Sure, lava is amazing. But for geologists, the real intrigue lies just below the volcanic surface.
It’s why researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are developing small machines, called VolcanoBots, to climb the walls deep inside volcanic vents.
“We have a good picture of what happens once we see an eruption start at the surface, but all our problems are subsurface,” Bruce Houghton, the Hawaiian state volcanologist at the University of Hawaii, told The Huffington Post. “We lack technology.”
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VolcanoBot 1, pictured in a lava tube, explored Hawaii Island’s Kilauea volcano last year. Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are using data mined from the robot to chart the fissure on a 3D map.
NASA is especially interested in the research since it can be applied to extraterrestrial volcanoes as well. On Mars, for example, magma is thought to have erupted most commonly from fissures, and scientists think the same thing could be said for previously active volcanoes on the moon, Mercury, Enceladus and Europa (the moons that orbit Saturn and Jupiter).
“In the last few years, NASA spacecraft have sent back incredible pictures of caves, fissures and what look like volcanic vents on Mars and the moon. We don’t have the technology yet to explore them, but … we’re trying to bridge that gap using volcanoes here on Earth for practice. We’re learning about how volcanoes erupt here on Earth, too, and that has a lot of benefits in its own right,” Parness said.
