Top 33 Volcanoes
	Volcanoes are the result of the tectonic movements of the Earth's crust, when magma from the entrails of the planet goes out as lava. They became present in the legends and mythology of all people living around them, which venerated and feared them at the same time. There are submarine and terrestrial volcanoes, but those with an impact in human life are mostly terrestrial, a number of 1,500. These are encountered on the ... [read more >>]
	19 April 2008, 07:57GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

A Bizarre Japanese Volcano
	Japan has about 200 volcanoes, of which 70 are active. The most famous Japanese volcano is Fujiyama. But this one erupted last time in 1707. Others are not that peaceful. Usu, from the island of Hokkaido, has a bizarre behavior and look. At each eruption, the underground magma rises, forming amazing mounds, from a few tens to a few hundreds of meters tall, called cryptodomes. The cryptodomes form in the top of the volcano, in the middl ... [read more >>]
	16 April 2008, 10:25GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Hawaii: Some Volcanic Records
	The Hawaii islands is the product of the volcanoes. The archipelago, located 4,000 km (2,500 mi) away from California, was unknown to the Europeans until the voyages of James Cook, who stepped on the islands in 1778 (later, he was killed by the natives, during a visit in the archipelago). Cook named Hawaii the Sandwich Islands, in the honor of his protector lord. Missionaries caused dissensions between the rich families that ruled the ... [read more >>]
	04 April 2008, 11:13GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Search for Venusian Volcanoes Rebooted
	Measurements conducted with ESA's Venus Express spacecraft reveal that Venus contains variable quantities of sulphur dioxide gas in the upper layers of the atmosphere, which may be evidence that Venus still has active volcanoes on its surface or some other unknown mechanism is producing this effect. Sulphur dioxide released into the Earth's atmosphere, generally remains there for very short periods of time, because it reacts with ... [read more >>]
	04 April 2008, 10:01GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Lake of Continuously Boiling Lava
	This is like a wound that never gets closed. In one of the hottest spots of the Earth, in the desert of northern Ethiopia, where even in the winter temperatures vary between 40 to 50oC, the volcano Erta Ale was discovered by the Europeans in 1906. The volcano is active for hundreds of years. Most volcanoes manifest through occasional eruptions, then their lava hardens, like a crust on a wound. But the wound of Erta Ales does ... [read more >>]
	24 March 2008, 10:19GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Disastrous Mini Ice Age around 536 AD, Caused by Volcanic Megablast
	The Krakatoa eruption may have been just a child play compared to the volcanic megablast that spread havoc in the human civilization around 536 AD. Its volcanic cloud could have triggered a global chill that caused famine in half of the world's population. An international research published in the journal "Geophysical Research Letters" has found sulphates, molecules representing marks of an eruption, in Greenland ice. T ... [read more >>]
	24 March 2008, 05:00GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Largest Lake of Acid on Earth
	Indonesia is famous for hosting some of the world's most powerful volcanoes. Krakatoa, located on an island in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia, is well known because of its 1883 eruption, which generated the loudest sound historically reported: it was distinctly heard even in the Australian city of Perth (approx. 1930 miles or 3100km), or the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius (approx. 3000 miles or 4800 km). 36 ... [read more >>]
	21 March 2008, 09:50GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Deepest Lake in US: Crater Lake
	This is an unique and wild landscape, characterized by chaotic rocks, sharp volcanic cones and coniferous forests surrounding the highest lake in the Cascades Mountains, the deepest lake in US (589 m or 1,963 ft) and the seventh in the world: Crater Lake. It is located in southern Oregon, in a volcanic region. The lake occupies an area of 5,438 hectares (21 square mi), having a diameter of 10 km (6 mi) and being located at an ... [read more >>]
	14 March 2008, 10:04GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Killer Lake: It Can Explode!
	On the night of August 21st, 1986, 80 million cubic meters of carbon dioxide (1.6 million tonnes of CO2) burst from the water of the volcanic Lake Nyos, killing by asphyxiation 1,700 persons and 3,600 livestock. The 50 m (166 ft) tall jet was made of gas (90%) and water. The gas had accumulated in the depths of the lake, coming from the magma below, dissolved in the water due to the high pressure exerted at 100-200 m (330-660 ft) ... [read more >>]
	23 February 2008, 05:07GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Black Smokers: Extraterrestrial Life on Earth!
	At the bottom of the oceans, the lowest level of the ocean waters, submarine volcanoes are found. They erupt periodically, but also phenomena similar to others that accompany terrestrial volcanoes, such as submarine geysers, can be found and are called hydrothermal vents (hot vents) or black smokers. The submarine vents, linked to the submarine volcanic activity, trigger an unusual life abundance on the bottom of the ocean, at depths ... [read more >>]
	15 February 2008, 09:39GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The ESA Releases First 3D Image from Mars
	Most of the images taken by ESA's Mars Express, although extremely spectacular, usually miss critical features such as the topography of the photographed surface area, or vertical elevation of the structures and the surrounding regions. On the other hand, the High Resolution Stereo Camera on-board the Mars Express orbiter can process images through, to create a high-resolution Digital Terrain Model, which is basically a three-dimensio ... [read more >>]
	06 February 2008, 06:07GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Only Liquid Sulfur Lakes on Earth!
	There are 112 active or inactive volcanoes in Costa Rica, but Poas, 2,700 m (9,000 ft) tall, is extremely unusual. It is not the most active (this being Arenal, 1,500 m/5,000 ft tall) nor the tallest (this being Irazu, 3,400 m/11,330 ft tall), but it has two craters: an active one, while the other holds a lake surrounded by a lush jungle. Poas is the only place on Earth where lakes of LIQUID SULFUR can be found! The eruptions ... [read more >>]
	30 January 2008, 07:01GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

