A review of petrological monitoring procedures: suggestion of best practice protocols for eruption monitoring

<p>Volcano monitoring is commonly performed through acquisition and interpretation of real-time signals able to track changes in the magmatic system and the eventual migration of magma toward the surface. Petrological monitoring, in particular,  focus on magma history in terms of depth of storage zones, transport pathways, mechanisms of differentiation, and timescales of involved processes with aim to extrapolate information about the trigger of magma ascent and the eruptive behaviour, and its possible variation over the course of an eruption.</p><p>In the present study, conducted in the framework of the EUROVOLC project, we developed a questionnaire that aims to survey the most common petrological monitoring procedures performed by volcano monitoring institutions, in order to identify prevailing techniques and most critical issues, and to rate the suitability of specific investigations in terms of costs versus benefit. The final goal is to identify essential and mandatory petrologic techniques to accomplish for an efficient petrological monitoring during ongoing eruptions, so that can be assessed the minimum logistic requirements (e.g., facilities, infrastructures, operators) and can be defined operative best practices protocols to achieve petrologic results in a timeframe short enough to be well of use for monitoring purposes.</p><p>The surveyed information, which resulted from a sample of eighteen interviewed institutions that deal with monitoring of active volcanoes with a variety of eruptive behaviour, provide insights about the whole steps of petrologic monitoring including sampling, sample preparations and analyses, data interpretation and dissemination. The survey reveals that efforts have been made to organize petrological monitoring with standardized procedures similarly to the other monitoring disciplines. For example, some institutions suffer lack of dedicated staff that can be operative with short forewarning. The objects of petrological investigation include all the types of volcanic products from lava to pyroclastic and there are attempts to deal with fixed sampling schedule. Moreover, there is consciousness that the capability to acquire and to interpret the most valuable analytical results at <em>in situ</em> institutions provide a quick image of ongoing eruptive processes and improve the interaction with other disciplines. Therefore, concerning the analytical procedures, which is the core of petrological monitoring, an important results is the cross correlation between the analyses that are easy to acquire (in terms of resources, equipment and time availability) and their effective role for the petrological monitoring.</p><p>The expectations include an augmented perception of the benefits that petrologic monitoring brings in the comprehension of eruptive processes. Filling the gap of the primary needs required to accomplish the identified best practices within a short timeframe is a compelling need to lead advancement of the volcano monitoring science.</p>

Explaining the continuing inflation of Montserrat

<p>Soufrière Hills volcano on Montserrat in the West Indies showed five episodes of magma extrusion and as many pauses in its 25 years of volcanic activity. This eruptive behaviour exhibited cyclic deformation pattern where extrusive “phases” showed island-wide deflation and all “pauses” have been linked to inflation, the last of which remains ongoing. Several models have been developed over the years; all based on magma intrusion and extrusion, into, or from one or several reservoirs, respectively. Addressing the entire eruptive history, we explore in this presentation several alternative models ranging from the continuous magma influx at depth to the extreme case where intrusion of fresh magma has ceased years ago, while the inflation is continuing. Both, purely elastic and visco-elastic rheologies are explored.</p>

Influence of geometry on eruptive behaviour of magma reservoirs

<p>All active polygenetic volcanoes erupt magma sourced from a shallow crustal reservoir.  Those chambers are complex entities that act as a collector of magma originating from deeper crustal sources. The geometry of those active storage systems depends on the rheology of the magma and on the rock properties of the host. Studying how the geometry influences the eruptive behaviour of a magma chamber has implications for our understanding of volcanic hazard.<br>We introduced a simple model where a magma reservoir is cooled by an overlying geothermal system and recharged by a deeper magma source. The geometry of the chamber is defined by its volume and aspect ratio. The model tracked changes in pressure, mixture enthalpy and composition, and implemented parameterisations of eruption, hydrothermal cooling, viscoelastic relaxation, and volatile leakage. The thermodynamic properties of the melt, crystals and water were computed using rhyolite-MELTS.<br>A large number of simulations sweeping our parameter space gave us insight into how the different magmatic processes trade off with respect to the geometry of the inclusion. An example of the complex control of geometry on the eruptive behaviour can be made regarding cooling and the effective compressibility of an ellipsoidal inclusion. On the one hand, a larger aspect ratio will favor eruptibility by offering a larger area for cooling therefore increasing the exsolution of water and pressure build up. On the other hand, a larger aspect ratio will work against eruptibility by decreasing the compressibility making it harder to build overpressures within the chamber. We found that a specific geometry is required in order for a chamber to erupt without any external stimuli (such as a large recharge event).<br>A limiting factor of our model is the assumption of a perfect mixing. Whereas, in reality, we would expect recharge, cooling and leakage to occur within specific regions of the chamber. In a model where mixing is not considered perfect, those processes would be a source of heterogeneity. We could conjecture that under the right conditions, eruptible regions would appear within the chamber. A model focusing more on the flows within the chamber might be able to give additional insights on the eruptive behaviour of magma chambers.</p>

