When Coupled Volcanoes Talk, These Researchers Listen
Iceland’s Fagradalsfjall fissure system erupted multiple times between 2021 and 2023, after which the Svartsengi fissure system seemed to take its place.
冰岛的 Fagradalsfjall 裂缝系统在 2021 年至 2023 年间多次喷发，之后 Svartsengi 裂缝系统似乎取代了它的位置。
In the summer of 1912, word reached Robert Fiske Griggs that the apocalypse had arrived on Kodiak, an inhabited island off the coast of Alaska.
1912 年夏天，罗伯特·菲斯克·格里格斯 (Robert Fiske Griggs) 收到消息称，末日已经降临到阿拉斯加海岸附近有人居住的科迪亚克岛。
The following year, Griggs, a botanist at the University of Ohio, led the first of several expeditions to the island, where he and a team glimpsed a disquieting sight: Kodiak was shrouded in a full foot of ash.
第二年，俄亥俄大学植物学家格里格斯率领了对该岛的几次探险中的第一次，在那里他和一个团队看到了令人不安的景象：科迪亚克岛被一英尺厚的火山灰笼罩着。
And it wasn’t just the island.
不仅仅是这个岛。
On the mainland on a formerly multi-peaked volcano called Mount Katmai, the soot-covered landscape was still venting noxious gas.
在大陆上一座名叫卡特迈山的前多峰火山上，被烟灰覆盖的景观仍然在排放有毒气体。
The environs of Mount Katmai had been home to a lush river valley.
卡特迈山周围曾经是郁郁葱葱的河谷的所在地。
Griggs later wrote that on his surveying missions, he found that it “was full of hundreds, no, thousands — literally, tens of thousands — of smokes curling up.
格里格斯后来写道，在他的勘测任务中，他发现“充满了数百，不，数千——实际上是数万——袅袅的烟雾。
…
……
Some were sending up columns of steam which rose a thousand feet before dissolving.” The site, which bubbled and hissed for decades, is still called the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.
有些喷出的蒸汽柱上升了一千英尺，然后才溶解。”这个地方几十年来一直在冒泡和嘶嘶作响，至今仍被称为万烟谷。
Griggs and his fellow expeditioners were walking through the aftermath of the 20th century’s most prolific act of volcanism — a 60-hour frenzy that smothered much of the Pacific Northwest in onyx snow.
格里格斯和他的探险同伴们正在经历20世纪最频繁的火山活动的余波——一场持续60小时的火山活动，太平洋西北地区的大部分地区都被缟玛瑙雪覆盖。
Aerosols released by the eruption lingered for so long in the atmosphere that average temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere dropped by 1 degree Celsius for over a year.
火山喷发释放的气溶胶在大气中停留了很长时间，导致北半球的平均气温在一年多的时间里下降了1摄氏度。
The eruption did more than cool the skies and scorch an entire network of valleys.
这次喷发不仅使天空变冷，还烧焦了整个山谷。
It also collapsed two of the three peaks of Mount Katmai into a single pit 1 kilometer deep and 2.5 kilometers across.
它还将卡特迈山三座山峰中的两座塌陷成一个深 1 公里、宽 2.5 公里的深坑。
At the time, it seemed obvious what had happened: Katmai had unleashed most of its magma, and it had left a giant chasm in its wake.
当时，发生的事情似乎很明显：卡特迈释放了大部分岩浆，并在其身后留下了一个巨大的裂缝。
But the truth isn’t always obvious.
但事实并不总是显而易见的。
In the 1950s, detailed geologic mapping of Katmai and its surroundings by Garniss Curtis, a geologist at the University of California, Berkeley, revealed that the eruption had emerged not from the now-collapsed peaks of the volcano, but from an opening in Earth’s crust 10 kilometers to the west that had never been seen before.
