What type of technology are used to assist volcanologists?

Answer 1

Volcanologists are assisted by many standard scientific equipment. These Equipment include GPS Monitoring stations, Tiltmeters, Seismomiters, Satellites, as well as many different types of Gas Reading Stations.

1. GPS Monitoring Stations - These stations monitor the movement of a volcano along a specific location. The movement of one station may not mean anything by itself, however with several of these in place for example around a summit, if all of the stations are picking up motion away from the summit it can be a good indicator that the volcano is swelling and magma is making its way into a shallow section of the summit.
2. Tiltmeters - Similar to GPS these are used to monitor movement of a set location, however these monitor expansion or contraction between two stations across a specific location. It can be used to see if a specific area of a volcano is inflation or deflating.
3. Seismomiters - These devices are used to measure the earthquake activity in certain areas. However, with volcanoes these take yet another goal in mind as well. They attempt to not only record earthquakes, but with many of them around a volcano they can determine a location of an earthquake within the volcano itself. This will let scientists know if the quakes are shallow or deep and what parts of the volcano the earthquakes are located at. This is invaluable to scientists when determining the probability of an eruption with a volcano that is showing signs of unrest.
4. Satellites - These are used for several different reasons, they can measure and take photos of the area and compare details to that of historical records of the areas. These photos can show changes over time in a volcano that could be preparing for an eruption, or even slowly evolving with the time change. Certain satellites also have the ability to do thermal sensing of the ground, these are invaluable for the aspects that we cannot view heat directly, and especially not over such a large area. The thermal mapping can show spots that have heated up within a volcano or have simply changed in heat flow over time.
5. Gas Monitors - These systems can actively track the amount of gasses coming out of the ground around an active vent, or thought to be active vent of a volcano. This is important when the gas levels change it could be related to magma getting shallower under the volcano and preparing to erupt from the volcano. It can also show a potential condition and chemical make up of the volcanoes magma chamber itself, this will let scientists know potentially the type of eruption that the volcano could be preparing for.

There is further information on technologies used by Volcanologists on the Hawaii Volcanoes Observatory website that has specific sections on different technologies.

Answer 2

Certain machines are able to sample what it is like inside or around the volcano without us getting close. This is very helpful to help us learn about them without putting our lives in danger.