Despite what the screaming headline said in the British tabloid the Daily Mail a few days ago, a caldera volcano in Germany that last erupted 12,000 years ago isn’t actually ready to blow. Vulcanologists say that just because the Laacher See volcano is actively venting carbon dioxide, this is by no means evidence of anything. It’s been venting for several centuries. Wired’s Science blog called the Daily Mail’s sensationalism, “the volcanic equivalent of going out and saying ‘Massive hurricane to hit London?’ because they looked out the window and saw a cloud. Irresponsible, lazy journalism at its finest.”

This entry was posted on Friday, January 6th, 2012 at 9:00 am and is filed under environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.