20 世纪 50 年代，加州大学伯克利分校地质学家加尼斯·柯蒂斯 (Garniss Curtis) 对卡特迈及其周边地区进行了详细的地质测绘，结果显示，这次喷发并非来自现已塌陷的火山山峰，而是来自西边 10 公里处的地壳开口，此前从未见过。
After extensive fieldwork, scientists reached a conclusion: Two-thirds of Katmai had disappeared because this opening had stolen Katmai’s magma.
经过广泛的实地考察，科学家得出结论：卡特迈的三分之二已经消失，因为这个开口偷走了卡特迈的岩浆。
The idea was controversial , because volcanoes were always thought to act independently, tapping their own supplies of molten, eruptible rock.
这个想法是有争议的，因为火山一直被认为是独立活动的，利用自己的熔融、可喷发岩石供应。
But Katmai and the opening, dubbed Novarupta, offered the first real clue that volcanoes could be connected, or “coupled.”
但卡特迈和被称为“诺瓦鲁普塔”的火山口提供了第一个真正的线索，表明火山可以相互连接或“耦合”。
During the eruption in 1912, the town of Kodiak was buried in a foot of ash.
1912 年火山喷发期间，科迪亚克镇被埋在一英尺厚的火山灰中。
University of Washington via Wikimedia Commons
华盛顿大学通过维基共享资源
In the past decade, thanks to an improving suite of sensors and techniques and a stronger scientific understanding, researchers have identified other coupled volcanoes from Hawai‘i to Greece, and from Japan to Iceland.
在过去的十年中，由于传感器和技术的改进以及更深入的科学认识，研究人员已经发现了从夏威夷到希腊，从日本到冰岛的其他耦合火山。
Each coupling is unique, said Diana Roman , a volcanologist at Carnegie Science in Washington, D.C., but fundamentally, coupled volcanoes “seem to talk to each other.” With sustained study, scientists are learning to listen in on what they’re saying.
华盛顿特区卡内基科学研究所的火山学家戴安娜·罗曼（Diana Roman）说，每一次耦合都是独一无二的，但从根本上说，耦合的火山“似乎会互相交谈”。通过持续的研究，科学家们正在学会倾听他们的言论。
Think of magma as being like a particularly infernal soup: a hot mixture of solid crystals and molten, gas-filled rock.
把岩浆想象成一锅特别地狱般的汤：固体晶体和熔化的、充满气体的岩石的热混合物。
Like soup, it comes in different flavors.
就像汤一样，它有不同的味道。
Sometimes it’s suffused with a compound named silica, which makes it thick and gloopy like oil.
有时它充满了一种名为二氧化硅的化合物，这使得它像油一样粘稠而粘稠。
Sometimes, it’s light on the silica, which makes it runny like hot honey.
有时，二氧化硅上的水分很轻，这使得它像热蜂蜜一样流动。
When magma breaches the surface of the Earth, it’s usually called lava.
当岩浆突破地球表面时，它通常被称为熔岩。
Whatever its ingredients, magma is naturally buoyant.
无论其成分如何，岩浆都具有天然的浮力。
In general, “magma is supposed to go upward,” said Falk Amelung , a geophysicist at the University of Miami.
一般来说，“岩浆应该向上流动，”迈阿密大学地球物理学家法尔克·阿梅隆说。
But Novarupta’s act of magma theft provided the first hint that molten rock might be nimbler than scientists realized.
但诺瓦鲁普塔的岩浆盗窃行为首次暗示，熔岩可能比科学家意识到的更灵活。
“We’ve been so busy thinking about how magma gets from depth to the surface that maybe we’ve reduced the problem to one dimension,” said David Pyle , a volcanologist at the University of Oxford.
牛津大学火山学家戴维·派尔 (David Pyle) 表示：“我们一直忙于思考岩浆如何从深处到达地表，也许我们已经将问题简化为一维。”
In the 1950s, researchers discovered that Katmai wasn’t responsible for the cataclysm of 1912 when they mapped the eruption’s ashfall.
20 世纪 50 年代，研究人员在绘制 1912 年火山喷发的火山灰分布图时发现，卡特迈与 1912 年的灾难无关。
Instead of forming a concentric pattern around Katmai, the ash encircled Novarupta.