9 Amazing Things About Andes
	1. The Andes, this backbone of South America, have a length of 7,600 km (4,800 mi), covering a surface of 2 million square km (800,000 square mi), and having an average height of about 4,000 m (13,000 ft). This is the longest terrestrial mountain range (longer chains are found on the bottom of the oceans). 2. The highest peak of the Andes is Aconcagua (6,962 m / 22,841 ft), in northwestern Argentina. This is the highest mountain in the ... [read more >>]
	28 January 2008, 16:07GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Does the Ocean Expand?
	The theory of the plate tectonics and continental drift was accepted in the '60s, when the proofs came from the ocean. Earth's external layer is called lithosphere. It is a rigid blanket with a thickness of about 100 km (62 mi). It includes both the oceanic platform and the continental crust, but also the upper part of the mantle, the layer located under the crust. Between the crust and the mantle, the Mohorovici (Moho) discontin ... [read more >>]
	23 January 2008, 14:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Huge Under-Ice Volcanic Explosion Found in Antarctica!
	Under the 3,000 m (10,000 ft) thickness of the Antarctic ice sheet, scientists have found proofs of a spectacular volcanic eruption. This happened under the Pine Island Glacier (in the area of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet) about 2,000 years ago (in 325 B.C.) and the under-ice volcano is still active, having a 'volcanic explosion index' of 3-4. Currently, the heat expelled from the volcano melts the surrounding ice, creating a ... [read more >>]
	21 January 2008, 05:41GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Journey of the Continents
	Since the 19th century, scientists noticed that similar fossils were found in nowadays continents located far away one from another. At the beginning of the 20th century, the American geologists suggested that continents could come off one from another. In 1915, the German scientist Alfred Wegener, in his work "The Origin of the Continents and the Oceans", showed that once Greenland must have been located on the Equator ... [read more >>]
	17 January 2008, 16:56GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

People and Volcanoes
	Vulcan was the Roman god of fire, the equivalent of Hephaistos in the Greek mythology. In ancient times people regarded volcanoes as gods, which were worshiped. Old Greeks believed the Earth was a floating disc over the surface of an ocean whose storms triggered earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Anaximander (611-547 BC) believed that cold and heat turned on the volcanic eruptions. Plato (428-347 BC) supposed there was an underground rive ... [read more >>]
	17 December 2007, 14:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Is Santorini the Island of Atlantis?
	Any myth contains a grain of truth. This is also the case of Atlantis, the country swallowed by the sea. The myth of the Atlantis, first mentioned by Plato 2400 years ago, is about a real ancient civilization destroyed by the sea. The Atlantic Ocean got its name from Atlantis, as many subsequent civilizations placed its location in the middle of this ocean. But historical data say this civilization could have been located in the Crete Isla ... [read more >>]
	10 December 2007, 10:15GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Oldest Wooden Roman Throne Ever!
	Previously, Roman thrones were known only from paintings or as made of marble. But now researchers have discovered the first ever surviving Roman throne in the lava and ash that buried the city of Herculaneum, during the 79 AD eruption of the volcano Vesuvius (which destroyed also Pompeii and Stabiae), 82 ft (27 m) underground. The wood and ivory throne is the most important furniture piece ever encountered at Herculaneum. The throne h ... [read more >>]
	06 December 2007, 04:39GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

