Rising Magma Produces Notes Reverberating Through the Crater, Signals Volcanic Eruption

Researchers discovered that notes produced by rising magma change and reverberate through the crater, indicating a volcanic eruption.

According to scientists, communities in danger could receive a life-saving heads-up through the use of inaudible sonic rumblings from a volcano's innermost chambers.

Magmatic gurgles change significantly as an eruption approaches, according to a team studying "infrasounds" from volcanoes such as Mount Etna in Italy. Infrasounds are sounds that are too deep for humans to hear, however, there is equipment that can detect these soundwaves.

Mother Nature's Musical Instrument

Leighton Watson, a researcher from the University of Canterbury, explained that sound waves from the exploding magma echo through the crater like the notes of a particular brass instrument, such as a trombone. Waston is also part of a multinational team of researchers.

He said in an interview with AFP News that the note alters as the magma rises, much like a trombone arm moving.

Before belching smoke and ash into the sky in February 2021, Etna began to change its tune.

Watson continued to explain that as the magma in the crater rose to the surface, the peak frequency continually increased. Future eruptions could be predicted by determining which notes correspond to each magma level.

The notes, according to Watson and the group of scientists from Italy and the United States, may eventually provide several hours' notice before an eruption. While it wouldn't be sufficient to safeguard buildings or infrastructure, it might be sufficient to move locals, visitors, or even skiers into safer grounds.

Safer Volcanic Monitoring

To measure magma levels right now, one must either climb up into the crater and point a laser measuring device inside, which is risky, expensive, and not possible to do continuously. Other methods included in the list of Geo Net is plume contouring which involves taking a plane that will fly through the plumes emanating from the crater.

But the new approach only needs probes that can be positioned kilometers away from the volcano.

The research is still in its infancy, as specialized microphones capable of picking up this volcanic symphony of ultra-low pitches were only created a few decades ago.

There is still a lot of work to be done before predictions can be trusted, as evidenced by the group's findings, which were published in Springer Link.

Unfortunately, according to Watson, not all volcanoes can be reached using this method.

Prodigious infrasound sources, such as open-vent volcanoes, are the subject of most current research.

Aside from Etna, additional research should be done on Kilauea in Hawaii, Nyiragongo in Congo, and Villarrica in Chile.

Watson said that additionally, more research was required to establish which rates or magma rise patterns resulted in eruptions and which might be a false alarm.

He explained that more observation is required, and it has been done in the interesting cases where an eruption has occurred, but less interesting cases where there hasn't been an eruption need to be studied to develop a forecasting model.

He said that there is a need to know factors such as the frequency of the phenomenon as well as the frequency with which an eruption follows it as opposed to not following it. It just requires looking at a lot more data, Barrons, together with AFP News reports.