonn has the story. The scientists tell her they gathered data from Indonesia. They were keeping daily track, via satellite, of output from two volcanoes when an earthquake hit, 31 miles from one eruption and 165 from the other. In a few days, both volcanoes got busier, a lag that seems to fit the delay time between a magma reservoir’s change and an effect at the surface vent, it says here. Research is continuing. The news story leaves a question: how controversial, or surprising, etc. is the report of distant quakes triggering eruptions?
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