Volcanoes are dangerous things; very beautiful, but nevertheless dangerous.
Four ways to be killed by a volcano
The risks posed by volcanic eruptions are such that predicting them is an important job for teams of geologists around the world. Volcanic gases, deformation of the ground, thermal anomalies are all used to give a picture of what's happening underneath a volcano but it is the seismic activity associated with magma movment that is the key to making useful predictions.
Recent research shows that the pitch of the vibrations caused by the magmatic earthquakes increases closer to an exlosive eruption. This might be an excellent indicator of an immininet eruption which could save people's lives or it could be a feature unique to Redoubt (the volcano in Alsaka studied for this research). The biggest problem with predicitng volcanoes is that each one of them is an individual and it is only when the geologists get to understand the individual quirks of each volcano that useful predictions can be made.
BBC News story
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