Welcome to the Ex-X Project

Volcanoes don’t just ‘awaken’, erupt then calm back down. They can go through multiple and highly variable cycles of activity; sometimes explosive, sometimes gently emitting lava. A grand challenge for volcanology is doing better at expecting the changes in behaviour that lead to large increases in eruptive activity in those cycles. These are the kind of ‘unsteady’ explosive eruptions that send hot deadly currents charging down hillsides and unleash widespread disruption through falling ash and pumice. 

Ex-X is a project dedicated to that challenge. We are a group of University researchers and monitoring agencies partnering up to understand these volcanic accelerations: both in the subsurface and how that controls the generation of ‘dangerous’ volcanic activity for exposed communities. 

We are able to do this now because of two recent developments. Firstly, improvements in instruments: both those put out around volcanoes to measure their subsurface movements, and those in the laboratory capable of measuring the minute changes in textures and chemistry that the erupted rocks record. Secondly, theoretical developments and advances in modelling mean we now have the capacity to use our instrumental data to significantly improve how we anticipate these changes in our models.  

Ex-X is focussing in the Eastern Caribbean. We are working together to understand three volcanoes with rich records of these dangerous unsteady eruptions in the Eastern Caribbean and using these to create and improve our models. We will use these results to create a template for understanding these types of eruption worldwide. 

By working in our partnership, we are doing this in a way that is directly useful for those responsible for volcanic hazard monitoring and management, and through them the exposed populations and managers of risk.