Fuego Volcano Research Articles

Children first: women’s perspectives on evacuation at Fuego volcano and implications for disaster risk reduction

As major drivers of behavior during crisis, cultural norms influence how disasters differentially affect people of different genders. Cultural gender norms also impact how authorities and at-risk populations approach disaster risk reduction strategies. At Fuego volcano, Guatemala, we applied qualitative methods to investigate women’s experiences of the evacuation process after a paroxysmal eruption on 7–8 March 2022. While participants’ experiences and decisions varied, we identified how gender influences evacuation dynamics within communities at Fuego volcano, including who evacuates and who decides at the community and household levels. We find that communities prioritized women for evacuation with the children and elderly in their care, yet prioritized men in the evacuation decision-making; that despite this hierarchy, a woman may override a male partner’s decision in order to prioritize the safety and well-being of her children; and that even if she overcomes social barriers to leaving, she may be unable to evacuate in a timely manner because of lack of transportation—a barrier impacting all residents, but especially women since they are the ones leading their households in evacuation. This gendered evacuation strategy disproportionately leaves men exposed to the threat, since most do not evacuate, and places the burden of evacuation on the women, who leave their homes and likely face the challenges of evacuation with multiple children in their care. This study contributes an example of how gendered norms impact disaster risk reduction strategy at an active volcano and how understanding gendered experiences of evacuation can inform future disaster risk reduction efforts.

Infrasound detection of approaching lahars

Infrasound may be used to detect the approach of hazardous volcanic mudflows, known as lahars, tens of minutes before their flow fronts arrive. We have analyzed signals from more than 20 secondary lahars caused by precipitation events at Fuego Volcano during Guatemala’s rainy season in May through October of 2022. We are able to quantify the capabilities of infrasound monitoring through comparison with seismic data, time lapse camera imagery, and high-resolution video of a well-recorded event on August 17. We determine that infrasound sensors, deployed adjacent to the lahar path and in small-aperture (10 s of meters) arrays, are particularly sensitive to remote detection of lahars, including small-sized events, at distances of at least 5 km. At Fuego Volcano these detections could be used to provide timely alerts of up to 30 min before lahars arrive at a downstream monitoring site, such as in the frequently impacted Ceniza drainage. We propose that continuous infrasound monitoring, from locations adjacent to a drainage, may complement seismic monitoring and serve as a valuable tool to help identify approaching hazards. On the other hand, infrasound arrays located a kilometer or more from the lahar path can be effectively used to track a lahar’s progression.

Unravelling the dynamics and hazards of the June 3rd, 2018, pyroclastic density currents at Fuego volcano (Guatemala)

The June 3rd, 2018, eruption of Fuego volcano (Guatemala) produced a complex sequence of small-volume pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) that inundated all sectors around the volcano and propagated >12 km on the southeastern flank, deposited ~50 million m3 of pyroclastic material, and killed at least 430 people in the village of San Miguel de Los Lotes and along the RN-14 road. This eruption has illustrated once again that the behavior of small-volume PDCs remains difficult to predict, demonstrating the need for an improved physical understanding of their generation, transport and depositional processes to ultimately improve assessment of their local hazard potential. In this work, we present preliminary results of an interdisciplinary study of the 2018 PDC deposits of Fuego, integrating: (1) field data of the pristine deposit characteristics recorded immediately after the eruption and after one rainy season, (2) sedimentological data (including grain size distributions and componentry) from samples collected at each lobe front and several exposed stratigraphic sections inside three principal ravines draining the volcano and affected by the eruption (Seca, Ceniza and Las Lajas), (3) preliminary quantification of the observed range of different clast surface textures, shape and vesicularities, as determined by SEM analyses, (4) surface morphological data from high-resolution satellite and aerial photography, and (5) advanced digital terrain model analysis correlated with sedimentological data to reconstruct the sequence of events on June 3rd and propose a conceptual model of PDC generation and emplacement on the SE flank of Fuego. In this model, a sequence of packages of material involved in discrete failure events of a perched mass of pyroclastic material accumulated within an old collapse structure on the upper SE flank, corresponds to the emplacement of a series of pulses of valley-confined PDCs down the Las Lajas channel. Headwall failures and gravitational collapses correlate with specific stratigraphic, sedimentological and textural characteristics of the valley-confined PDC units. The duration of individual granular collapse events serves as a proxy for the mobility of the triggered series of PDCs. Also, our detailed stratigraphic work shows evidence of stacked, massive flow units deposited by rapid stepwise aggradation of successive block-and-ash flow (BAF) pulses and their distribution along the southeastern flank supports the interpretation that the June 3rd PDCs, including the dilute parts of the currents, were largely controlled by the topography. The lack of strong changes in the grain size distributions of the fine sub-populations inside the seven valley-confined BAF lobate front units, together with their high content of fines, imply the presence of a self-limiting attrition process, decreasing the bulk porosity of such long-runout BAFs and lowering their effective friction coefficient during transport to reach longer runout distances. This multi-faceted approach completes previous studies already performed on small-volume PDCs at other volcanoes (Merapi, Colima, Unzen) and opens a unique perspective that will provide a significant step forward in our understanding of how such currents are emplaced.