火山灰没有在卡特迈周围形成同心圆图案，而是包围了诺瓦鲁普塔。
Further proof emerged in studies of volcanic rocks found at Katmai called andesites and dacites, which had the same chemical composition as those blasted out of Novarupta.
对卡特迈发现的安山岩和英安岩火山岩的研究提供了进一步的证据，这些火山岩的化学成分与从诺瓦鲁普塔喷出的火山岩相同。
“It’s a perfect match,” said John Eichelberger , a volcanologist and natural-hazards researcher at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
“这是完美的搭配，”阿拉斯加大学费尔班克斯分校的火山学家兼自然灾害研究员约翰·艾切尔伯格 (John Eichelberger) 说。
In addition, the volume of rock removed during the Katmai collapse was almost exactly equal to the volume of rock propelled from Novarupta.
此外，卡特迈塌陷期间清除的岩石体积几乎完全等于从诺瓦鲁普塔喷出的岩石体积。
Geologists now believe that magma below Katmai moved sideways for several kilometers before emerging at Novarupta.
地质学家现在认为卡特迈下方的岩浆在诺瓦鲁普塔出现之前横向移动了几公里。
“There’s no question there’s a direct connection between Novarupta and Katmai,” Eichelberger said.
“毫无疑问，诺瓦鲁普塔和卡特迈之间存在直接联系，”艾切尔伯格说。
But no one is sure why the magma moved this way.
但没有人知道为什么岩浆会这样移动。
Eichelberger said he wonders if the situation was a bit like the activity in an artesian well , wherein pressurized fluids underground naturally flow out of a new opening.
艾切尔伯格说，他想知道这种情况是否有点像自流井中的活动，地下的加压流体自然地从新的开口流出。
In this case, the opening at Novarupta was probably created by a rogue stream of rising magma that smashed its way through the crust.
在这种情况下，诺瓦鲁普塔的开口可能是由一股上升的岩浆流冲破地壳而形成的。
This opened a low-pressure channel, and Katmai’s own magma moved sideways toward it.
这打开了一条低压通道，卡特迈自己的岩浆向侧面移动。
The eruption wasn’t monitored with modern instrumentation, so scientists can only offer their best guesses as to what happened.
这次喷发没有用现代仪器进行监测，因此科学家只能对发生的情况提供最好的猜测。
To build up their body of evidence that magma could move between coupled volcanoes, they would need to capture the process with high-tech sensors in real time.
为了建立岩浆可以在相连的火山之间移动的证据，他们需要使用高科技传感器实时捕获该过程。
The peaks of Mount Katmai partially collapsed in 1912, leaving a crater behind.
1912 年，卡特迈山的山峰部分塌陷，留下了一个火山口。
Iceland is a floating fortress of volcanoes.
冰岛是一座漂浮的火山堡垒。
That’s partly because the country sits atop the boundary of two diverging tectonic plates; it’s constantly being pulled in two.
部分原因是该国位于两个不同构造板块的边界之上。它不断地被拉成两半。
In 2014, a spike in earthquakes beneath the cauldron-shaped Bárðarbunga volcano seemed to suggest that an eruption was imminent.
2014 年，锅状的巴扎本加火山 (Bárðarbunga) 下方地震激增，似乎表明火山即将喷发。
But the quakes migrated away from Bárðarbunga, and lava eventually gushed out of several fissures in the realm of another volcano, Askja, at a site named Holuhraun , 45 kilometers away.
但地震从巴扎本加（Bárðarbunga）移开，熔岩最终从另一座火山阿斯贾（Askja）范围内的几条裂缝中喷涌而出，该火山位于 45 公里外的霍鲁赫劳恩（Holuhraun）。
This was the first time scientists had seen magma appearing to travel so far from one volcano to the next.
这是科学家第一次看到岩浆似乎从一座火山传播到下一座火山这么远。
That’s “a really long way for magma to travel laterally,” said Kristín Jónsdóttir , the head of the department of volcanoes, earthquakes, and deformation at the Icelandic Met Office.
