{"id":322498,"date":"2026-03-10T13:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T13:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/322498\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T13:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T13:32:07","slug":"this-scientist-is-racing-to-predict-deadly-volcanic-mudslides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/322498\/","title":{"rendered":"This scientist is racing to predict deadly volcanic mudslides"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cWhen lahars are significantly large, the signal can be detected up to 20 minutes before the mudslide reaches the monitoring station,\u201d says B\u00e9jar. This all depends on the AI\u2019s ability to correctly distinguish a lahar from another type of volcanic event generated inside the mountain, he cautions. The algorithm was very good at flagging medium and large lahars but struggled to identify smaller ones.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">(<a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/science\/article\/volcano-forecasts-soon-reality-thanks-to-ai\" target=\"_blank\" dir=\"ltr\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Volcano forecasts could soon be a reality<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>Lahars pose threats beyond Guatemala<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">KNN is user-friendly, requires minimal processing power, and can be deployed on inexpensive computers employing existing seismic monitoring networks. This makes it an ideal solution for resource-constrained regions like Guatemala. B\u00e9jar says that INSIVUMEH is planning to incorporate the algorithm into their monitoring system this year. \u201cThe idea is that the work we do in Guatemala can directly benefit them as project partners.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">But its implications extend far beyond the slopes of Fuego. Candidate volcanoes to work on with AI include Mount Rainier, close to Seattle, and Cotopaxi, next to Quito, Ecuador, because they share the same potential for dangerous mudflows to form. B\u00e9jar hopes to one day collaborate with other geologists and test his AI-based system on those, and other volcanoes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">And B\u00e9jar, who is currently a visiting professor at Albion College in Michigan, is not the only one working with artificial intelligence in volcanology, though he believes he is the first person to do it with Volc\u00e1n de Fuego\u2019s lahars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWhen lahars are significantly large, the signal can be detected up to 20 minutes before the mudslide reaches&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[365,363,5477,50073,26576,174226,174224,174227,159542,111,139,69,147,174229,174228,174225,35294],"class_list":{"0":"post-322498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-computer-science","11":"tag-eruption","12":"tag-geology","13":"tag-guatemala","14":"tag-gustavo-bejar-lopez","15":"tag-lahar","16":"tag-mudslide","17":"tag-new-zealand","18":"tag-newzealand","19":"tag-nz","20":"tag-science","21":"tag-seimology","22":"tag-seismometers","23":"tag-volcan-de-fuego","24":"tag-volcano"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}