Subplinian Events Research Articles

Transient 3D numerical simulations of column collapse and pyroclastic density current scenarios at Vesuvius

Numerical simulations of column collapse and pyroclastic density current (PDC) scenarios at Vesuvius were carried out using a transient 3D flow model based on multiphase transport laws. The model describes the dynamics of the collapse as well as the effects of the 3D topography of the volcano on PDC propagation. Source conditions refer to a medium-scale sub-Plinian event and consider a pressure-balanced jet. Simulation results provide new insights into the complex dynamics of these phenomena. In particular: 1) column collapse can be characterized by different regimes, from incipient collapse to partial or nearly total collapse, thus confirming the possibility of a transitional field of behaviour of the column characterized by the contemporaneous and/or intermittent occurrence of ash fallout and PDCs; 2) the collapse regime can be characterized by its fraction of eruptive mass reaching the ground and generating PDCs; 3) within the range of the investigated source conditions, the propagation and hazard potential of PDCs appear to be directly correlated with the flow-rate of the mass collapsing to the ground, rather than to the collapse height of the column (this finding is in contrast with predictions based on the energy-line concept, which simply correlates the PDC runout and kinetic energy with the collapse height of the column); 4) first-order values of hazard variables associated with PDCs (i.e., dynamic pressure, temperature, airborne ash concentration) can be derived from simulation results, thereby providing initial estimates for the quantification of damage scenarios; 5) for scenarios assuming a location of the central vent coinciding with that of the present Gran Cono, Mount Somma significantly influences the propagation of PDCs, largely reducing their propagation in the northern sector, and diverting mass toward the west and southeast, accentuating runouts and hazard variables for these sectors; 6) the 2D modelling approximation can force an artificial radial propagation of the PDCs since it ignores azimuthal flows produced by real topographies that therefore need to be simulated in fully 3D conditions.

Volcanic craters, pit craters and high-level magma-feeding systems of a mafic island-arc volcano: Ambrym, Vanuatu, South Pacific

Abstract Ambrym is one of the largest volcanic islands of the Vanuatu arc. It has been the focus of exclusively mafic volcanism and has a structure dominated by a central 13 km-diameter caldera. Contained within the caldera are two major cone complexes, Marum and Benbow, which have been the locus of most historic eruptions. Vents within these are constantly in a state of strong degassing, with visible lava lakes periodically being observed in several subcraters. Vulcanian and strombolian explosive eruptions occur at least yearly, along with larger subplinian events every 20–30 years. The active vent systems are enclosed by several 100 m-deep vertical-walled pit craters that expose cross-sectional views through the transition zone between the conduit and the crater. Units include coherent magma bodies with interbedded pyroclastic successions. One of the Marum craters, Niri Taten, exposes portions of solidified lava lakes, magma pods that fed spatter cones, small shallow-level intrusions and larger sills that connect through a complex network of dykes to the surface and/or into the pyroclastic edifice. These features show that shallow-level infiltration of degassed and low-viscosity melts into pyroclastic-deposit-dominated volcanic sequences of Marum plays an important role in the growth of scoria and spatter cones. Once solidified, the large intrusive bodies apparently provide important buttressing of pyroclastic cones, but during emplacement they may also cause cone collapse and lateral escape of magma to form lava flows.

