Question: What do fault lines and volcanoes have to do with one another? How can we predict volcanoes? is it possible to predict them?

Jonathan Stone answered on 11 Mar 2013:

This is a brilliant question. Often volcanoes can erupt along the lines of faults, or be associated with them. However, for this to happen – there needs to be magma there in the first place. In places like Iceland this is common.

We can try and predict volcanoes by monitoring them and understanding what they have done in the past. We can monitor them by recording the small earthquakes that they make, looking at how they deform the land around them as they fill up with magma, and by measuring gasses that come out of them. We can also look at the rocks around them, which tell us how violent eruptions may have been in the past. As each year goes by, we are getting better at understanding them, but prediction is still difficult.