On the use of plume models to estimate the flux in volcanic gas plumes.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 33976131.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-22159-3 and PMC identifier 8113474.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Many of the standard volcanic gas flux measurement approaches involve absorption spectroscopy in combination with wind speed measurements. Here, we present a new method using video images of volcanic plumes to measure the speed of convective structures combined with classical plume theory to estimate volcanic fluxes. We apply the method to a nearly vertical gas plume at Villarrica Volcano, Chile, and a wind-blown gas plume at Mount Etna, Italy. Our estimates of the gas fluxes are consistent in magnitude with previous reported fluxes obtained by spectroscopy and electrochemical sensors for these volcanoes. Compared to conventional gas flux measurement techniques focusing on SO<sub>2</sub>, our new model also has the potential to be used for sulfur-poor plumes in hydrothermal systems because it estimates the H<sub>2</sub>O flux.