High-altitude vertical wind profile estimation using multirotor vehicles.

Capturing vertical profiles of the atmosphere and measuring wind conditions can be of significant value for weather forecasting and pollution monitoring however, collecting such data can be limited by current approaches using balloon-based radiosondes and expensive ground-based sensors. Multirotor vehicles can be significantly affected by the local wind conditions, and due to their under-actuated nature, the response to the flow is visible in the changes in the orientation. From these changes in orientation, wind speed and direction estimates can be determined, allowing accurate estimation with no additional sensors. In this work, we expand on and improve this method of wind speed and direction estimation and incorporate corrections for climbing flight to improve estimation during vertical profiling. These corrections were validated against sonic anemometer data before being used to gather vertical profiles of the wind conditions around Volcan De Fuego in Guatemala up to altitudes of 3000m Above Ground Level (AGL). From the results of this work, we show we can improve the accuracy of multirotor wind estimation in vertical profiling through our improved model and some of the practical limitations of radiosondes that can be overcome through the use of UAS in this application.

Stories of decolonial resilience

ABSTRACT Many scholars, analysts and commentators have noted that the neoliberal conjuncture has seen the rise of a veritable explosion of discourses and theories of resilience. Some regard this discursive and narrative profusion as integral to the ongoing project of a neoliberal ‘worlding’ that seeks to reconfigure all aspects of human subjectivities and social relations. Meanwhile, the ongoing outpouring of neoliberal discourses and narratives of resilience is accompanied by the expansion of disasterscapes across the planet as we speed apparently toward what the Caribbean scholar Sylvia Wynter calls an ‘unparalleled catastrophe for our species’. Some of these expanding disasterscapes are emerging across the terrain of a five-hundred-year history of genocidal and appropriative colonial practices. The people and communities inhabiting these disasterscapes have been struggling to develop counter-praxes of collective cultural resilience and survival in the face of the many catastrophes wrought over the centuries by coloniality. We turn to Wynter’s concept of homo narrans to examine Indigenous praxes for the performative enactment of alternative genres of the human that contest the worlding of neoliberal discourses and apparatuses of resilience. Wynter’s contributions to the de-universalization and thus relativization of Eurocentric ‘Man’ aim to make the present proliferation of the genres of humanity, our storytelling species, culturally intelligible in ways that might not only undercut the work done by neoliberal discourses of resilience toward the production of disastrous consequences in places like Guatemala and the obliteration of our capacities to imagine the world otherwise, but perhaps even ward off the potentially impending ‘unparalleled catastrophe for our species’. This paper draws on our ongoing research in Guatemala, which involves Indigenous and poor ladino survivors of the 2018 eruption of the Fuego Volcano, as well as survivors of the 2005 landslide that followed Hurricane Stan.

Statistical earthquake characterization from relocated seismicity at Volcan de Fuego, Colima Western Mexico

