Iceland is known as ‘the land of fire and ice’ for a reason.
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Iceland’s volcanic activity is generally tame compared with explosive eruptions along the Pacific’s Ring of Fire. This time, it’s shaking up a town.
Science has made a strong case for the year 536 as being one of the worst in human history, a year punctuated by volcanic eruptions, drought, famine and plague - and a year long winter.
When magma rises towards the surface gas bubbles start to form. Whether or not they can escape as the magma is rising affects how explosive the eruption will be.
Red spots suggest Mercury may have formed far away from the sun.
The short answer is that while lava is hot, it’s not hot enough to melt the rocks that make up the side of the volcano.
They erupted for billions of years and make Earth’s volcanoes look like molehills. Here’s what we know and what we don’t know about them.
Top contributors
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Professor of Geology, West Virginia University
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Research Associate (School of Geographical and Earth Sciences), University of Glasgow
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Emeritus professor in geology, Australian National University
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Senior Curator of Geosciences, Museums Victoria Research Institute; Monash University
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Professor of Planetary Geosciences, The Open University
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Programme Director, The Europaeum, University of Oxford