Material World

Quentin Cooper investigates how volatile metals from volcanoes end up in polar ice cores. Scientists studying volcanoes have discovered that they are a source of tiny nanoparticles, small enough to be carried around the world. They could be involved in the formation of clouds and may also seed distant patches of barren ocean with nutrients. Volcanoes may be large and explosive, but their effects are now seen to be pervasive in the most unlikely areas.