A volcano erupts and everything nearby disappears under rock, lava, and ash. So here’s the obvious question that occurs to almost everyone at some point. Why not just plug it? Fill the opening with concrete and stop the whole thing before it starts.

While earthquakes can strike unexpectedly at any time, eruptions are often preceded by signs of unrest. USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) scientists closely monitor active volcanoes in Hawaiʻi for any signs of unrest and communicate via the USGS Volcano Alert Level and Aviation Color Code .

A volcano near the Iran-Pakistan border rose multiple inches between 2023 and 2024 — raising alarm that it may be nearing an eruption for the first time in more than 700,000 years. The Taftan volcano was previously considered extinct, but scientists now ...

Streams of molten lava flowed from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano overnight Saturday into Sunday, ahead of another eruption expected to take shape in the coming days, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Located in Volcanoes National Park, a massive protected area ...

Oblique view of the west wall of Kaluapele on July 2, 2026, during a sampling mission to study the tephra and lava flows exposed by the 2018 collapse. The dark lava flows on the left are from recent lava fountaining episodes of the current summit eruption, and the vent complex is visible in the background on the left. USGS photo by K. Lynn.

(BIVN) – The ongoing eruption at the summit of Kīlauea volcano is paused. Although summit reinflation has been very unsteady since lava fountaining episode 54 ended on August 25th, scientists over the last few days have seen enough data to project another episode could occur next week.

Mount Sinabung in Indonesia erupted this week and sent ash more than 11,000 feet into the air. While no one was injured, authorities say another, bigger eruption is possible

Krasheninnikov imaged from space in November 2025. (NASA Earth Observatory) For nearly five centuries, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula had not erupted. Nor did it seem particularly interested in doing so.