9 Issues That Make Costa Rica Special
	1.Costa Rica is a small country from Central America having 4 million inhabitants and is slightly larger than Switzerland. The land was discovered in 1502 by Columbus, who was taken by surprise with his whole fleet by a storm in the waters off the neighboring Honduras. Columbus navigated along the shores of present-day Nicaragua and disembarked in an Indian village called Cariari. He was impressed by the golden adornments carried by some l ... [read more >>]
	27 November 2007, 08:26GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Dangerous Could the New Krakatoa's Eruption Be?
	Krakatoa volcano, located on an island in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia, produced on August 26-27, 1883 the most massive volcanic explosions ever recorded, which generated the loudest sound historically reported: it was distinctly heard as far away as Perth in Australia (1930 mi (3100 km)) and the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius (3000 mi (4800 km)). Atmospheric shock waves reverberated around the world seven tim ... [read more >>]
	13 November 2007, 04:53GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Do Volcanoes Work?
	The world "volcano" comes from the Roman god of fire Vulcan, the equivalent of Hephaistos in the Greek mythology. In the ancient times, people attributed to the volcanoes a supernatural personality, which was worshiped. Old Greeks believed the Earth was a floating disc over the surface of an ocean whose storms triggered earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Anaximander (611-547 BC) believed that cold and heat turned on the volcanic ... [read more >>]
	03 November 2007, 07:07GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Real-Time Earthquake Activity Now on Google Maps
	Since Google introduced the Mapplets technology into the web-based mapping tool, a lot of users created their own maps with different purposes. Either they were showing information about floods or traffic, they were all very useful and kept the main technology – Google Maps in spotlights. Today, Scott Haefner and Dina Venezky, Geologists, U.S. Geological Survey, two employees working at the US Geological Survey, posted a message on the off ... [read more >>]
	28 August 2007, 03:29GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

What's a Mud Volcano?
	A mud volcano has nothing to do with the proper volcanoes. Mud volcanoes appear mostly when gas pockets or gas deposits associated with oil manage to seep to the surface, transporting water mixed with solid material (mud, made mainly of clay and sand). Of course, these volcanoes are not hot at all, on the contrary, they can have temperatures that almost reach the freezing point. Their relief stands for 2-3 years, compared to tens of thousa ... [read more >>]
	15 August 2007, 13:51GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Are Submarine Volcanoes the Cradle of Life?
	Some say life was brought to Earth by aliens. Beyond theories that seem depicted from a SF movie, it looks like early life indeed appeared in some extraterrestrial conditions. Geologists have encountered 1.43 billion-year-old fossils of deep-sea microbes, enhancing the theory that life may have originated on the bottom of the ocean. The old black smoker chimneys, found in a Chinese mine, are 1 billion years older than similar fossils p ... [read more >>]
	06 August 2007, 06:09GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Jupiter's Moon Io: the Most Volcanically Active Place in the Known Universe
	Io is one of the 63 confirmed satellites of the gas giant Jupiter and the fourth largest moon in the Solar System. Although it is just 100 km larger in radius than Earth’s Moon, astronomers found it to be the most active place for volcanic activity ever detected in the Universe. With over 400 active volcanic sites on its surface, Io spews impressive amounts of volcanic gases, thus producing the largest visible gas cloud in the solar sy ... [read more >>]
	23 July 2007, 05:46GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Impressive Picture from Space of Volcano During Eruption
	The European Space Agency's Envisat satellite captured beautiful pictures of the Mount Gamkonora, a volcano in Indonesia that erupted on July 10, 2007, after more than three centuries after the largest eruption and is now spewing hot ash and smoke into the air. The highest peak of Halmahera island, Indonesia, violently erupted in 1673 and caused tsunamis which inundated the nearby villages. Now, officials reported over 8 ... [read more >>]
	12 July 2007, 06:34GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Huge Volcanic Eruption in Kamchatka Peninsula Is Perturbing Air Traffic in Northern Pacific
	The northern tip of the Pacific Ring of Fire is boiling. Klyuchevskoy, a stratovolcano located in the north central part of the Kamchatka Peninsula and the highest mountain of this peninsula (4,649 m or 15,470 ft tall) is spitting ash up to 32,000 ft (10,700 m) in the air and has diverted air traffic in routes towards the Far East. It is the largest eruption to take place in the North Pacific in the last 10 years and is offering to student ... [read more >>]
	06 July 2007, 05:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Did Early Humans Cope With the Largest Volcanic Explosion in the Last 2 Million Years?
	This eruption was almost as disastrous as the meteorite impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. 74,000 years ago, the Sumatran Toba (western Indonesia) volcano threw the world in a volcanic winter followed by a severe ice age after expelling 720 cubic miles (3,000 cubic kilometers) of magma and huge amounts of sulfuric acid that reached even Greenland. Ice cores clime records showed that the world was colder by 5.4 - 9° F (3 - 5° C) for hundr ... [read more >>]
	06 July 2007, 03:26GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

