Category Archives: Uncategorized

One year of volcan01010: Best of 2011 and coming up in 2012

Posted on February 23, 2012 by John A. Stevenson

This week is the first anniversary of the volcan01010 blog.  With this post, I want to pick out some highlights from 2011, and to whet your appetites for some things to come in 2012. Top 3 posts: The main aim … Continue reading →

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A Very Scottish Skyline

Posted on February 1, 2012 by John A. Stevenson

In 2014, Scotland will have a referendum to ask the people if they want to become an independent country.  The Scottish National Party will be campaigning hard for a ‘Yes’ vote.  Does that extend to some kind of deal with … Continue reading →

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Iceland’s melting glaciers and other stories from the Nordic Geological Winter Meeting

Posted on January 20, 2012 by John A. Stevenson

This post describes my highlights from the 30th Nordic Geological Winter Meeting that took place in Iceland last week. The most interesting results include that Iceland’s glaciers may be gone in 200 years, that the May 2011 Grímsvötn eruption was … Continue reading →

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Colima lahar videos

Posted on December 27, 2011 by John A. Stevenson

The Indonesian word, lahar, is the technical term used to describe volcanic mud flows. This post explains the difference between two types of lahars (hyperconcentrated flows and debris flows), using videos that I recorded at Volcán de Colima as examples. … Continue reading →

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All the software a geoscientist needs. For free!

Posted on November 24, 2011 by John A. Stevenson

[Updated 05 December 2012: original version for reference here, including Basemap instructions for Ubuntu 11.10] All of my research for the past 3 years was done with free software. In this post I describe the free programs that I use … Continue reading →

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Why people are scared of Katla

Posted on November 3, 2011 by John A. Stevenson

Note: 02 December 2011. The current media interest in Katla does not stem from a recent change in activity at the volcano, but from an article published on the BBC website today.  The same thing followed a Guardian article earlier … Continue reading →

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On Transatlantic Flight

Posted on October 10, 2011 by John A. Stevenson

Around 150 million years ago, plankton floated in warm seas.  Using energy from nuclear reactions in the Sun, they built their bodies from protein and fat and carbohydrate.  Then they died and their bodies sank to the muddy sea floor.  … Continue reading →

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Farmyard Geomorphology

Posted on September 20, 2011 by John A. Stevenson

Geomorphology is the study of the formation of landscapes, and may not seem immediately relevant to the farmyard.  But heaps of wet grain and mountains of fractured rock are shaped by the same processes.  It’s all just a question of … Continue reading →

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Grímsvötn 1 – Crossing the glacier

Posted on August 17, 2011 by John A. Stevenson

Last month, the Institute of Earth Sciences of the University of Iceland and the Iceland Glaciological Society organised an expedition to Grímsvötn to study the deposits of the eruption that took place there in May.  This post describes the journey … Continue reading →

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Grímsvötn 2 – What was in the plume?

Posted on August 17, 2011 by John A. Stevenson

The May 2011 Grímsvötn eruption blasted ash and pumice and rock fragments (collectively known as tephra) through the Vatnajökull glacier, forming a massive plume up to 20 km tall.  It was the biggest eruption in Iceland since Hekla 1947.  Locally, … Continue reading →

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