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This blog provides commentary on interesting geological events occurring around the world in the context of my own work. This work is, broadly, geological fluid dynamics. The events that I highlight here are those that resonate with my professional life and ideas, and my goal is to interpret them in the context of ideas I've developed in my research. The blog does not represent any particular research agenda. It is written on a personal basis and does not seek to represent the University of Illinois, where I am a professor of geology and physics. Enjoy Geology in Motion! I would be glad to be alerted to geologic events of interest to post here! I hope that this blog can provide current event materials that will make geology come alive.

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Susan Kieffer can be contacted at s1kieffer at gmail.com


Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Villarica volcano, Chile, eruption

Villarica eruption March 3, 2015.
AP Photo/Aton Chile
Villarrica volcano is one of Chile's most active volcanoes. It lies along the crest of the Andes in southern Chile, at the west end of three stratovolcanoes that trend perpendicular to the Andes along a fault. The lava is basaltic-andesite and the eruptions are typical Strombolian eruptions that eject pyroclasts several kilometers into the air and lava flows. In 1964 and 1971 massive lahars accompanied the eruptions because of rainfall and melted snow and ice. The current eruption began on February 7th and over 4,000 people were evacuated, but most have returned home as of today as the eruption has waned.

Villarrica has a persistent lava lake in the bottom of a summit crater. It is ~40 m diameter, and in the early 2000's, it ranged from about 20-100 m below the summit crater rim.  In 2004, abundances of gases were measured by Shinohara and Witter, and found to consist of H2O, CO2 and SO2. The gas emissions were the same in the continuous emissions as in lava spattering events, suggesting that the degassing occurs at very shallow levels and that the lava spattering is caused by the bursting of bubbles formed under equilibrium conditions in the magma.
     In 2000, in response to a regional seismic event, the eruption of a small volume of lava apparently plugged the conduit (Ortiz et al., 2003) on September 22. On October 5 and 8, a series of explosions reopened the conduit. Ortiz et al. found that the frequency of the harmonic tremor caused a shift in the peak frequency of the tremor from 1 Hz (open conduit) to 2 Hz (closed conduit). (Aside: This is interesting because it is the opposite of normal pipe behavior for which open pipe frequencies are twice the closed pipe frequencies.)
     In a textural and geophysical study conducted over a 10-day period in 2004, Gurioli et al (2008) found two types of pyroclasts: scoria and "golden pumice." They have identical glass compositions, but different textures, and the authors concluded that they underwent different histories in the conduit.  They interpreted the golden pumice as rising in the expanding inner part of the eruptive jet, and the scoria as forming the outer portion of the jet.  The scoria was entrained during passage of fresh material (that became the golden pumice) through older material in the upper portion of the conduit.

References:

Shinohara and Witter, Geophysical Research Letters, 32(20), L20308, 5 pages, 2005
Ortiz, et al., Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 128 (1-3), pp. 247-259, 2003.
Gurioli, et al., Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 113(B8), B08206, 2008.

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