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"Volcanologists are quite interested in seeing what they can do

May 15, 2019 by Carolyn Mueller

"Volcanologists are quite interested in seeing what they can do with these recordings," says David Lander, a geophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the study.

The most prominent sound signature detected so far, Lander says, has been a "fuzzy, squealing sound" coming from inside the volcano. The new data suggests that the noise is coming from a small amount of ash or ash particles.

Another major concern, he says, is whether any significant amounts of ash are present in the volcano's interior. "If this sounds like it's coming from the bottom of a volcano, then that's a pretty big problem, because if you're looking at the bottom of a volcano, it's really hard to figure out the cause," Lander says.

That said, Lander does believe that the sound signature has some potential. He says that the team is currently trying to reconstruct it to understand its "voiceprint" as if it were a human voice, although it's not a part of the team's main work.

The team may have even been able to reconstruct the geologic record, as it is based on the acoustic measurements of the "voiceprint." That information might help scientists better understand what kind of volcanic eruptions have been occurring near the volcanoes, and how they might contribute to the geologic history of the world.

"We're not sure if it's a human voice or a volcano voice," says Lander. But the team is already looking into how the geologic record might be interpreted in the future.The number of refugees entering the U.S. illegally has surged since President Trump signed a controversial temporary ban on entry from seven predominantly Muslim nations last month.

The number of refugees entering the U.S. illegally rose to about 11,000 last year from 5,000 in 2016, according to the Migration Policy Institute, which tracks immigration trends. Those numbers could be even higher given the new president's recent decision to temporarily bar refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries, among them Iraq, Syria, Iran, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

The increase reflects President Trump's policy of keeping the number of U.S. immigrants in the "war" with the Islamic State, the group that has taken over large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria. The administration also said in July that it intended to temporarily suspend those refugees from entering the U.S., but has not yet given official details on how many.