When volcanoes erupt, gases blast from the earth in fast-moving pyroclastic flows destroying everything in their path.

But how do these destructive forces work? Scientists don’t have a full picture yet. But what if we could unravel this mystery by examining millennia-old cooled rocks and soils from these same eruptions?

Kayla Iacovino—part science fiction sleuth, part mountaineer—is doing just that. By hiking mountainous terrain or meandering through a city built on a dormant volcanic crater, the volcanologist collects rock samples from across the world in order to better understand the forces that created them.

https://www.sciencefriday.com/videos/breakthrough-the-volcano-trekker