冰岛气象局火山、地震和变形部门负责人克里斯汀·琼斯多蒂尔 (Kristín Jónsdóttir) 表示，“岩浆横向移动的距离非常长”。
By 2020, another part of the island nation, the Reykjanes Peninsula, had begun to quake.
到 2020 年，这个岛国的另一部分雷克雅内斯半岛开始地震。
Scientists dotted the area with sensors that allowed them to track the subterranean migration of magma with remarkable precision.
科学家们在该区域布满了传感器，使他们能够以惊人的精度追踪岩浆的地下迁移。
They used seismometers, which can record the sound of magma as it smashes through the crust, along with instruments that measure the changing shape of the ground.
他们使用地震计，可以记录岩浆撞击地壳时的声音，以及测量地面形状变化的仪器。
Soon after they finished setting up, the peninsula’s Fagradalsfjall fissure system sprang to life for the first time in about eight centuries.
在他们完成安装后不久，半岛上的 Fagradalsfjall 裂缝系统在大约八个世纪以来首次焕发活力。
It erupted repeatedly between 2021 and 2023.
2021年至2023年期间多次喷发。
Then, in late 2023, a different fissure system, called Svartsengi, took over.
然后，在 2023 年末，一个名为 Svartsengi 的不同裂缝系统接管了。
It erupted every few months while Fagradalsfjall fell silent.
它每隔几个月就会喷发一次，而法格拉达尔山则陷入沉寂。
Smoke and lava erupt from Iceland’s Fagradalsfjall volcano in 2021.
2021 年，冰岛法格拉达尔火山喷发烟雾和熔岩。
“They’re never doing something at the same time,” Jónsdóttir said.
“他们从来不会同时做某事，”乔斯多蒂尔说。
“For them to take turns like that …
“让他们这样轮流……
it’s very suspicious.” It seemed that, just like Bárðarbunga and Askja, Fagradalsfjall and Svartsengi were coupled.
这很可疑。”看起来，就像 Bárðarbunga 和 Askja 一样，Fagradalsfjall 和 Svartsengi 也是一对。
Half a world away, another scientist was working on the tools to turn these magmatic connections into a map.
在半个地球之外，另一位科学家正在研究将这些岩浆联系转化为地图的工具。
For decades, scientists have used earthquakes to track magma, but the work was often slow and imprecise.
几十年来，科学家们一直利用地震来追踪岩浆，但这项工作往往进展缓慢且不精确。
Until recently, scientists could only manually read through graphs of seismic recordings to pick out tremors, then use the data to trace the movements of magma that caused them.
直到最近，科学家只能手动读取地震记录图表来识别地震，然后使用这些数据来追踪引起地震的岩浆运动。
Many of the more subtle quakes, buried in background noise, were invisible to human eyes.
许多更细微的地震隐藏在背景噪音中，人眼是看不见的。
In the 2010s, Zach Ross , a geophysicist at the California Institute of Technology, wanted to improve on the quake-finding process.
2010 年代，加州理工学院地球物理学家扎克·罗斯 (Zach Ross) 希望改进地震探测过程。
He trained a machine learning program on various seismic symphonies recorded across California over a decade.
他用十多年来在加州录制的各种地震交响曲训练了一个机器学习程序。
Ultimately, the program identified 10 times more tremors than any human-led seismic survey had been able to find.
最终，该计划发现的震动比任何人类主导的地震勘测发现的震动都要多 10 倍。
As a result, previously invisible fault networks throughout California lit up like fireworks .
结果，整个加州以前看不见的断层网络像烟花一样亮了起来。
Next, Ross tried a new, more advanced version of his quake-finding algorithms on data from Hawai‘i.
接下来，罗斯根据夏威夷的数据尝试了一种新的、更先进的地震探测算法版本。
Hawai‘i, like Iceland, is full of volcanoes.
夏威夷和冰岛一样，到处都是火山。
And while many are extinct or dormant, two of them, Kīlauea and Mauna Loa , are still capable of destructive and deadly eruptions.
