Welcome to the next iteration of Eruptions! 

For everyone who has never seen Eruptions before, I thought I'd start off with a little introduction. My name is Dr. Erik Klemetti, I am a assistant professor of Geosciences at Denison University and I love volcanoes. It is as simple as that. I have since I was a kid visiting my grandparents' house in Colombia near Nevado del Ruiz and it has lasted (with a few of the usual detours) since then, so today I study and teach about volcanism and geology in general for a living. Hard to ask for anything better (short of getting that long-awaited call from Theo Epstein for an opening in a certain Boston-based organization.)

I started Eruptions back in May 2008 when I caught wind of eruption going on in southern Chile at Chaiten. The news about the eruption was very sparse and mostly written by people who didn't have much of a geologic background. I searched around and while I did find some blogs about volcanoes and active eruptions, I realized there really wasn't any volcanologists writing about eruptions as they were happening - so, I naively threw my hat in the geoblogosphere. Since then, the blog has become more than I could imagine - a place for discussing volcanology and geology, a source for volcano news as it happens and, I feel, an important piece for public understanding and participation in science. Just sift through some of the archives of the blog during the Eyjafjallajokull eruption this spring and you can see what a remarkable community this blog has become.

For all my readers who are coming over from the previous iterations, no fears, nothing will change on the blog in terms of content and what you should expect popping up on the blog. In fact, hopefully I'll have some cool new features in the coming weeks and months that hopefully you will like. The blog itself is still somewhat in a state of transition (and there is a lot going on behind the scenes here), so be patient as we get the archives all set. Right now you can find old posts by searching using the search window in the right-hand side of the blog. One big change you will notice is that you'll need to register to leave comments - I know some of you might not be thrilled by that, but it is easy and quick - and will hopefully help stymy some of the irritating spambots of yore. However, if you notice anything missing, broken or screwed up, please let me know - eruptionsblog (at) gmail.com! 

Remember to update your RSS feeds (if you use them) for the new site - and you can always follow Eruptions on Twitter as well: @eruptionsblog.

I'll have some posts with news about the activity at Sinabung, Etna, the Virunga National Park and more later today (as some of you know, this is also the first week of classes here at Denison, so I am triple busy). However, until then, welcome to Eruptions 3.0! Feel free to leave a comment to say "hello"!