The Gutenberg–Richter law and the fragment asperity model have been used in different active volcanoes or geothermal zones to analyze the manner in which seismicity evolves in these environments. Different volcanoes exhibit different behavior on their seismicity statistical features. Seismicity variations have been associated with changes in the state of stress, or with heterogeneity in material properties. Quantifying and interpreting the seismicity reported at currently active Colima volcano has been challenging, even though it is of critical importance for evaluating the hazard it poses to the nearby population centers. In this work, the frequency-magnitude distribution was spatially mapped beneath the Colima Volcano in Western Mexico using an earthquake catalog of 1192 relocated events that occurred during March 1998–December 1999, April–July 2005, and October–December 2009. Zones of high seismic b-values (> 3.0) are found at depths of 0 to 2.1 km a.s.l. below the crater. The anomalies are statistically significant based on Utsu's p-test. We found evidence to relate high b-value anomalies with the movement of magmatic fluids and/or high rock heterogeneity due to the local stress regime. Stress inversion results showed that the seismicity reflects an extensional stress regime. Our interpretation is supported by structural geology information. Orientation of the principal axes is consistent with the E-W-trending fault system at the Colima Volcanic Complex. Using the fragment asperity model, we found that a q-value of 1.21 is able to model the relocated frequency size distribution. The calculated q-values at Colima volcano and other volcanic zones (Yellowstone Park volcanic field, El Hierro, and Santorini volcanoes) exhibit a lower numerical value (0.5 < q < 1.6) than those reported as representative average values in different geological environments (q = 1.6–1.7). We discovered that q-values in volcanic regions are lower than typical values reported worldwide. We infer that the q-values at Colima Volcano are related to areas of increased crack density, high pore pressure, or both, related to the presence of nearby magma bodies.

Deposit‐Derived Block‐and‐Ash Flows: The Hazard Posed by Perched Temporary Tephra Accumulations on Volcanoes; 2018 Fuego Disaster, Guatemala

AbstractThe impact of hazardous pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) increases with runout distance, which is strongly influenced by the mass flux. This article shows that the mass flux of a PDC may derive not only from vent discharge during the eruption, but also from partly hot, temporary stores (accumulations) of aerated pyroclastic material perched high on the volcano. The unforeseen PDC at Fuego volcano (Guatemala) on 3 June 2018 happened c.1.5 hr after the eruption climax. It overran the village of San Miguel Los Lotes causing an estimated 400+ fatalities. Analysis of the facies architecture of the deposit combined with video footage shows that a pulsatory block‐and‐ash flow flowed down the Las Lajas valley and rapidly waxed, the runout briefly increasing to 12.2 km as it filled and then spilled out of river channels, entered a second valley where it devastated the village and became increasingly erosive, prior to waning. Paleomagnetic analysis shows that the PDC contained only 6% very hot (&gt;590°C) clasts, 39% moderately hot (∼200°C–500°C) clasts, and 51% cool (&lt;200°C) clasts. This reveals that the block‐and‐ash flow mostly derived from collapse of loose and partly hot pyroclastic deposits, stored high on the volcano, gradually accumulated during the last 2–3 years. Progressive collapse of unstable deposits supplied the block‐and‐ash flow, causing a bulk‐up process, waxing flow, channel overspill and unexpected runout. The study demonstrates that deposit‐derived pyroclastic currents from perched temporary tephra stores pose a particular hazard that is easy to overlook and requires a new, different approach to hazard assessment and monitoring.

Rapid Scan Visible Imagery from the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) at 2.5-Minute Intervals

AbstractThe Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) is an instrument designed to continuously monitor lightning. It is on the GOES-16 and GOES-17 satellites, viewing much of the Western Hemisphere equatorward of 55°. Besides recording lightning-flash information, it transmits background visible-band images of its field of view every 2.5 min. The background images are not calibrated or geolocated, and they only have ~10-km grid spacing, but their 2.5-min sampling can potentially fill temporal gaps between full-disk imagery from the GOES satellites’ Advanced Baseline Imager. This paper applies an initial calibration and geolocation of the GLM background images and focuses on animations for two cases: a volcanic eruption in Guatemala and a severe thunderstorm complex in Argentina. Those locations typically have 10-min intervals between full-disk scans. Prior to April 2019, the interval was 15 min. Despite coarse horizontal resolution, the rapid updates from GLM background images appear to be useful in these cases. The 3 June 2018 eruption of Fuego Volcano appears in the GLM background imagery as an initial darkening of the pixels very near the volcano and then an outward expansion of the dark ash cloud. The GLM background imagery lacks horizontal textural detail but compensates for this lack with temporal detail. The ash cloud resembles a dark blob steadily expanding from frame to frame. Animation of the severe thunderstorm scene reveals vertical wind shear, with northerly low-level flow across a growing cumulus field and west-northwesterly upper-level flow at anvil level. Convective initiation is seen, as are propagating outflow boundaries and overshooting convective cloud tops.

