“In general, unfortunately, volcanology is not a precise science,” Chiodini wrote in an email.

The A.G.U. meeting is one of the world’s première scientific gatherings—last fall, some twenty-four thousand experts in fields ranging from astronomy to volcanology attended.

Oppenheimer: With volcanology, it integrates many other disciplines: archaeology, obviously, anthropology, climatology and the whole hazard and risk side of it.