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🌋 Volcanic Ash Plume Dispersal

Interactive 3D eruption column and atmosphere where adjusting eruption intensity and wind speed shows a simulated ash plume rising, spreading and dispersing downwind across a regional map.

Geology & Earth Science3DModerate60 FPS💨 Air & Wind 🌍 Earth

A 3D eruption column rises above a volcanic vent, spreads into an umbrella cloud, and drifts downwind as ash particles settle out at rates that depend on grain size, wind and eruption intensity.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Higher eruption intensity drives a taller buoyant column that stalls and spreads into an umbrella cloud; downwind advection and grain-size-dependent settling then shape where ash actually falls.

🎮 How to Use

Raise eruption intensity to loft the column higher, adjust wind speed and direction to bend the plume downwind, and switch the grain-size mix to see fine ash travel far while coarse ash falls near the vent.

💡 Did You Know?

Fine volcanic ash can stay suspended in the stratosphere for weeks, circling the globe and disrupting jet aircraft engines thousands of kilometres from the source volcano.

⚙ Under the hood

Interactive 3D eruption column and atmosphere where adjusting eruption intensity and wind speed shows a simulated ash plume rising, spreading and dispersing downwind across a regional map.

ash-plumevolcanic-ashplume-dispersalvolcanologyatmospheric-hazardsgeology

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install