Geology Weekly Brief: June 17–23, 2025
This week in geology, we saw some interesting updates from Kīlauea, a new safety system for Grand Canyon hikers, and fascinating discoveries about the Atlantic Ocean’s formation. Plus, a NASA instrument showed off its unexpected versatility in detecting pollution. There’s also a significant partnership aimed at making climate science more accessible globally.
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Kīlauea’s Halemaʻumaʻu Eruption Continues Episodic Activity
The Halemaʻumaʻu eruption at Kīlauea is currently paused, but summit inflation and low-level seismic tremor continue, suggesting magma is still close to the surface. Geologists are forecasting the next fountaining phase of episode 26 to begin between June 18 and 20, based on current inflation rates. This continuous monitoring provides crucial precursors, showcasing the advanced, data-driven nature of modern volcano monitoring and hazard assessment. This episodic fountaining, a pattern not observed in any Kīlauea eruption since the early 1980s, suggests a potentially new phase in the volcano’s behavior, inviting deeper scientific inquiry into underlying magmatic processes. All eruptive activity remains confined within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, but volcanic gas emissions and the potential for remobilization of volcanic glass (Pele’s hair) remain hazards for nearby communities.
Published: June 17, 2025
USGS Volcano Notice - DOI-USGS-HVO-2025-06-17T18:36:03+00:00 -
New Backcountry Alert System Deployed for Grand Canyon Flash Floods
The U.S. Geological Survey has launched a new backcountry alert system in the Grand Canyon, a critical development for visitor safety. This system is specifically designed to warn hikers and explorers about flash floods, particularly in remote areas of the canyon where cellular signals are unreliable or nonexistent. This initiative highlights a growing emphasis within geological and environmental agencies on developing localized, practical solutions for hazard mitigation, addressing a real-world need in popular recreational areas. It represents a direct application of geological understanding of flood dynamics, translating scientific knowledge into actionable, on-the-ground safety tools for public welfare.
Published: June 17, 2025
New backcountry alert system warns Grand Canyon visitors about flash floods in areas without cellular signal | U.S. Geological Survey -
Ancient Ocean Formation Revealed by Massive Atlantic Mud Waves
Scientists have made a significant discovery, uncovering giant buried mud waves deep beneath the Atlantic seafloor off the coast of West Africa. This finding fundamentally challenges existing geological timelines, pushing back the estimated start of the Atlantic Ocean’s formation by millions of years. These massive sediment waves, some towering over a kilometer tall, formed as dense, salty water cascaded out of the newly opening Equatorial Atlantic Gateway when South America and Africa began to drift apart. This re-dating of a major geological event requires a re-evaluation of our understanding of past plate tectonics and ocean basin evolution, impacting models of paleogeography and ancient climate. The study also reveals how the opening of this gateway influenced ancient global climate change by affecting carbon burial and ocean circulation patterns, demonstrating the profound, long-term impact of geological events on Earth’s climate system.
Published: June 17, 2025
https://scitechdaily.com/massive-underwater-mud-wave-found-beneath-the-atlantic-seafloor/ -
NASA’s EMIT Instrument Detects Toxic Contamination Off California Coast
NASA’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) instrument, initially designed to study minerals in deserts, has demonstrated an unexpected and groundbreaking capability: detecting signs of toxic contamination, specifically sewage, off the California coast. This remarkable versatility highlights a significant trend in remote sensing, where instruments developed for one scientific purpose can be repurposed for critical environmental monitoring and hazard detection. EMIT successfully identified harmful cyanobacteria pigments in wastewater plumes, offering a new, rapid method for monitoring coastal pollution. The ability to quickly identify and map such widespread pollution from space provides a revolutionary, cost-effective approach to environmental management, potentially improving public health outcomes and protecting marine ecosystems where traditional water sampling is time-consuming and expensive.
Published: June 17, 2025
https://scitechdaily.com/nasas-emit-spots-toxic-contamination-off-california-coast/ -
IPCC and American Geophysical Union Partner for Broader Publication Access
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the American Geophysical Union (AGU) have announced a new partnership aimed at significantly expanding access to AGU’s scientific publications for IPCC authors. This collaboration is a critical step towards fostering more equitable and comprehensive scientific contributions to the upcoming Seventh Assessment Report on climate change, particularly benefiting researchers from developing countries and those facing access barriers. This initiative exemplifies a growing movement within major scientific organizations to address the ethical imperative of open access to research. By providing broader access to AGU’s extensive and high-impact publications, this partnership will directly enhance the scientific rigor, breadth, and global representativeness of the IPCC’s report, leading to more robust and widely accepted climate science essential for global action.
Published: June 19, 2025
IPCC and AGU partner to expand access to publications for work on Seventh Assessment Report — IPCC
Tools & Tips
- NASA OPERA Level 3 Surface Displacement Products
NASA’s Observational Products for End-Users from Remote Sensing Analysis (OPERA) project has released its Level-3 Sentinel-1 Surface Displacement (DISP) product. This dataset, generated from interferometric time-series analysis, is incredibly useful for detecting various surface changes, including subsidence, tectonic deformation, and landslides across North America. The release of these “Level-3” and “for End-Users” products signifies a critical step in making complex satellite remote sensing data more accessible and directly applicable for geologists, engineers, and hazard managers who may not be remote sensing specialists. This broad spatial coverage across the United States, U.S. territories, Canada, and mainland countries from the southern U.S. border to Panama makes it an invaluable resource for regional-scale geological studies, infrastructure planning, and potentially improving predictive capabilities for a wide range of ground-deformation hazards.
OPERA Surface Displacement from Sentinel-1 validated product (Version 1) | NASA Earthdata
Fun Fact
Did you know that in the geological world, volcanoes are often called the planet’s architects? They’ve actually created over 80% of Earth’s surface! This highlights that while volcanoes pose immediate hazards, they are also fundamental constructive forces that have shaped the vast majority of our planet’s surface over geological time.
Eight things you might not know about geology | ExxonMobil in Asia Pacific
We’d love to hear from you! Have you participated in any Geology events or utilized new Geology tools recently? Share your experiences or insights with us—we’re featuring selected community voices in next week’s edition.