Magmatic and Metasomatic Effects of Magma–Carbonate Interaction Recorded in Calc-silicate Xenoliths from Merapi Volcano (Indonesia)

Magma–carbonate interaction is an increasingly recognized process occurring at active volcanoes worldwide, with implications for the magmatic evolution of the host volcanic systems, their eruptive behaviour, volcanic CO2 budgets, and economic mineralization. Abundant calc-silicate skarn xenoliths are found at Merapi volcano, Indonesia. We identify two distinct xenolith types: magmatic skarn xenoliths, which contain evidence of formation within the magma; and exoskarn xenoliths, which more likely represent fragments of crystalline metamorphosed wall rocks. The magmatic skarn xenoliths comprise distinct compositional and mineralogical zones with abundant Ca-enriched glass (up to 10 wt % relative to lava groundmass), mineralogically dominated by clinopyroxene (En15-43Fs14-36Wo41-51) + plagioclase (An37-100) ± magnetite in the outer zones towards the lava contact, and by wollastonite ± clinopyroxene (En17-38Fs8-34Wo49-59) ± plagioclase (An46-100) ± garnet (Grs0-65Adr24-75Sch0-76) ± quartz in the xenolith cores. These zones are controlled by Ca transfer from the limestone protolith to the magma and by the transfer of magma-derived elements in the opposite direction. In contrast, the exoskarn xenoliths are unzoned and essentially glass-free, representing equilibration at sub-solidus conditions. The major mineral assemblage in the exoskarn xenoliths is wollastonite + garnet (Grs73-97Adr3-24) + Ca-Al-rich clinopyroxene (CaTs0-38) + anorthite ± quartz, with variable amounts of either quartz or melilite (Geh42-91) + spinel. Thermobarometric calculations, fluid-inclusion microthermometry and newly calibrated oxybarometry based on Fe3+/ΣFe in clinopyroxene indicate magmatic skarn xenolith formation conditions of ∼850 ± 45°C, < 100 MPa and at an oxygen fugacity between the NNO (nickel–nickel oxide) and HM (hematite-magnetite) buffer. The exoskarn xenoliths, in turn, formed at 510–910°C under oxygen-fugacity conditions between NNO and air. These high oxygen fugacities are likely imposed by the large volumes of CO2 liberated from the carbonate. Halogen- and sulphur-rich mineral phases in the xenoliths testify to infiltration by a magmatic brine. In some xenoliths, this is associated with the precipitation of copper-bearing mineral phases by sulphur dissociation into sulphide and sulphate, indicating potential mineralization in the skarn system below Merapi. The compositions of many xenolith clinopyroxene and plagioclase crystals overlap with that of magmatic minerals, suggesting that the crystal cargo in Merapi magmas may contain a larger proportion of skarn-derived xenocrysts than previously recognized. Assessment of xenolith formation timescales demonstrates that magma–carbonate interaction and associated CO2 release could affect eruption intensity, as recently suggested for Merapi and similar carbonate-hosted volcanoes elsewhere.

The continuing inflation of Montserrat – and the end of the intrusion

<p>Soufrière Hills volcano on Montserrat in the West Indies showed five episodes of magma extrusion and as many pauses in its 25years of volcanic activity. This eruptive behaviour exhibited cyclic deformation pattern where extrusive “phases” showed island-wide deflation and all “pauses” have been linked to inflation, the last of which remains ongoing. Several models have been developed over the years; all based on magma intrusion and extrusion, into, or from one or several reservoirs, respectively. Using the entire eruptive history, we demonstrate that both, pauses and phases can be linked to a single magma body. Through extensive numerical modelling, we explore in this presentation some alternative routes to magma intrusion, considering several magmatic processes. These range from crystallisation of magma (second boiling) to pressurisation through a free gas phase, to the extreme case where intrusion of fresh magma has ceased years ago, while the inflation is continuing. </p>

Mid-crustal storage and crystallization of Eyjafjallajökull ankaramites, South Iceland