Modeling source parameters of quasi-periodic tremor

Modeling harmonic tremor recorded at volcanoes is an essential practice in improving eruption forecasting methods and warning systems. We model the conduit dynamics of quasi-periodic tremor (chugging) recorded at Karymsky, Tungurahua, and Fuego volcanoes to estimate its source characteristics. Chugging mechanisms are estimated using two theoretical models originally derived in Garce?s [1997, doi: 10.1029/1999JB900096] and Girona et al. [2019, doi: 10.1029/2019JB017482], respectively. Comparisons of the conduit and fluid output parameters suggests that chugging is primarily limited to near-surface oscillations and outgassing due to an accumulation of gas between eruptive episodes. The modeled results indicate clustered release of volatiles exsolved from a deeper magma conduit region, triggered by an initial explosion. This interpretation is consistent with both infrasonic and seismic observations at each volcano.

Characterization of Acoustic Infrasound Signals at Volcán de Fuego, Guatemala: A Baseline for Volcano Monitoring

Monitoring volcanic unrest and understanding seismic and acoustic signals associated with eruptive activity is key to mitigate its impacts on population and infrastructure. On June 3, 2018, Volcan de Fuego, Guatemala, produced a violent eruption with very little warning. The paroxysmal phase of this event generated pyroclastic density currents (PDC) that impacted nearby settlements resulting in 169 fatalities, 256 missing, and nearly 13,000 permanently displaced from their homes. Since then, Volcan de Fuego has been instrumented with an extensive network of seismic and infrasound sensors. Infrasound is a new monitoring tool in Guatemala. A key step toward its effective use in volcano monitoring at Volcan de Fuego is establishing a baseline for the interpretation of the recorded signals. Here, we present the first comprehensive characterization of acoustic signals at Volcan de Fuego for the whole range of surface activity observed at the volcano. We use data collected during temporary deployments in 2018 and from the permanent infrasound network. Infrasound at Fuego is dominated by the occurrence of short-duration acoustic transients linked to both ash-rich and gas-rich explosions, at times associated with the generation of shock waves. The rich acoustic record at Fuego includes broadband and harmonic tremor, and episodes of chugging. We explore the occurrence of these signals in relation to visual observations of surface activity, and we investigate their source mechanisms within the shallow conduit system. This study provides a reference for the interpretation of acoustic signals at Volcan de Fuego and a baseline for real-time monitoring of its eruptive activity using infrasound data. Our results suggest that changes in the style of activity and morphology of the summit crater are reflected in the acoustic signature of eruption; as such our study provides a reference for the interpretation of acoustic signals at Volcan de Fuego and a baseline for real-time monitoring of its eruptive activity using infrasound.

Magma Pressure-Temperature-Time Paths During Mafic Explosive Eruptions

We have constrained syneruptive pressure-temperature-time (P-T-t) paths of mafic magmas using a combination of short-timescale cooling and decompression chronometers. Recent work has shown that the thermal histories of crystals in the last few seconds to hours of eruption can be constrained using concentration gradients of MgO inside olivine-hosted melt inclusions, produced in response to syneruptive cooling and crystallization of olivine on the inclusion walls. We have applied this technique to the study of melt inclusions erupted by arc and ocean island volcanoes, including the 1974 subplinian eruption of Fuego volcano; the 1977 fire-fountain eruption of Seguam volcano; and three eruptions of Kilauea volcano (episode 1 of the 1959 Kilauea Iki fire-fountain eruption, the 1500 CE vigorous fire-fountain eruption, and the 1650 CE subplinian eruption). Of the eruptions studied so far, melt inclusions from the 1959 Kilauea Iki eruption record the highest syneruptive cooling rates (3–11°C/s) and the shortest cooling durations (4–19 s), while inclusions from the 1974 Fuego eruption record the slowest cooling rates (0.1–1.7°C/s) and longest cooling durations (21–368 s). The high cooling rates inferred for the Kilauea Iki and Seguam fire fountain eruptions are consistent with air quenching over tens of seconds during and after fragmentation and eruption. Melt inclusions sampled from the interiors of small (∼6 cm diameter) volcanic bombs at Fuego are found to have cooled more slowly on average than inclusions sampled from ash (with particle diameters < 2 mm) during the same eruption, as expected based on conductive cooling models. We find evidence for a systematic relationship between cooling rates and decompression rates of magmas, in which rapidly ascending gas-bearing magmas experience slower cooling during ascent and eruption than slowly ascending magmas. Our magma P-T-t constraints for the Kilauea Iki eruption are in broad agreement with isentropic models that show that the dominant driver of cooling in the conduit is adiabatic expansion of a vapor phase; however, at Fuego and Seguam, our results suggest a significant role for latent heat production and/or open-system degassing (both of which violate assumptions required for isentropic ascent). We thereby caution against the application of isentropic conduit models to magmas containing relatively high initial water concentrations (e.g., arc magmas containing ∼4 wt% water). We note that several processes that have been inferred to occur in volcanic conduits such as magma stalling, magma mingling, open- and closed-system degassing, vapor fluxing, and vapor accumulation (in foam layers or as slugs of gas) are associated with different implied vapor volume fractions during syneruptive ascent. Given the sensitivity of magma P-T-t paths to vapor volume fraction, the syneruptive thermometer presented here may be a means of identifying these processes during the seconds to hours preceding the eruption of mafic magmas.

Using TanDEM-X to measure pyroclastic flow source location, thickness and volume: Application to the 3rd June 2018 eruption of Fuego volcano, Guatemala

The estimation of the volume of volcanic flows during an ongoing eruption is challenging but this information is crucial for improving risk assessment and for forecasting future events. Although previous studies have shown the ability of TanDEM-X satellite data to derive the thickness and the volume of lava flow fields during effusive eruptions, the method has not been explored yet for pyroclastic flows. Using bi-static interferometry, we produce TanDEM-X DEM on Fuego volcano (Guatemala) to measure the significant topographic changes caused by the 3rd June 2018 eruption, which destroyed the town of San Miguel Los Lotes. We estimate the volume of the Pyroclastic Density Currents (PDCs) to be 15.1 ± 4.2 × 106 m3. The deposits are likely to be the source of lahars during future rainy seasons. We identify the main channel of deposition (positive elevation changes) and the source region of pyroclastic material, areas of significant substrate erosion, and vegetation destruction (negative elevation changes). Our results show that the June 3rd 2018 pyroclastic flow was predominantly composed of material which had gravitationally collapsed from a location close to the vent. The eroded material increased the volume of the flow (bulking) and likely caused the run-out distance of the 2018 PDC to be larger than previous eruptions (1999–2017). This study highlights the potential of remote sensing techniques for actively monitoring topography changes in inaccessible locations and to rapidly derive deposit volumes.

Pyroclastic Density Current Hazard Assessment and Modeling Uncertainties for Fuego Volcano, Guatemala

On 3 June 2018, Fuego volcano experienced a VEI = 3 eruption, which produced a pyroclastic density current (PDC) that devastated the La Réunion resort and the community of Los Lotes, resulting in over 100 deaths. To evaluate the potential hazard to the population centers surrounding Fuego associated with future PDC emplacement, we used an integrated remote sensing and flow modeling-based approach. The predominate PDC travel direction over the past 15 years was investigated using thermal infrared (TIR) data from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument validated with ground reports from the National Institute of Seismology, Volcanology, Meteorology, and Hydrology (INSIVUMEH), the government agency responsible for monitoring. Two different ASTER-derived digital elevation model (DEM) products with varying levels of noise were also used to assess the uncertainty in the VolcFlow model results. Our findings indicate that the recent historical PDC travel direction is dominantly toward the south and southwest. Population centers in this region of Fuego that are within ~2 km of one of the volcano’s radial barrancas are at the highest risk during future large eruptions that produce PDCs. The ASTER global DEM (GDEM) product has the least random noise and where used with the VolcFlow model, had a significant improvement on its accuracy. Results produced longer flow runout distances and therefore better conveys a more accurate perception of risk. Different PDC volumes were then modeled using the GDEM and VolcFlow to determine potential inundation areas in relation to local communities.

Transporting Children to Safety After Volcanic Eruption

The Fuego volcano eruption near Guatemala City, Guatemala, on June 3, 2018, left more than 150 dead and hundreds more injured or missing. Local officials quickly identified a need for burn care among the injured and asked the international community for assistance. By the morning of June 4, members of the U.S. Army's Burn Flight Team were placed on high alert in preparation for an evacuation mission to bring injured Guatemalans to the United States for specialized burn care. The mission required seven RNs, three respiratory therapists, a burn surgeon, two intensivists, an anesthesiologist, and an operations officer in order to successfully evacuate six critically injured pediatric burn patients to the Shriners Hospitals for Children-Galveston in Galveston, Texas. This article describes details of each stage of the mission and includes a discussion of key aspects of logistics and patient care posed by such evacuations.

Vapor-bubble growth in olivine-hosted melt inclusions

Abstract Melt inclusions record the depth of magmatic processes, magma degassing paths, and volatile budgets of magmas. Extracting this information is a major challenge. It requires determining melt volatile contents at the time of entrapment when working with melt inclusions that have suffered post-entrapment modifications. Several processes decrease internal melt inclusion pressure, resulting in nucleation and growth of a vapor bubble and, time permitting, diffusion of volatiles (especially CO2) into the vapor bubble. Previous studies have shown how this process may lead to most of the CO2 in the bulk melt inclusion being lost to the bubble. Without reconstruction, most of the melt inclusion data in the literature vastly underestimate the CO2 concentrations of magmas by measuring the glass phase only. Methods exist that attempt to reconstruct the entrapped CO2 contents, but they can be difficult to apply and do not always yield consistent results. Here, we explore bubble growth, evaluate CO2 reconstruction approaches, and develop improved experimental and computational approaches. Piston-cylinder experiments were conducted on olivine-hosted melt inclusions from Seguam (Alaska, U.S.A.) and Fuego (Guatemala) volcanoes at the following conditions: 500–800 MPa, 1140–1200 °C for Seguam and 1110–1140 °C for Fuego, 4–8 wt% H2O in the KBr brine filling the experimental capsules, and run durations of 10–120 min. Heated melt inclusions form well-defined S-CO2 trends consistent with degassing models. CO2 contents are enriched by a factor of ~2.5, on average, relative to those of the glasses in unheated melt inclusions, whereas S contents of heated and unheated melt inclusion glasses overlap, indicating that insignificant amounts of S partition into the vapor bubble. For naturally quenched melt inclusions, relatively low closure temperatures for CO2 diffusion enables some CO2 to enter vapor bubbles during quench, whereas higher closure temperatures for S diffusion limits its loss to vapor bubbles. We evaluate the timescales of post-entrapment processes and use the results to develop a new computational model to restore entrapped CO2 contents: melt inclusion modification corrections (MIMiC). Heated melt inclusion data are used as a benchmark to evaluate the results from MIMiC and other published methods of CO2 reconstruction. The methods perform variably well. Key advantages to our experimental technique are accurate measurements of CO2 contents and efficient rehomogenization of large quantities of melt inclusions. Our new computational model produces more accurate results than other computational methods, has similar accuracy to the Raman method of CO2 reconstruction in cases where Raman can be applied (i.e., no C-bearing phases in the bubble), and can be applied to the vast body of published melt inclusion data. To obtain the most robust data on bubble-bearing melt inclusions, we recommend taking both experimental- and MIMiC-based approaches.

Volcano Monitoring from Space Using High-Cadence Planet CubeSat Images Applied to Fuego Volcano, Guatemala

Fuego volcano (Guatemala) is one of the most active and hazardous volcanoes in the world. Its persistent activity generates lava flows, pyroclastic density currents (PDCs), and lahars that threaten the surrounding areas and produce frequent morphological change. Fuego’s eruption deposits are often rapidly eroded or remobilized by heavy rains and its constant activity and inaccessible terrain makes ground-based assessment of recent eruptive deposits very challenging. Earth-orbiting satellites can provide unique observations of volcanoes during eruptive activity, when ground-based techniques may be too hazardous, and also during inter-eruptive phases, but have typically been hindered by relatively low spatial and temporal resolution. Here, we use a new source of Earth observation data for volcano monitoring: high resolution (~3 m pixel size) images acquired from a constellation of over 150 CubeSats (‘Doves’) operated by Planet Labs Inc. The Planet Labs constellation provides high spatial resolution at high cadence (&lt;1–72 h), permitting space-based tracking of volcanic activity with unprecedented detail. We show how PlanetScope images collected before, during, and after an eruption can be applied for mapping ash clouds, PDCs, lava flows, or the analysis of morphological change. We assess the utility of the PlanetScope data as a tool for volcano monitoring and rapid deposit mapping that could assist volcanic hazard mitigation efforts in Guatemala and other active volcanic regions.