6 Reasons That Make Yellowstone Special
	In March 1, 1872, the Congress of the United States created the first National Park in the world, which later became the symbol of nature protection in North America and all over the world. The zone had been explored for the first time just two years before, in 1870, by the expedition led by the general Washburn, even if the area had been signaled even from 1807 by John Colter, member of the expedition led by Lewis and Clark and by numerou ... [read more >>]
	04 July 2007, 11:08GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Will the Largest Volcano on Earth Erupt?
	Mauna Loa is one of the five volcanoes making up the Hawaii Island, the Earth's largest one, with a volume estimated at about 18,000 cubic miles (75,000 km³). The way the massive volcano is bulging and the swelling could enable the researchers to forecast when the next massive eruption will occur. Better prognoses could save lives by helping officials to plan evacuations of residents living on the volcano's flanks. A team l ... [read more >>]
	18 May 2007, 07:11GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Top 10 Volcanoes
	Volcanoes are the result of the tectonic movements of the Earth's crust, when magma from the entrails of the planet goes out as lava. They became present in the legends and mythology of all people living around them, which venerated and feared them at the same time. There are submarine and terrestrial volcanoes, but those with an impact in human life are mostly terrestrial. These are encountered on the subduction zones (where a te ... [read more >>]
	24 April 2007, 12:21GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Volcanic Foam from Atlantis Explosion Found on Egyptian Sinai
	4700 years ago, in the place where Santorini archipelago is located today, occurred a devastating huge volcanic explosion. This eruption sank most of the land where now the Greek islands are located and killed over 35,000 people and the thriving Minoan civilization. All this is connected today to the myth of the Atlantis. And currently, Santorini is the only place near Europe where submarine volcanoes can be found (in 1650, one ... [read more >>]
	03 April 2007, 05:35GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

St. Helens Is Going to Be a Decades-Long Eruption
	Northwestern US is not given to rest: Mount St. Helens seems to enter the same cycle followed by Kilauea in Hawaii with magma being replaced from an reservoir located under the volcano at the same pace as it goes out as lava at the surface. “While the two volcanoes are different in many respects, St. Helens appears to have become an “open system'' as its domebuilding eruption that began in the fall of 2004 continues ... [read more >>]
	30 March 2007, 10:11GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Hot Vents: Abundant Life on Oceans' Guts Triggered by Submarine Volcanoes
	In places where the Earth's tectonic plates collide or diverge, volcanoes appear. Volcanoes can be terrestrial or submarine. There can be submarine volcanoes, which erupt periodically, but also phenomena similar to others that accompany terrestrial volcanoes, like submarine correspondent of the geysers, named hydrothermal vents (hot vents). The submarine vents, linked to the submarine volcanic activity, trigger an unusual life ... [read more >>]
	13 March 2007, 12:08GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

What Is a Volcano?
	During the antiquity, people attributed to the volcanoes a supernatural personality, which was worshiped. Now, researchers just focus on achieving the right methods of preventing the volcanic eruptions and decreasing the damages they inflict. Under the terrestrial crust, the rocks are under molten stage, forming the magma. The huge tectonic plates, which make up the massive foundation of the continents and the bottom of the ocea ... [read more >>]
	08 March 2007, 09:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia