Another way people like to talk about combating climate change naturally is to hope for a good volcanic eruption that drops the global temperature as happened in 1816. I mean, sure, that could work, but it’s not predictable or something we can cause. And please, please don’t set off nukes to awaken a volcano. That doesn’t work either except in disaster movies full of bad science. Great for popcorn; not great for reality. And meanwhile, scientists are studying really neat ways to understand volcanic eruptions. 

Another new study in Geophysical Research Letters has a team of scientists trying to figure out how to listen to volcanic vortex rings so they can monitor eruptions they cannot see, such as at night or when there is too much smoke. 

What’s a vortex ring? These are curls that form in an eruption plume almost immediately after an eruption. Think of them like the ripples left in the water as an oar is pulled through. Their size, speed, and composition can help tell us how hazardous the eruption is and even how deep down the eruption started. Per the release: ...a team of volcanologists and jet-stream physicists paired high-speed video with audio focused on the first seconds of eruptions at Stromboli volcano in Italy to listen to the vortex rings.

And lead author Jacopo Taddeucci further explains: There is a characteristic sound which is made by the vortex itself, which is a low, constant sound. The beauty of the vortex rings is that they are stable, and that means that they make a constant sound that is propagating over time. 

Now, I’ve worked with people who have used sound to track underwater eruptions, but this is the first time I’ve heard of understanding subaerial eruptions using sound. What an interesting avenue of research.

More Information

AGU press release

“Volcanic Vortex Rings: Axial Dynamics, Acoustic Features, and Their Link to Vent Diameter and Supersonic Jet Flow,” J. Taddeucci et al., 2021 July 28, Geophysical Research Letters