Boudon, G, Balcone-Boissard, H, Villemant, B et al. (1 more author) (2015) What factors control superficial lava dome explosivity? Scientific Reports, 5. 14551. ISSN 2045-2322
Abstract
Dome-forming eruption is a frequent eruptive style and a major hazard on numerous volcanoes worldwide. Lava domes are built by slow extrusion of degassed, viscous magma and may be destroyed by gravitational collapse or explosion. The triggering of lava dome explosions is poorly understood: here we propose a new model of superficial lava-dome explosivity based upon a textural and geochemical study (vesicularity, microcrystallinity, cristobalite distribution, residual water contents, crystal transit times) of clasts produced by key eruptions. Superficial explosion of a growing lava dome may be promoted through porosity reduction caused by both vesicle flattening due to gas escape and syn-eruptive cristobalite precipitation. Both processes generate an impermeable and rigid carapace allowing overpressurisation of the inner parts of the lava dome by the rapid input of vesiculated magma batches. The relative thickness of the cristobalite-rich carapace is an inverse function of the external lava dome surface area. Explosive activity is thus more likely to occur at the onset of lava dome extrusion, in agreement with observations, as the likelihood of superficial lava dome explosions depends inversely on lava dome volume. This new result is of interest for the whole volcanological community and for risk management.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) 2015, The Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. |
Keywords: | Lave dome, volcanology, timescales, hazard |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Inst of Geophysics and Tectonics (IGT) (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EU - European Union 282759 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 18 Sep 2015 13:01 |
Last Modified: | 23 Jun 2023 21:52 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep14551 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Nature Publishing Group |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/srep14551 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:89972 |