· Advanced warning can and has been used to warn of imminent volcanic eruption. Over the past few decades, hazard management agencies and scientists around the world have gained much valuable experience in monitoring and managing volcanoes. This has led to many successful predictions and instances of successful mitigation of volcanic eruptions.
Some volcanoes are so well studied that correct and highly accurate prediction of eruptions is a common occurrence. This is the case at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, where volcanology has been practiced for over 100 years and is also the case at places such as Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines, Hekla in Iceland, and the many other closely monitored volcanoes worldwide.
An enormous amount of material has been compiled on these volcanoes. The following is a great two part lecture courtesy of Professor Bill Rose at Michigan Technological University. It covers the events leading up to, during and after the eruption as well as basic ideas of time series data.
Much more information about Mt. St. Helens as well as material on other volcanoes can be found through the homepage of Prof. Rose’s 2010 Volcanology class on time series HERE.
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| The 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines was a case study in successful prediction and management of a volcanic hazard situation. The eruption was one of the largest ever witnessed but loss of life was minimized thanks to effective monitoring and decision making. |
