Sustaining persistent lava lakes: Observations from high-resolution gas measurements at Villarrica volcano, Chile

2016

International audience; Active lava lakes – as the exposed upper part of magmatic columns – are prime locations to investigate the conduit flow processes operating at active, degassing volcanoes. Persistent lava lakes require a constant influx of heat to sustain a molten state at the Earth's surface. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain how such heat transfer can operate efficiently. These models make contrasting predictions with respect to the flow dynamics in volcanic conduits and should result in dissimilar volatile emissions at the surface. Here we look at high-frequency SO2 fluxes, plume composition, thermal emissions and aerial video footage from the Villarrica lava lake i…

¿Una nueva vertiente en el Volcán Copahue?: El caso del río Colorado.

El volcán Copahue (37°51′08″S–71°10′03″O) ha sido uno de los más estudiados del cinturón volcánico Argentino-Chileno, desarrollándose numerosos trabajos desde el punto de vista geoquímico, y en particular abarcando el estudio de las aguas del sistema. Dichos trabajos se concentran en su mayoría en las nacientes del sistema volcánico hidrotermal (SVH) (Agusto et al, 2012). Sin embargo, existen varios afluentes que alimentan al rio Caviahue de los cuales no se tiene mayor información. El objetivo de este trabajo es dterminar el origen de uno de ellos, el río Colorado. Desde el flanco E del volcán emanan dos vertientes ácidas (pH 1-2,5) y calientes (35-45°C) que se unen para formar el río Agri…

Dynamics of outgassing and plume transport revealed by proximal Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) measurements at Volcán Villarrica, Chile

2019

Volcanic gas emissions are intimately linked to the dynamics of magma ascent and outgassing, and, on geological timescales, constitute an important source of volatiles to the Earth's atmosphere. Measurements of gas composition and flux are therefore critical to both volcano monitoring and to determining the contribution of volcanoes to global geochemical cycles. However, significant gaps remain in our global inventories of volcanic emissions, (particularly for CO2, which requires proximal sampling of a concentrated plume) for those volcanoes where the near‐vent region is hazardous or inaccessible. Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) provide a robust and effective solution to proximal sampling of …

A CO2-gas precursor to the March 2015 Villarrica volcano eruption

2017

We present here the first volcanic gas compositional time-series taken prior to a paroxysmal eruption of Villarrica volcano (Chile). Our gas plume observations were obtained using a fully autonomous Multi-component Gas Analyser System (Multi-GAS) in the 3 month-long phase of escalating volcanic activity that culminated into the 3 March 2015 paroxysm, the largest since 1985. Our results demonstrate a temporal evolution of volcanic plume composition, from low CO$_2$/SO$_2$ ratios (0.65-2.7) during November 2014-January 2015 to CO$_2$/SO$_2$ ratios up to ≈ 9 then after. The H$_2$O/CO$_2$ ratio simultaneously declined to <38 in the same temporal interval. We use results of volatile saturatio…