Seeing the Volcano for the Trees

Scientists study just what causes trees near volcanos to become more and more green prior to an eruption from beneath those same trees.

IMAGE: In 2001 on Italy’s Mount Etna, a thin line of pine trees started turning greener and greener, suggesting they were photosynthesizing more than their neighbors were. CREDIT: Alessandro Squassoni/Pixabay

This story feels like an amalgamation of so many stories we’ve covered before it. Satellite images? Check. Tree cores? Check. Volcanoes? Check. And all of it adds up to a newly rediscovered bit of information first published in 1975 — something in the soil of a soon-to-erupt volcano can make trees in the region greener than usual.

New research published in the journal Ecohydrology takes a look at how a narrow band of trees, 30 meters wide by 2 kilometers long, on Mount Etna in Italy turned greener in 2001, just before an eruption in 2002 along that same strip. The trees, of course, were destroyed in the eruption, and the difference in greenery was really only noticeable in satellite images. This led researchers to look at some historical observations, including a similar phenomenon that occurred at Mt. Etna back in 1973.

Additionally, further evidence for the phenomenon was found in images at Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2001 as well which was also followed by an eruption.

Of course, satellite imagery isn’t enough to understand what is going on, so the team…