When volcanoes are preparing to erupt, scientists rely on typical signs to warn people living nearby: deformation of the ground and earthquakes, caused by underground chambers filling up with magma and volcanic gas. But some volcanoes, called “stealthy” volcanoes, don’t give obvious warning signs. Now scientists studying Veniaminof, Alaska, have developed a model which could explain and predict stealthy eruptions.
Scientists for the first time have detected a slow slip earthquake in motion during the act of releasing tectonic pressure on a major fault zone at the bottom of the ocean.
The slow earthquake was recorded spreading along the tsunami-generating portion of the fault off the coast of Japan, behaving like a tectonic shock absorber. Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin described the event as the slow unzipping of the fault line between two of the Earth’s tectonic plates.
Their results were published in Science.
How to steer toward a positive AGI future
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab will launch a pair of European navigation technology demonstration satellites, as Europe again is forced to look outside the continent for launch services.
Rocket Lab announced June 25 it received a contract from the European Space Agency for the launch of two smallsats to test a proposed future low Earth orbit positioning, navigation and timing, or LEO-PNT constellation. Rocket Lab will launch the satellites on an Electron from its New Zealand launch complex no earlier than December.
The Pathfinder A satellites, one built by GMV and the other by Thales Alenia Space, are the first for a 10-satellite constellation intended to demonstrate LEO-PNT. The satellites will be launched into orbits of 510 kilometers.
Though the last volcanic eruption in Puy-de-Dôme dates back to ancient times, there could be new occurrences in the future within the Central Massif. It is indeed true that a layer of lava lies beneath the region and is expected to eventually resurface.
In France, Puy de Dôme is not only known as a department but primarily as a volcano approximately 11,000 years old, with its last eruption occurring in 5,760 BC. Since then, no lava has flowed within France. However, this might not be a permanent situation, according to Guillaume Boudoire, a volcanologist at the Laboratory of Magmas and Volcanoes at Clermont Auvergne University. Interviewed by the Journal Du Net in an article published in April 2025, Boudoire spoke about a very likely “volcanic reactivation” in the Central Massif.
While the expert is certain of this reactivation, it’s crucial to note that forecasting future eruptions is extremely challenging. However, volcanic activity tends to follow cycles, alternating between active and dormant phases. The activity in the Central Massif is not extinguished but merely slumbering, having been dormant for 7,000 years.
RESTON, Va. — The U.S. Geological Survey today published the first map of the prospective locations of naturally-occurring geologic hydrogen resources in the contiguous United States, reflecting a systematic analysis of geologic conditions favorable for hydrogen that draws on a newly developed methodology.