Publication Date:
2017-04-04
Description:
Active volcanoes can influence surrounding vegetation
both through passive degassing during quiescent periods
and through eruptive degassing, by introducing into
the atmosphere several metals as gases and particles.
The chemical composition of tree-rings has been generally
used to investigate the effects of anthropogenic
gas emissions and dendrochemical methods have successfully
recorded variations in the pollution levels. The
use of tree-rings analysis in active volcanic areas has
shown that vascular plants could be used as archives of
volcanogenic metals deposition. Tree cores of Pinus Nigra
and Populus tremula were collected in sites located
both on the downwind (Citelli and Mt. Fontane sites) and
on the upwind (Mt. Intraleo site) sectors of Mt. Etna in
June 2008. Individual and composited tree-rings were
analyzed by inductively-coupled-plasma mass-spectrometry
for the determination of several trace elements
(As, Cd, Li, Mn, Mo, Ni, Se, Sr, Pb, V). Tree cores were
dated dendrochronologically before analysis, and their
ages date back to 1915. The preliminary results show
that some elements have significant differences in concentration
between the two tree species analyzed, and
in general metals are more concentrated in the samples
from the downwind sites, hence more exposed to crater
gas emissions. Furthermore, the temporal patterns of
metal contents show some evident peaks likely related
to some of the major flank eruptions of the volcano, particularly
those occurred after 1945. This method can be
used in many active volcanoes to reconstruct their past
degassing rate and recognize possible eruptive cycles,
thus helping forecast their future behaviour.
Description:
Published
Description:
Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Description:
1.2. TTC - Sorveglianza geochimica delle aree vulcaniche attive
Description:
open
Keywords:
Mt. Etna
;
tree rings
;
trace metals
;
04. Solid Earth::04.08. Volcanology::04.08.01. Gases
Repository Name:
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
Type:
Poster session
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