Island turns into open-air lab for tech-savvy volcanologists

By ARITZ PARRA and EMILIO MORENATTI
Associated Press

LAS MANCHAS, Canary Islands (AP) — The scientists come with eagle-eyed drones and high-precision instruments. Aided by satellites, they analyze gas emissions and the flows of molten rock. They collect everything on the ground from tiny particles to “lava bombs” the size of watermelons that volcanoes hurl as incandescent projectiles. Scientists from around the world are flocking to La Palma, one of Spain’s Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. They are using cutting-edge new technologies to scrutinize from land, sea, air and even space a rare volcanic eruption. But predicting volcanic eruptions and especially predicting how they end remains a huge challenge despite technological and scientific leaps.