Explosive eruptive record in the Katmai region, Alaska Peninsula: an overview

At least 15 explosive eruptions from the Katmai cluster of volcanoes and another nine from other volcanoes on the Alaska Peninsula are preserved as tephra layers in syn- and post-glacial (Last Glacial Maximum) loess and soil sections in Katmai National Park, AK. About 400 tephra samples from 150 measured sections have been collected between Kaguyak volcano and Mount Martin and from Shelikof Strait to Bristol Bay (∼8,500 km2). Five tephra layers are distinctive and widespread enough to be used as marker horizons in the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes area, and 140 radiocarbon dates on enclosing soils have established a time framework for entire soil–tephra sections to 10 ka; the white rhyolitic ash from the 1912 plinian eruption of Novarupta caps almost all sections. Stratigraphy, distribution and tephra characteristics have been combined with microprobe analyses of glass and Fe–Ti oxide minerals to correlate ash layers with their source vents. Microprobe analyses (typically 20–50 analyses per glass or oxide sample) commonly show oxide compositions to be more definitive than glass in distinguishing one tephra from another; oxides from the Kaguyak caldera-forming event are so compositionally coherent that they have been used as internal standards throughout this study. Other than the Novarupta and Trident eruptions of the last century, the youngest locally derived tephra is associated with emplacement of the Snowy Mountain summit dome ( 6 ka), two tephras (∼3,700 and ∼2,700 14C years B.P.), and a summit scoria cone with a crater still steaming today. Mount Katmai has three times produced very large explosive plinian to sub-plinian events (in 1912; 12–16 ka; and 23 ka) and many smaller pyroclastic deposits show that explosive activity has long been common there. Mount Griggs, fumarolically active and moderately productive during postglacial time (mostly andesitic lavas), has three nested summit craters, two of which are on top of a Holocene central cone. Only one ash has been found that is (tentatively) correlated with the most recent eruptive activity on Griggs (<3,460 14C years B.P.). Eruptions from other volcanoes NE and SW beyond the Katmai cluster represented in this area include: (1) coignimbrite ash from Kaguyak’s caldera-forming event (5,800 14C years B.P.); (2) the climactic event from Fisher caldera (∼9,100 14C years B.P.—tentatively correlated); (3) at least three eruptions most likely from Mount Peulik (∼700, ∼7,700 and ∼8,500 14C years B.P.); and (4) a phreatic fallout most likely from the Gas Rocks (∼2,300 14C years B.P.). Most of the radiocarbon dating has been done on loess, soil and peat enclosing this tephra. Ash correlations supported by stratigraphy and microprobe data are combined with radiocarbon dating to show that variably organics-bearing substrates can provide reliable limiting ages for ash layers, especially when data for several sites is available.

Variability of the eruption dynamics during a Subplinian event: the Greenish Pumice eruption of Somma–Vesuvius (Italy)

Subplinian eruptions are generally characterized by unsteadiness in magma discharge, which is reflected in the formation of strongly oscillating convective columns. As a result, the pyroclastic fall deposits show clear grain size stratification, and are frequently interlayered with small-volume pyroclastic density currents. The causes of this pulsatory behavior are at present not well understood, and represent one of the most interesting topics for future research in explosive volcanism. The Greenish Pumice (16 020±130 yr BP) is one of the higher magnitude Subplinian eruptions of Somma–Vesuvius and shows an alternation of pyroclastic fall and flow deposits. Given their complexity, the deposits were subdivided into seven lapilli beds, five ash beds, and deposits derived from pyroclastic density currents. The stratigraphic sequence records the transition from an initial phase of quasi-steady discharge resulting in a Subplinian convective column to phases of more discontinuous, pulsating activity, with the formation of Vulcanian to Subplinian plumes. Juvenile clasts have low phenocryst contents and exhibit a broad range in color, vesicularity, and groundmass crystallinity throughout the eruptive sequence. The density of juvenile fragments shows a broad range within each single layer, ranging from 0.4 to 2 g/cm 3. Maximum lithics in the lapilli layers suggest column heights between 17 and 20 km (mass discharge rate from 1.5 to 3×10 7 kg/s). Volume estimates based on proximal and medial deposits give a very conservative value of 0.47 km 3 that, based on thickness data at two distal sites, can be expanded to a volume up to three times larger, greater than the typical values of mid-intensity eruptions at Somma–Vesuvius. We suggest that the complex dynamics of the Greenish Pumice (GP) eruption are related to syn-eruptive viscosity gradients in the rising magma, induced by an important, degassing related, groundmass crystallization during ascent along the conduit. Phreatomagmatic activity did not play a major role in the eruption dynamics.

New insights into the 1999 eruption of Shishaldin volcano, Alaska, based on acoustic data

