Happy 5th Birthday to Eruptions!

Kilauea (in the background) and I (in the foreground), taken during March 2013. If you can believe it, today is the fifth birthday for this blog. Eruptions started on May 1, 2008 after I struggled to find useful and geologically-accurate information about the eruption that had just started at Chaitén in Chile (more on that anniversary later this week). Since then, I've written ~1,315 posts, which works out to about 5 posts per week for the past 5 years -- a number that is somewhat startling to me. Combine that with the ~5,353 who follow me on Twitter (where, since I joined Twitter in 2010, I've posted over 8,500 tweets), it seems that I either have too much time on my hands (ha!) or I have a lot to say about volcanoes. However, I think the most remarkable thing about Eruptions and its success has very little to do with me, but rather has a lot to do with all the thoughtful readers and commenters. The current interweb is a place where comments beneath articles are usually best avoided for fear of losing one's sanity or faith in humanity. However, thanks to all the readers who come back, share the questions, their observations, their expertise and their curiosity, Eruptions has somehow spawned a thriving and remarkable community of engaged individuals who are truly interested in volcanism and not petty bickering or posturing. I thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, for making writing this blog a pleasure rather than something where I fear that every post will be greeted by the conflict. You have written more comments across Wordpress, ScienceBlogs, BigThink and Wired than I can keep track anymore, but I'm fairly confident the number is in the tens of thousands. That is simply amazing. There are more of you than I can thank easily, but special thanks to the "regulars", some of which have come and gone, but kept this community humming along. Hopefully you know who you are. Now, when I started the blog back in 2008, I was a postdoc living with my (future) wife in California. Five years later, I am a tenure-track faculty at a small liberals arts school, living in a house we own along with a wonderful toddler. I couldn't really ask for much more than that right now, but the changes haven't made it easier on me to work on this blog. My hosts here at Wired Science Blogs have been incredible about making this spot the most low pressure place I've ever been hosted since I left Wordpress in 2009. Now, all of this is not to say Eruptions will be ending anytime soon -- don't worry about that. I know when I stop having fun writing about volcanoes, eruptions and magma, then it will be time to pack in the towel and do my Yaz-like jog around the yard. That time is definitely not here, but this blog has evolved since I started (hopefully mostly for the better) and will continue to change -- hopefully you'll all stick around for these changes as well. Anyway, the last 5 years writing Eruptions have been excellent -- and I never in my wildest imaginings thought that this blog would become as popular and (shockingly) well known, both in the public eye and in the Geosciences community. Thanks for readings, thanks for commenting and most of all, thanks for being curious about the world of volcanoes.