Abstract
Morphometric analyses are based on multiparametric data sets that describe quantitatively the shapes of objects. The stochastic nature of fracture formation processes that break up magma during explosive eruptions yields mixtures of particles that have highly varied shapes. In volcanology, morphometric analysis is applied to these mixtures of particles with diverse shapes for two purposes: (1) to fingerprint tephra from individual eruptions and use the fingerprints to distinguish among tephra layers and determine their extents and (2) to reconstruct eruption processes, by linking particles formed by known fragmentation processes in experiments with particles from natural pyroclastic deposits. Here, we review the most commonly adopted statistical techniques for morphometric analysis of pyroclasts. We provide sets of objects with different shapes, along with their morphometric data, in order to demonstrate and illustrate the methods. They can be used not only for addressing the processes of fragmentation during explosive eruptions, but also for the characterization of other types of solid particles with complex morphologies.
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Acknowledgements
Louise Steffensen Schmidt is thanked for reading an earlier version of the manuscript. We thank Adrian Hornby and an anonymous reviewer, as well as associate editor Benjamin Andrews, for their constructive comments that helped in improving the manuscript. Furthermore, we gratefully acknowledge Sebastian Mueller, Bruce Houghton and Wendy Cockshell for providing the Kīlauea Iki 1959 samples. TD is supported by the Icelandic Research Fund (Rannís), grant Nr. 206527-051.
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TD was supported by the IRF (Rannís) Postdoctoral project grant 206527-051.
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This paper constitutes part of a topical collection: What pyroclasts can tell us.
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Online Resource 1
(.rar) Silhouettes of “artificial” objects and data sets with morphometric parameters used for demonstration. (RAR 3629 kb)
Online Resource 2
(.rar) Silhouettes of “natural” ash silhouettes from the 1959 Kīlauea Iki and the 2012 Havre eruption, as well as data sets with their morphometric parameters. (RAR 161 kb)
Online Resource 3
(.xlsx) Table with principal components for all demonstration silhouettes, before and after “varimax” rotation. (XLSX 12 kb)
Online Resource 4
(.xlsx) Tables showing the results from k-means procedure, applied to data sets “a”, “d” and “e”, using 10 iterations with k = 3 and k = 2. (XLSX 12 kb)
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Dürig, T., Ross, PS., Dellino, P. et al. A review of statistical tools for morphometric analysis of juvenile pyroclasts. Bull Volcanol 83, 79 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-021-01500-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-021-01500-0