In a new study, researchers show that gas bubbles can form in the rising magma not only due to a drop in pressure but also due to shear forces. If these gas bubbles grow in the volcanic vent early on ...

Learn how stress inside a volcano can make gas bubbles form early, helping explain why some eruptions stay quiet instead of exploding. One of the most explosive volcanoes in U.S. history began its ...

Volcanoes are often framed as nature’s most violent spectacles, yet some of the largest on Earth ooze lava quietly for years without a single dramatic blast. Scientists have now pulled together a ...

The explosiveness of a volcanic eruption depends on how many gas bubbles form in the magma – and when. Until now, it was thought that gas bubbles were formed primarily when the ambient pressure ...

One of the most explosive volcanoes in U.S. history began its eruption with a trickle, not a blast. Mount St. Helens' gas-laden magma oozed into the cone before the mountain finally erupted in 1980.