Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 377–397, 2020 https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-20-377-2020 © Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Processes culminating in the 2015 phreatic explosion at Lascar volcano, Chile, evidenced by multiparametric data Ayleen Gaete1, Thomas R. Walter1, Stefan Bredemeyer1,2, Martin Zimmer1, Christian Kujawa1, Luis Franco Marin3, Juan San Martin4, and Claudia Bucarey Parra3 1GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany 2GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, 24148 Kiel, Germany 3Observatorio Volcanológico de Los Andes del Sur (OVDAS), Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería (SERNAGEOMIN), Temuco, Chile 4Physics Science Department, Universidad de la Frontera, Casilla 54-D, Temuco, Chile Correspondence: Ayleen Gaete (
[email protected]) Received: 13 June 2019 – Discussion started: 25 June 2019 Accepted: 5 December 2019 – Published: 4 February 2020 Abstract. Small steam-driven volcanic explosions are com- marole on the southern rim of the Lascar crater revealed a mon at volcanoes worldwide but are rarely documented or pronounced change in the trend of the relationship between monitored; therefore, these events still put residents and the CO2 mixing ratio and the gas outlet temperature; we tourists at risk every year. Steam-driven explosions also oc- speculate that this change was associated with the prior pre- cur frequently (once every 2–5 years on average) at Lascar cipitation event. An increased thermal anomaly inside the ac- volcano, Chile, where they are often spontaneous and lack tive crater as observed in Sentinel-2 images and drone over- any identifiable precursor activity.