Monitoring Gas Emissions of Active Volcanoes
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
MONITORING GAS EMISSIONS OF ACTIVE VOLCANOES Identification of natural degassing variations and combination of volcano monitoring techniques DISSERTATION ZUR ERLANGUNG DES DOKTORGRADES AN DER MATHEMATISCH-NATURWISSENSCHAFTLICHEN FAKULTÄT DER CHRISTIAN-ALBRECHTS-UNIVERSITÄT ZU KIEL VORGELEGT VON STEFAN BREDEMEYER KIEL, 2016 I Erste/r Gutachter/in: PD Dr. T.H Hansteen Zweite/r Gutachter/in: Prof. Dr. C. Devey Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 20. Februar 2017 Zum Druck genehmigt: 20. Februar 2017 II Hiermit erkläre ich, dass ich die vorliegende Doktorarbeit selbständig und ohne Zuhilfenahme unerlaubter Hilfsmittel erstellt habe. Weder diese noch eine ähnliche Arbeit wurde an einer anderen Hochschule im Rahmen eines Prüfungsverfahrens vorgelegt, veröffentlicht oder zur Veröffentlichung vorgelegt. Ferner versichere ich, dass die Arbeit unter Einhaltung der Regeln guter wissenschaftlicher Praxis der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft entstanden ist. Kiel, Dezember 2016 Stefan Bredemeyer III . consider the notion of periodicity. The general recurrences of things are very obvious in our ordinary experience. Days recur, lunar phases recur, the seasons of the year recur, rotating bodies recur to their old positions, beats of the heart recur, breathing recurs. On every side, we are met by recurrence. Apart from recurrence, knowledge would be impossible; for nothing could be referred to our past experience. Also, apart from some regularity of recurrence, measurement would be impossible. In our experience, as we gain the idea of exactness, recurrence is fundamental. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the theory of periodicity took a fundamental place in science. Kepler devined a law connecting the major axes of the planetary orbits with the periods in which.the planets respectively described their orbits: Galileo observed the periodic vibrations of pendulums: Newton explained sound as being due to the disturbance of air by the passage through it of periodic waves of condensation and rarefaction: . The birth of modern physics depended upon the application of the abstract idea of periodicity to a variety of concrete instances. Alfred North Whitehead (1925) IV ________________________________________________________________________________________PREFACE PREFACE This cumulative thesis is based on five manuscripts, which are complemented by an introduction to the overarching topic volcano monitoring, including a short overview of volcano surveillance methods used in the presented interdisciplinary studies (Chapter I). Four of the manuscripts have been published in peer- reviewed scientific journals (Chapters II-V), while the last one still is in preparation for submission (Chapter VI). Each of these Chapters thus contains its own abstract, introduction, description of the geological setting of the working area, presentation of results, discussion of the results, and conclusions. The contributions of the authors, which were involved in the preparation of the manuscripts, are indicated below along with short summaries of the methods applied in Chapters II-VI. Details on the acquisition, evaluation and processing of the gas monitoring data recorded in the framework of this thesis are appended to this thesis (Appendix). Chapter II Synchronous degassing patterns of the neighbouring volcanoes Llaima and Villarrica in south central Chile: the influence of tidal forces. ( published 2014 in the International Journal of Earth Sciences (Geologische Rundschau) ) Bredemeyer, S., T. H. Hansteen Chapter II examines periodically recurrent variations in the sulphur dioxide (SO2) degassing rates of Villarrica and Llaima volcanoes in south central Chile and aims at assigning the observed cyclical variations to their likely causes. Continuous long-term measurements of SO2 emission rates were conducted at Villarrica and Llaima by means of permanent stationary scan-DOAS (Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy) instruments and weather hindcasts of the Global Forecast System (GFS). The resulting time series were statistically examined in tandem with Earth tide related vertical ground surface displacements and compared to the local variations in barometric pressure. The analysis of the time series revealed diurnal, weekly, and fortnightly periodicities in degassing activity, which were attributed to changes in barometric pressure and tidal oscillations of Earth’s crust. These results were used to develop a conceptual magma degassing model, in order to explain the observed degassing variations. Contributions: Stefan Bredemeyer and Thor H. Hansteen prepared the paper, which considerably benefited from discussions of the subject with Armin