Data collected by a pressure sensor provide new insights into the 1999 eruption of Shishaldin volcano, Unimak Island, Alaska. On 19 April 1999, after 3 months of unrest and an extended period of low-level Strombolian activity, Shishaldin experienced a Subplinian eruption (ash plume to >16 km), followed by several episodes of strong Strombolian explosions. Acoustic data from the pressure sensor allow us to investigate the details of an eruption which was instrumentally well recorded, but with few visual observations. In the 12 h prior to the Subplinian phase, the pressure sensor detected a series of small, repeated pulses with a constant spectral peak at 2- 3 Hz. The amplitude and occurrence rate of the pulses both grew such that the signal became a nearly continuous hum just before the Subplinian eruption. This humming signal may represent gas release from rising magma. The main Subplinian phase was heralded by (1) the abrupt end of the humming signal, (2) several pulses of low- frequency sound interpreted as ash bursts, and (3) a dramatic increase in seismic tremor amplitude. The change in acoustic signature at this time allows us to precisely time the start of the Subplinian eruption, previously approximated as the time of strongest tremor increase. The 50-min Subplinian phase actually contained several bursts of signal, each of which may represent a discrete volume of magma passing through the system. Following the Subplinian event, the pressure sensor recorded four discrete episodes of Strombolian gas explosions on 19-20 April and another on 22-23 April. Four of the five episodes were accompanied by strong seismic tremor; the fifth has not been previously recog- nized and was not associated with anomalous tremor amplitudes. In time series these events are similar to explosions recorded at other volcanoes but in general they are much larger, with maximum amplitudes of >65 Pa at 6.5 km from the vent, and they have low (0.7-1.5 Hz) peak frequencies. These large explosions occurred at rates of 3-20 per minute for 1-5 h in each episode. The explosions were accompanied by a small (<5 km above sea level) ash plume and only minor amounts of ejecta were produced. Thus, the explosion activity was domi- nated by gas release.

Stratigraphic framework of Holocene volcaniclastic deposits, Akutan Volcano, east-central Aleutian Islands, Alaska

Akutan Volcano is one of the most active volcanoes in the Aleutian arc, but until recently little was known about its history and eruptive character. Following a brief but sustained period of intense seismic activity in March 1996, the Alaska Volcano Observatory began investigating the geology of the volcano and evaluating potential volcanic hazards that could affect residents of Akutan Island. During these studies new information was obtained about the Holocene eruptive history of the volcano on the basis of stratigraphic studies of volcaniclastic deposits and radiocarbon dating of associated buried soils and peat. A black, scoria-bearing, lapilli tephra, informally named the "Akutan tephra," is up to 2 m thick and is found over most of the island, primarily east of the volcano summit. Six radiocarbon ages on the humic fraction of soil A-horizons beneath the tephra indicate that the Akutan tephra was erupted approximately 1611 years B.P. At several locations the Akutan tephra is within a conformable stratigraphic sequence of pyroclastic-flow and lahar deposits that are all part of the same eruptive sequence. The thickness, widespread distribution, and conformable stratigraphic association with overlying pyroclastic-flow and lahar deposits indicate that the Akutan tephra likely records a major eruption of Akutan Volcano that may have formed the present summit caldera. Noncohesive lahar and pyroclastic-flow deposits that predate the Akutan tephra occur in the major valleys that head on the volcano and are evidence for six to eight earlier Holocene eruptions. These eruptions were strombolian to subplinian events that generated limited amounts of tephra and small pyroclastic flows that extended only a few kilometers from the vent. The pyroclastic flows melted snow and ice on the volcano flanks and formed lahars that traveled several kilometers down broad, formerly glaciated valleys, reaching the coast as thin, watery, hyperconcentrated flows or water floods. Slightly cohesive lahars in Hot Springs valley and Long valley could have formed from minor flank collapses of hydrothermally altered volcanic bedrock. These lahars may be unrelated to eruptive activity.

The Ottaviano eruption of Somma-Vesuvio (8000 y B.P.): a magmatic alternating fall and flow-forming eruption

The Ottaviano eruption occurred in the late neolithic (8000 y B.P.). 2.40 km 3 of phonolitic pyroclastic material (0.61 km 3 DRE) were emplaced as pyroclastic flow, surge and fall deposits. The eruption began with a fall phase, with a model column height of 14 km, producing a pumice fall deposit (LA). This phase ended with short-lived weak explosive activity, giving rise to a fine-grained deposit (L1), passing to pumice fall deposits as the result of an increasing column height and mass discharge rate. The subsequent two fall phases (producing LB and LC deposits), had model column heights of 20 and 22 km with eruption rates of 2.5 × 10 7 and 2.81 × 10 7 kg/s, respectively. These phases ended with the deposition of ash layers (L2 and L3), related to a decreasing, pulsing explosive activity. The values of dynamic parameters calculated for the eruption classify it as a sub-plinian event. Each fall phase was characterized by variations in the eruptive intensity, and several pyroclastic flows were emplaced (F1 to F3). Alternating pumice and ash fall beds record the waning of the eruption. Finally, owing to the collapse of a eruptive column of low gas content, the last pyroclastic flow (F4) was emplaced.