Publication Date:
2020-02-12
Description:
Basaltic volcanoes constitute a big portion of the active volcanoes worldwide and their explosive activity,
generally accompanied by eruptive columns formation and pyroclastic fallouts, produced, in the last decades,
several damages on human’s life with great economical and aviation impact (Scollo et al., 2009; Bonaccorso et
al., 2011). Is therefore not surprising the flourishing number of studies devoted to the investigation of the link
between plumbing system dynamics and eruptive style. Basaltic eruptive activity may range in a widespread
spectrum from lava effusion up to rare violent Plinian eruptions. However, the most iconic explosive activities
of basaltic volcanoes are represented by Strombolian explosions and lava fountains.
From 2000 to 2013 several were the episodic lava fountain eruptions taking place at South-East Crater
and New South-East Crater (SEC and NSEC – Mt. Etna, Italy –) and a similar eruptive pattern (with gradual
increase in explosivity marked by the passage from strombolian to fountain activity) was observed in almost
all explosive events. To justify the onset, periodicity and the transition between the above-mentioned eruptive
styles, different hypothesis on the degassing dynamics have been made. Here, we make use of a laboratory
volcano, Mt. Etna, to test the validity of these assumptions and to calculate different volcanological parameters
(e.g. erupted volume and gas flux in the plumbing system). In particular, we applied the Collapsing Foam layer
(CF) model (Jaupart and Vergniolle, 1989) to the episodic lava-fountains eruptions occurred at the SEC-NSEC
volcanic system between 2000 and 2013. First, we test the validity of CF model by studying the exceptional
series of lava fountains observed in 2000 at SEC, with a multi-parametric approach and by assuming the CF
model as the reference source model for this eruption, looking for the best parameters that allows to fit the
observed pattern and eruptive behavior (e.g. intermittence time, erupted volume of lavas etc.). Secondly, we
apply the CF model to three selected eruptions that took place at Mt. Etna south-eastern vents between 2000
and 2013 (the 2000, 2007-08 and 2011-13 eruptions).
Description:
Published
Description:
Parma
Description:
5V. Processi eruttivi e post-eruttivi
Keywords:
volcanology
;
experimental
Repository Name:
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
Type:
Conference paper
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