虽然许多火山已经灭绝或处于休眠状态，但其中的两个火山——基拉韦厄火山和莫纳罗亚火山——仍然能够产生破坏性和致命的喷发。
Volcanologists largely suspected that Kīlauea and Mauna Loa acted independently.
火山学家很大程度上怀疑基拉韦厄火山和冒纳罗亚火山是独立活动的。
The chemistry of their erupted lavas couldn’t have looked more different, and there wasn’t any compelling evidence to suggest that an eruption at one could affect the other.
它们喷发的熔岩的化学成分看起来非常不同，而且没有任何令人信服的证据表明其中一个火山的喷发可能会影响另一个火山。
In 2019, there was a maelstrom of seismic activity near Kīlauea, deep below the town of Pāhala.
2019 年，帕哈拉镇深处的基拉韦厄附近发生了一场地震活动。
Ross fed recordings of the shaking to his algorithms to generate a 3D map.
罗斯将震动记录输入到他的算法中以生成 3D 地图。
In the process, he uncovered a giant system of passageways.
在此过程中，他发现了一个巨大的通道系统。
Hikers visit volcanic craters in Santorini in 2001.
2001 年，徒步旅行者参观圣托里尼岛的火山口。
Rolfsteinar via Wikimedia Commons
罗尔夫斯坦纳尔（Rolfsteinar）来自维基共享资源
At the heart of this magmatic circulatory system was a series of horizontal reservoirs called the Pāhala sill complex.
这个岩浆循环系统的中心是一系列水平储层，称为帕哈拉岩床复合体。
From those reservoirs branched two arteries, one leading to Kīlauea, the other reaching toward Mauna Loa.
从这些水库分支出两条动脉，一条通向基拉韦厄火山，另一条通向冒纳罗亚火山。
“I remember very clearly how we all reacted when we first saw that in my office,” Ross said.
“我非常清楚地记得当我们第一次在我的办公室看到这一点时我们所有人的反应，”罗斯说。
“It was pretty shocking.”
“这真是太令人震惊了。”
The idea that the two shared a deeper magma source but erupted two chemically distinct types of lava made people “really uncomfortable,” Roman said.
罗曼说，两者共享一个更深的岩浆源，但却喷发出两种化学性质不同的熔岩，这一想法让人们“真的很不舒服”。
But the seismic evidence was impossible to ignore; they seem to be coupled.
但地震证据不容忽视。他们似乎是耦合的。
Their connection seems different — more mercurial, changeable, compared to those of other coupled volcanoes.
与其他配对火山相比，它们的联系似乎有所不同——更加反复无常、多变。
Sometimes, as with Iceland’s volcanoes, the ones in Hawai‘i take turns erupting.
有时，就像冰岛的火山一样，夏威夷的火山也会轮流喷发。
This could be because one taps magma from their shared source so aggressively that the other volcano doesn’t have much left to extract.
这可能是因为其中一座火山从共同的源头汲取岩浆的速度如此之快，以至于另一座火山已经没有多少可供提取的了。
But on other occasions, both erupt at the same time.
但在其他情况下，两者同时爆发。
This could be because the magmatic heart that connects them fills up with so much magma that both volcanoes “get juiced,” Roman said.
罗曼说，这可能是因为连接它们的岩浆中心充满了太多的岩浆，以至于两座火山都“被榨干了”。
Santorini is a C-shaped Greek island with a violent volcanic past .
圣托里尼岛是一个C形的希腊岛屿，过去曾经历过猛烈的火山活动。
The most catastrophic outburst of its volcano, in roughly 1600 BCE, contributed to the end of the seafaring Minoan civilization.
大约公元前 1600 年，其火山爆发了最灾难性的一次，导致了米诺斯航海文明的终结。
Today, two small new volcanoes are growing out of its bay, and another one called Kolumbo — capable of producing fearsome tsunamis and clouds of suffocating gases — lurks underwater just offshore.
