Desert worlds outside our solar system are unlikely to host #life.

This is because an Earth-sized #planet needs at least 20 to 50% of the #water in #Earth's #oceans to maintain a critical natural cycle that keeps water on the surface.

Planetary #habitability hinges on the geologic #carbon cycle—a water-driven process that exchanges carbon between the #atmosphere and interior over millions of years, stabilizing surface temperatures.

Carbon dioxide, which comes from #volcanoes in a natural system, accumulates in the atmosphere before falling back to Earth dissolved in rainwater.

Rain erodes and chemically reacts with rocks on Earth's surface and runoff transports carbon to the ocean, where it sinks to the seafloor.

Plate tectonics drives carbon-rich oceanic plates below continental land and millions of years later, carbon resurfaces as mountains form.

However, if water levels drop too low for rainfall, carbon removal—from weathering—can't keep up with emissions from volcanic eruptions and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere spike, trapping water.

Rising temperatures evaporate the remaining surface water, initiating runaway warming that makes the planet too hot to support life.

That unfortunately makes arid planets, with little water and rainfall, within habitable zones unlikely to be good candidates for life.

#astronomy #astrobiology #exoplanets
https://phys.org/news/2026-04-planets-life-scientists-previously-thought.html

Paper by White-Gianella et al. (2026):
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ae4faa

The volcanic eruption that triggered a global catastrophe and a ‘year without summer’

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://metro.co.uk/2026/04/16/volcanic-eruption-triggered-a-global-catastrophe-a-year-without-summer-27875124/

How does lava turn into hair-like glass?

Experiments show gas-rich molten rock can be stretched into thin filaments, like molten sugar. A new mechanism for the formation of “Pele’s hair”.

🔗 https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-00766-8

#FluidDynamics #Volcanoes #Glass #Geophysics #Physics

The Weekly Volcanic Activity Report: April 2-8, 2026

New activity/unrest was reported for 6 #volcanoes from April 2 to 8, 2026. During the same period, ongoing activity was reported for 17 #volcanoes.
https://watchers.news/2026/04/10/the-weekly-volcanic-activity-report-april-2-8-2026/

Most #volcanoes warm the #atmosphere with SO2

But the 2022 Hunga #Tonga eruption was unique

Deep enough for sea water to penetrate, but shallow enough for the explosion to push water into the *mesosphere* 🤯

The water penetration removed most of the SO2, and the water is also still up there in the #stratosphere, *cooling* us

Meaning:

#GlobalWarming should be even worse than it already is, and could rebound to such as the high water veil dissipates

https://indiandefencereview.com/hunga-volcano-space-plume-stratosphere-froze/

#ClimateCrisis

I while back when I was testing @surf.social I put out a request for a few #volcanologists to come forth and share their profiles so I can add them to this feed. Here’s a #Surffeedabout volcanoes with some amazing photography

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:27djlszfjuyd3ig4uptwmotd/feed/volcano-power

#Flipboard
#Surfsocial
#Volcanoes
#photography

#volcano