Search results for " volcanic plume"

Lidar sounding of volcanic plumes

2013

ABSTRACT Accurate knowledge of gas composition in volcanic plumes has high scientific and societal value. On the one hand, it gives information on the geophysical processes taking place inside volcanos; on the other hand, it provides alert on possible eruptions. For this reasons, it has been suggested to monitor volcanic plumes by lidar. In particular, one of the aims of the FP7 ERC project BRIDGE is the measurement of CO 2 concentration in volcanic gases by differential absorption lidar. This is a very challenging task due to the harsh environment, the narrowness and weakness of the CO 2 absorption lines and the difficulty to procure a suitable laser source. This paper, after a review on r…

Ash-plume dynamics and eruption source parameters by infrasound and thermal imagery: The 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption

2013

During operational ash-cloud forecasting, prediction of ash concentration and total erupted mass directly depends on the determination of mass eruption rate (MER), which is typically inferred from plume height. Uncertainties for plume heights are large, especially for bent-over plumes in which the ascent dynamics are strongly affected by the surrounding wind field. Here we show how uncertainties can be reduced if MER is derived directly from geophysical observations of source dynamics. The combination of infrasound measurements and thermal camera imagery allows for the infrasonic type of source to be constrained (a dipole in this case) and for the plume exit velocity to be calculated (54–14…

Intercomparison of gas emissions from the lava lakes of Nyiragongo and Nyamulagira, DR Congo

2015

From 25th of October to 5th of November 2014 field surveys were carried out at Nyiragongo and Nyamulagira volcanoes, DR Congo. These two volcanoes belong to the eight volcanoes in the Virunga volcanic chain. They have an altitude of about 3470 m.a.s.l. and 3060 m.a.s.l., respectively. The craters of the two volcanoes lie within a distance of less than 15 km and both have a diameter of about 1000 m and 2000 m, respectively showing a similar inner geometry containing several terraces inside. The lava lake of Nyamulagira is still under formation while Nyiragongo’s lava lake is known since more than 100 years with short interruptions after the eruptions in 1977 and 2002. However, also Nyamulagi…

Rapid chemical evolution of tropospheric volcanic emissions from Redoubt Volcano, Alaska, based on observations of ozone and halogen-containing gases

2013

Abstract We report results from an observational and modeling study of reactive chemistry in the tropospheric plume emitted by Redoubt Volcano, Alaska. Our measurements include the first observations of Br and I degassing from an Alaskan volcano, the first study of O 3 evolution in a volcanic plume, as well as the first detection of BrO in the plume of a passively degassing Alaskan volcano. This study also represents the first detailed spatially-resolved comparison of measured and modeled O 3 depletion in a volcanic plume. The composition of the plume was measured on June 20, 2010 using base-treated filter packs (for F, Cl, Br, I, and S) at the crater rim and by an instrumented fixed-wing a…

The bridge volcanic LIdar-BILLI: A review of data collection and processing techniques in the Italian most hazardous volcanic areas

2020

Volcanologists have demonstrated that carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes are precursors of volcanic eruptions. Controlling volcanic gases and, in particular, the CO2 flux, is technically challenging, but we can retrieve useful information from magmatic/geological process studies for the mitigation of volcanic hazards including air traffic security. Existing techniques used to probe volcanic gas fluxes have severe limitations such as the requirement of near-vent in situ measurements, which is unsafe for operators and deleterious for equipment. In order to overcome these limitations, a novel range-resolved DIAL-Lidar (Differential Absorption Light Detection and Ranging) has been developed as part of…

Development of an active alkaline trap to determine acidic gas ratios in volcanic plumes: sampling technique and analytical methods

2012

Ozone depletion in tropospheric volcanic plumes

2010

We measured ozone (O3) concentrations in the atmospheric plumes of the volcanoes St. Augustine (1976), Mt. Etna (2004, 2009) and Eyjafjallajökull (2010) and found O3 to be strongly depleted compared to the background at each volcano. At Mt. Etna O3 was depleted within tens of seconds from the crater, the age of the St. Augustine plumes was on the order of hours, whereas the O3 destruction in the plume of Eyjafjallajökull was maintained in 1–9 day old plumes. The most likely cause for this O3 destruction are catalytic bromine reactions as suggested by a model that manages to reproduce the very early destruction of O3 but also shows that O3 destruction is ongoing for several days. Given the o…

Ultraviolet imaging of volcanic plumes: A new paradigm in volcanology

2017

Ultraviolet imaging has been applied in volcanology over the last ten years or so. This provides considerably higher temporal and spatial resolution volcanic gas emission rate data than available previously, enabling the volcanology community to investigate a range of far faster plume degassing processes than achievable hitherto. To date, this has covered rapid oscillations in passive degassing through conduits and lava lakes, as well as puffing and explosions, facilitating exciting connections to be made for the first time between previously rather separate sub-disciplines of volcanology. Firstly, there has been corroboration between geophysical and degassing datasets at ≈1 Hz, expeditin…