如今，两座小型新火山正在海湾中拔地而起，另一座名为科伦坡的火山潜伏在近海水下，能够引发可怕的海啸和令人窒息的气体云。
Unsurprisingly, the region is comprehensively monitored by scientists.
毫不奇怪，该地区受到科学家的全面监测。
In 2024, a new German-Greek venture called Multi-Marex began to install layers of sensors on not just the land but also the seafloor around Santorini.
2024 年，一家名为 Multi-Marex 的德国-希腊新企业开始在圣托里尼岛周围的陆地和海底安装多层传感器。
The effort paid off almost immediately, said Jonas Preine , a volcanologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; by chance, at the end of January 2025, the region began to shudder.
伍兹霍尔海洋研究所的火山学家乔纳斯·普雷内 (Jonas Preine) 表示，这种努力几乎立即得到了回报。机缘巧合，2025年1月下旬，该地区开始颤抖。
Large earthquakes rocked Santorini, and many of its residents fled, fearing an eruption.
圣托里尼岛发生大地震，许多居民因担心火山爆发而逃离。
“The residents were so worried,” Preine said.
“居民们非常担心，”普雷纳说。
But after several weeks, the quakes dropped off.
但几周后，地震减弱了。
At the same time, both Santorini and Kolumbo shrank.
与此同时，圣托里尼岛和科伦坡都出现萎缩。
What happened?
发生了什么？
The tectonic architecture of the Aegean Sea is messy, rife with crisscrossing faults and myriad volcanoes that make unraveling what happens at depth extremely difficult.
爱琴海的构造结构杂乱无章，充满了纵横交错的断层和无数的火山，这使得弄清楚在深处发生的事情变得极其困难。
But scientists analyzing Multi-Marex data with the assistance of machine learning quickly produced an explanation : A stream of magma had risen from a great depth to just 3 kilometers or so below the surface.
但科学家在机器学习的帮助下分析 Multi-Marex 数据后很快得出了一个解释：一股岩浆流从很深的地方上升到地表以下仅 3 公里左右的地方。
The magma didn’t have enough momentum to punch through to the surface, but it did seem to borrow some of its molten rock from elsewhere.
岩浆没有足够的动力冲破地表，但它似乎确实从其他地方借用了一些熔岩。
Another magma reservoir in the crust, one thought to feed Kolumbo, contracted as its reserves drained away.
地壳中的另一个岩浆库（被认为是科伦坡的岩浆库）随着其储量的枯竭而收缩。
It certainly seemed like another case of volcanic coupling — and the team hopes their improved understanding leads to more accurate forecasting of Santorini and Kolumbo’s future volcanic activity.
这当然看起来像是火山耦合的另一个例子——研究小组希望他们加深的理解能够更准确地预测圣托里尼岛和科伦坡未来的火山活动。
In Greece and Hawai‘i, and in other locations like Central Africa and Japan , researchers are looking for the next sets of coupled volcanoes, which they know might exhibit a variety of connected behaviors, including taking turns or erupting simultaneously.
在希腊和夏威夷，以及中非和日本等其他地方，研究人员正在寻找下一组耦合火山，他们知道这些火山可能会表现出各种相互关联的行为，包括轮流或同时喷发。
They now know that coupled volcanoes won’t necessarily produce the same type of lava or the same type of eruption.
他们现在知道，配对的火山不一定会产生相同类型的熔岩或相同类型的喷发。
And they know not to underestimate how far magma might travel on its journey to the surface, and how deep the connection between coupled volcanoes might be.
他们知道不要低估岩浆在到达地表的过程中可能走多远，以及火山之间的联系可能有多深。
Get highlights of the most important news delivered to your email inbox
获取发送到您的电子邮件收件箱的最重要新闻的摘要
Quanta Magazine moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation.
《Quanta》杂志对评论进行审核，以促进知情、实质性、文明的对话。
Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected.
辱骂、亵渎、自我推销、误导、语无伦次或偏离主题的评论将被拒绝。
Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (New York time) and can only accept comments written in English.
版主在正常工作时间（纽约时间）有工作人员，并且只能接受英文评论。