The world’s fastest-growing mud volcano is collapsing and could subside to depths of more than 140 metres with consequences for the surrounding environment, according to new research.

Chile’s Chaiten Volcano is shown spewing ash and smoke (centre left of image) into the air for hundreds of km over Argentina’s Patagonia Plateau in this Envisat image acquired on 5 May 2008.

The first evidence of a volcanic eruption from beneath Antarctica’s most rapidly changing ice sheet is reported this week in the journal Nature Geosciences. The volcano on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet erupted 2000 years ago (325BC) and remains active.

The 3,120-metre high Llaima, one of the most active among some 60 active volcanoes in Chile, has not had a major blast since 1994.

“On [07-07-07], the New Open World Foundation announced the completion of a world poll to name the ‘new Seven Wonders of the World’…To see them all would mean traveling to Jordan, Peru, India, Mexico, China, Brazil, and Italy. A tour of ‘finalists’ would span the United States, Mali, the United Kingdom, Greece, Spain, Australia, Egypt, Germany, Russia, Japan, Turkey, France, Chile and Cambodia …That would indeed be a wonderful journey.” – Philadelphia Inquirer

Volcanologist Sarah Fagents from the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa had an amazing opportunity to study volcanic hazards first hand, when a volcanic mudflow broke through the banks of a volcanic lake at Mount Ruapehu in New Zealand.