Freundt. Evaluation of SO2 emission rates and statistical analysis of the gas emission data in conjunction with corresponding weather and Earth tides data was conducted by Stefan Bredemeyer. Development of the conceptual magma degassing model was completed by Stefan Bredemeyer. Chapter III SO2 degassing from Turrialba Volcano linked to seismic signatures during the period 2008–2012. ( published 2013 in the International Journal of Earth Sciences (Geologische Rundschau) ) Conde, V., S. Bredemeyer, E. Duarte, Javier F. Pacheco, Sebastian Miranda, Bo Galle, Thor H. Hansteen Chapter III is a rather classical volcano monitoring paper, in which the insights from monitoring data of different proxies for volcanic activity were combined with information from the eruption history and petrological data of Turrialba volcano in Costa Rica. SO2 emission rates from Turrialba were compared to seismicity time series in order to describe and interpret the temporal evolution of the activity during the first five years of a new period of volcanic unrest. The seismicity time series used in this study comprise Real- time Seismic Amplitude Measurements (RSAM), and simple event statistics of different volcanic earthquake types including the number of occurrences of long period (LP), very long period (VLP) and volcano tectonic (VT) earthquakes, as well as the duration of periods with volcanic tremor. Results from the combined statistical analysis of these time series and hypocenter distribution of hybrid earthquakes were used to infer the development of the volcanic activity and locate related processes in the magmatic system. A magma supply rate was deduced from SO2-fluxes and sulphur contents in matrix glass and melt inclusions in phenocrysts of Turrialba tephras, measured by electron microprobe analysis. V _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Contributions: Vladimir Conde and Stefan Bredemeyer authored the paper and were supervised by Bo Galle and Thor H. Hansteen in the process of writing. Evaluation of the SO2-fluxes and statistical analysis of the gas emission data in conjunction with complementary seismic data was performed by Vladimir Conde. Eliecer Duarte, Javier F. Pacheco, and Sebastian Miranda provided the complementary seismic data and first-hand observations of the volcanic activity. Electron microprobe analysis was conducted by Heidi Wehrmann. Volcanological interpretation of the data was largely completed by Stefan Bredemeyer. Chapter IV Linking SO2 emission rates and seismicity by continuous wavelet transform: implications for volcanic surveillance at San Cristóbal volcano, Nicaragua. ( published 2014 in the International Journal of Earth Sciences (Geologische Rundschau) ) Conde, V., S. Bredemeyer, J. A. Saballos, Bo Galle, T. H. Hansteen Chapter IV explores the merits and limitations of Continuous and Cross Wavelet Transforms (CWT & XWT) as tools for eruption prediction by means of combined analysis of different volcanic activity proxies, using the example of SO2 emission rates and Real-time Seismic Amplitude Measurements (RSAM) from San Cristóbal volcano in Nicaragua. Results from the individual CWT analyses and the combined XWT analysis of the time series were then used to infer the development of the volcanic activity and related magmatic processes at depth. Contributions: Vladimir Conde wrote much of the manuscript and was assisted by Stefan Bredemeyer,·J. Armando Saballos,·Bo Galle,·and Thor H. Hansteen. Vladimir Conde evaluated the SO2 emission rates and Armando Saballos provided the RSAM data. Vladimir Conde carried out the statistical analysis and was supported by Stefan Bredemeyer regarding the volcanological interpretation of the data. Chapter V Gas emissions from five volcanoes in northern Chile and implications for the volatiles budget of the Central Volcanic Zone. ( published 2014 in Geophysical Research Letters ) Tamburello, G., T. H. Hansteen, S. Bredemeyer, A. Aiuppa, F. Tassi Chapter V is a classical gas monitoring paper prospecting the gas compositions and SO2 emission rates from five volcanoes in Northern Chile (Láscar, Lastarria, Putana, Ollagüe, and San Pedro), which were used to calculate the total volatiles output of these volcanoes. These results were in turn used to estimate the along arc volatiles budget of the Central Volcanic Zone and compared to the gas chemistry and volatiles output of the Southern Volcanic Zone in Southern Chile. Contributions: Giancarlo Tamburello authored the paper and was supported in the process of writing by the co-authors Thor H. Hansteen, Stefan Bredemeyer, Alessandro Aiuppa, and Franco Tassi. Giancarlo Tamburello performed gas composition measurements using Multi-GAS and filter packs at Láscar and Lastarria volcano, and conducted SO2-flux and wind speed measurements at Putana and Láscar volcanoes by means of