Classification of Isolated Volcano-Seismic Events Based on Inductive Transfer Learning

Domain-specific problems where data collection is an expensive task are often represented by scarce or incomplete data. From a machine learning perspective, this type of problems has been addressed using models trained in different specific domains as the starting point for the final objective-model. The transfer of knowledge between domains, known as transfer learning (TL), helps to speed up training and improve the performance of the models in problems with limited amounts of data. In this letter, we introduce a TL approach to classify isolated volcano-seismic signals at “Volcan de Fuego” , Colima (Mexico). Using the well-known convolutional architecture (LeNet) as a feature extractor and a representative data set containing regional earthquakes, volcano-tectonic earthquakes, long-period events, volcanic tremors, explosions, and collapses, our proposal compares the generalization capabilities of the models when we only fine-tune the upper layers and fine-tune overall of them. Compared with the other state-of-the-art techniques, classification systems based on TL approaches provide good generalization capabilities (attaining nearly 94% of events correctly classified) and decreasing computational time resources.

Characteristics of Repeating Long‐Period Seismic Events at Fuego Volcano, January 2012

AbstractWe describe a suite of repeating long‐period seismic events at Fuego volcano in Guatemala. These events, recorded on a temporary network over a period of 8 days during January 2012, did not occur with any visibly or audibly detectable emissions from the volcano. Events are separated into families based on different correlation coefficient thresholds. A correlation coefficient threshold of 0.70 yields two families with 123 events and 25 events, respectively. These two event families share enough common features that if the correlation coefficient threshold is 0.65, the families merge and grow to include an additional 226 events. The short duration and frequency content concentrated below 2 Hz of the second family allow us to create a phase‐weighted stack which we then inverted for source mechanism and location using unconstrained full‐waveform moment‐tensor inversion. The eigenvalue decompositions of the best‐fit models indicate the source is a crack with some volume change. The short duration of the modeled source time function and the slight variability of signal shape within the suite of repeating events indicate the events are caused by rapid pressurization of cracks or series of connected cracks. The interevent times of these events appear clustered, indicating driving processes more complex than continual degassing of magma in the conduit would allow. Better understanding of these events may shed light on processes not captured by real‐time seismic amplitude measurements or gas flux measurements alone.

Determination of Primary and Secondary Lahar Flow Paths of the Fuego Volcano (Guatemala) Using Morphometric Parameters

On 3 June 2018, a strong eruption of the Fuego volcano in Guatemala produced a dense cloud of 10-km-high volcanic ash and destructive pyroclastic flows that caused nearly 200 deaths and huge economic losses in the region. Subsequently, due to heavy rains, destructive secondary lahars were produced, which were not plotted on the hazard maps using the LAHAR Z software. In this work we propose to complement the mapping of this type of lahars using remote-sensing (Differential Interferometry, DINSAR) in Sentinel images 1A and 2A, to locate areas of deformation of the relief on the flanks of the volcano, areas that are possibly origin of these lahars. To determine the trajectory of the lahars, parameters and morphological indices were analyzed with the software System for Automated Geoscientific Analysis (SAGA). The parameters and morphological indices used were the accumulation of flow (FCC), the topographic wetness index (TWI), the length-magnitude factor of the slope (LS). Finally, a slope stability analysis was performed using the Shallow Landslide Susceptibility software (SHALSTAB) based on the Mohr–Coulomb theory and its parameters: internal soil saturation degree and effective precipitation, parameters required to destabilize a hillside. In this case, the application of this complementary methodology provided a more accurate response of the areas destroyed by primary and secondary lahars in the vicinity of the volcano.

Initial constraints on triggering mechanisms of the eruption of Fuego volcano (Guatemala) from 3 June 2018 using IASI satellite data

On 3 June 2018 Volcán de Fuego (Guatemala) erupted explosively with unusual intensity, producing wide-spread ash dispersal and pyroclastic flows of >11 km length, which destroyed a community on Fuego's flanks, causing hundreds of fatalities. Here, we analyze satellite measurements of the SO2 plume emitted during the most intense eruptive phase. Key eruption parameters including the injection height and SO2 flux time-series indicate a degassing intensity at least three orders of magnitude above baseline levels. Our results suggest a steady ~2.5 hour climactic paroxysmal phase of the eruption with a mass eruption rate of ~1.4kg s−1 based on the combination of plume height estimates and an eruption column model, producing 0.03 ± 0.004 km3 of tephra. We detect at least 130 kt of emitted SO2 from satellite images, producing a minimum dissolved magmatic sulfur concentration of 500 ppm. Possible source mechanisms are discussed, which may be useful in assessing the risks posed by future large-magnitude eruptions to the large populations that live on Fuego's flanks. This study shows that even under challenging conditions of a tropical atmosphere during the rainy season, vital eruption parameters to constrain source mechanisms of eruptions can be retrieved from satellite remote sensing data.