Home▸Volcanology▸How Volcanoes Are Monitored

🌋 How Volcanoes Are Monitored

A look at the instrumentation and data-fusion methods volcano observatories actually use — seismometers, SO2 flux measurement, and GPS/InSAR deformation tracking — to detect unrest before an eruption.

Volcanology3DAdvanced60 FPS🌍 Earth

A 3D cutaway volcano wired with the same instrument types real observatories use — seismometers, an SO₂ gas-sensing plume, and GPS ground-deformation vectors — that respond together as simulated magma pressure rises.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Rising magma pressure inflates the edifice, increases quake frequency at flank seismometers, and boosts SO₂ output in the plume — the three independent signals observatories fuse into a single alert level.

🎮 How to Use

Raise magma pressure to see the volcano bulge, GPS arrows lengthen, and seismic pulses accelerate. Adjust gas flux and seismic gain independently to explore how each instrument type can lead or lag the others.

💡 Did You Know?

Before Mount Pinatubo's 1991 eruption, agreement between seismic swarms, an SO₂ spike, and rapid summit tilt let scientists forecast the event and evacuate roughly 60,000 people in time.

⚙ Under the hood

volcanoesmonitoringseismologydeformationeruptiongeophysicsThree.js

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