Our understanding of the long-term intrusive and eruptive behaviour of volcanic systems is hampered by a relatively short period of direct observation. To probe the conditions of crustal magma storage below South Iceland, we have analysed compositions of minerals, mineral zoning patterns, and melt inclusions from two Eyjafjallajökull ankaramites located at Brattaskjól and Hvammsmúli. These two units are rich in compositionally diverse macrocrysts, including the most magnesian olivine (Fo88-90) and clinopyroxene (Mg#cpx 89.8) known from Eyjafjallajökull. Olivine-hosted spinel inclusions have high Cr#spl (52–80) and TiO2 (1–3 wt%) and low Al2O3 (8–22 wt%) compared to typical Icelandic chromian spinel. The spinel-olivine oxybarometer implies a moderate oxygen fugacity of logFMQ 0–0.5 at the time of crystallization, and clinopyroxene-liquid thermobarometry crystallization at mid-crustal pressures (1.7–4.2 kbar, 3.0±1.4 kbar on average) at 1120–1195°C. Liquid-only thermometry for melt inclusions with Mg#melt 56.1–68.5 and olivine-liquid thermometry for olivine macrocrysts with Fo80.7-88.9 yield crystallization temperatures of 1155–1222°C and 1136–1213°C, respectively. Diffusion modelling of compositional zonations in the Brattaskjól olivine grains imply that the Brattaskjól macrocrysts were mobilized and transported to the surface from their mid-crustal storage within a few weeks (at most in 9–37 days). Trends in clinopyroxene macrocryst compositions and the scarcity of plagioclase indicate that the mid-crustal cotectic assemblage was olivine and clinopyroxene, with plagioclase joining the fractionating mineral assemblage later. In all, the crystal cargoes in the Brattaskjól and Hvammsmúli ankaramites are composed of agitated wehrlitic or plagioclase wehrlitic crystal mushes that crystallized over a large temperature interval at mid-crustal depths.

Cyclic activity of Fuego de Colima volcano (Mexico): insights from satellite thermal data and non-linear models

The Fuego de Colima volcano (Mexico) showed a complex eruptive behaviour with periods of rapid and slow lava dome growth, punctuated by explosive activity. We reconstructed the weekly discharge rate average between 1998 and 2018 by means of satellite thermal data integrated with published discharge rate data. By using spectral and wavelet analysis, we found a multi-year long-, multi-month intermediate-, and multi-week short-term cyclic behaviour during the period of the investigated eruptive activity, as those of many others dome-forming volcanoes. We use numerical modelling in order to investigate the non-linear cyclic eruptive behaviour considering a magma feeding system composed of a dual or a single magma chamber connected to the surface through an elastic dyke evolving into a cylinder conduit in the shallowest part. We investigated the cases in which the periodicity is controlled by i) the coupled deep-shallow magma reservoirs, ii) the single shallow chamber, and iii) the elastic shallow dyke when is fed by a fixed influx rate or a constant pressure. The model outputs indicate that the observed multi-year periodicity (1.5–2.5 years) can be described by the fluctuations controlled by a shallow magma chamber with a volume of 20–50 km3 coupled with a deep reservoir of 500 km3, connected through a deep elastic dyke. The multi-month periodicity (ca. 5–10 months) appears to be controlled by the shallow magma chamber for the same range of volumes. The short-term multi-week periodicity (ca. 2.5–5 weeks) can be reproduced considering a fixed influx rate or constant pressure at the base of the shallower dyke. This work provides new insights on the non-linear cyclic behaviour of Fuego de Colima, and a general framework for the comprehension of eruptive behaviour of andesitic volcanoes.

X-ray Binary Transients in the Magellanic Clouds and the Milky Way

The X-ray sky is dominated by luminous galactic sources, variable on time-scales from milliseconds to years. Their eruptive behaviour is now under continuous monitoring by MAXI, Swift, INTEGRAL and other high-energy missions, and representing a superb exemplar of time-domain astronomy. Understanding the astrophysics of such variability requires multi-wavelength follow-up studies from a suite of ground- and space-based facilities. As SALT is a 100% Q-scheduled telescope, one of its key scientific capabilities is related to Target-of-Opportunity (ToO) programmes, and there has been a dedicated SALT Large Programme on Transients in place since 2016, a significant fraction of which has been devoted to the follow-up of X-ray binary transients. This Workshop addressed questions of how such programmes should evolve once the era of MeerKAT and MeerLICHT begins in ∼2018-9 (as well as other huge surveys at optical wavelengths), identifying the range of facilities that would be needed, and the key science topics. There is a clear and growing need for responses to transients to be faster (within minutes if possible), and to be multi-wavelength (particularly in radio and X-ray). Furthermore, extended ongoing coverage of such events (days to weeks for the next ‘V404 Cyg’-type outburst) will be needed for maximum astrophysical return. That would require careful management and coordination of a wide range of ground- and space-based facilities, and optimising coverage against logistical constraints that are often conflicting.