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Correlation of cycles in Lava Lake motion and degassing at Erebus Volcano, Antarctica

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Repository DOI


Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Killingsworth, DR 
Frechette, J 
Kyle, P 

Abstract

jats:titleAbstract</jats:title>jats:pSeveral studies at Erebus volcano have recorded pulsatory behavior in many of the observable properties of its active lava lake. A strong correlation between the variations in surface speed of the lake and the composition of gas emitted has previously been noted. While previous studies have shown that the SOjats:sub2</jats:sub> flux and the surface elevation exhibit pulsatory behavior with a similar period to that of the surface speed and gas composition, suggesting they are linked, a lack of overlap between the different measurements has prevented direct comparisons from being made. Using high time‐resolution measurements of surface elevation, surface speed, gas composition, and SOjats:sub2</jats:sub> flux, we demonstrate for the first time an unambiguous link between the cyclic behavior in each of these properties. We also show that the variation in gas composition may be explained by a subtle change in oxygen fugacity. The cycles are found to be in‐phase with each other, with a small but consistent lag of 1–3 min between the peaks in surface elevation and surface speed. Explosive events are found to have no observable effect on the pulsatory behavior beyond the ∼5 min period required for lake refill. The close correspondences between the varying lake surface motion, gas flux and composition, and modeled oxygen fugacity suggest strong links between magma degassing, redox change, and the fluid dynamics of the shallow magmatic system.</jats:p>

Description

Keywords

lava lake, Erebus volcano, thermal imaging, DOAS

Journal Title

Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1525-2027
1525-2027

Volume Title

15

Publisher

American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Sponsorship
NERC (via University of Leeds) (GA/13M/031)
European Research Council (202844)