Monitoring Volcanoes

• You're telling me that balloons are like volcanoes?

Record the time, amount of expansion and the number of monitoring stations it takes to accurately measure the expansion of a volcano. Then try to predict when and which direction the volcano will erupt.

1. Research volcano monitoring in VolcanoWorld.
2. Become a volcano.
3. Measure dome growth.
4. Hypothesize about which direction eruptive debris will go.
5. Digitize and post your results to your web site. (encouraged)

• Monitoring Volcanoes
• The Dome
• How the dome grew
• Dome Building Eruptions

1. four people: a volcano, a measurer, a recorder and a time keeper
2. light colored party balloons
3. black and red felt pens
4. 2' length of string
5. ruler
6. 1' x 1' cardboard volcano
7. 2" post-it notes
8. download:
• data record sheet
• Dome movie QT | MPEG

1. Surf two of the surf sites to familiarize yourself with volcano monitoring.
2. Cut a quarter inch vent (hole) in the center of the cardboard. Push the end of the balloon through the hole. (The cardboard protects the student when the balloon breaks.)
3. Have the volcano person blow up the balloon one third of the way. The time keeper should time how long the it takes the "volcano" to expand the "bulge" each time. Record the time. (Volcanoes expand at varying rates, so there is no correct time, but there could be a pattern.)
4. Using the black felt marker, put three dots on the balloon and number them #1, #2 and #3.
5. Hold the string between #1 and #2, marking the distance with pinched fingers. Lay it next to the ruler and measure the distance. Do this for the distance between #2 - #3, and #3 - #1. Record your data on the data record sheet.
6. Blow up the balloon two thirds of the way, don't forget to time the duration of the expansion. Re-measure the numbers. Record your data.
7. Blow the balloon up completely. Re-measure the numbers. (they may need to gently re-mark the numbers.) Record your data. The students will find that they probably need to add more monitoring stations, do so. Make a prediction where the balloon will fracture by marking the volcano with some lava from the red felt pen.
8. Blow up the balloon some more. Time, measure and record the expansion. Continue expanding, timing, measuring and recording the "dome" in cycles, until it erupts (the balloon breaks.)
9. Locate, measure and record how far away and in what direction the bits of balloon landed from the volcano crater. Can you find the piece of the balloon with the lava mark on it? Where your predictions correct about what part of the mountain would erupt?

Encouraged:

1. Play the 12 hour time-lapse dome video (QT | MPEG). Locate the area of the dome with the most expansion.
2. Place a post-it note on the computer monitor, perpendicular to the area of the most expansion.
3. Mark the post-it note at the beginning of the movie and again at the end to show the amount of dome growth. Measure it in centimeters (~.35cm).
4. Lay the post-it note across the whole movie frame, marking both sides of the frame. Measure it in centimeters (~6cm)
5. If the scale of the whole movie image is equal to 300 meters across, how far did the dome expand in 12 hours? {amount of dome growth(~.35cm)} x {scale(300m)} / {width of image(~6cm) = 17.5m}
6. Digitize your data and place it on your schools web site.
7. Send us the URL and we will link your site to VolcanoWorld.