VOLCANISM

OBJECTIVES
Definition of a volcano Types of volcanic eruptions Volcanic hazards Resources from volcanoes

What is a volcano?
Etymology - from the Roman god of fire, Vulcan. Vulcan was said to have had a forge (on Vulcano, an active volcano on the Lipari Islands in Italy. - place on the Earth's surface (or any other planet's or moon's surface) where molten rock, gases and pyroclastic debris erupt through the earth's crust - can be a mountain, vent or caldera

What is a volcano?
Mountainous accumulation of materials resulting from successive eruptions of lava from a central vent.

Why do volcanoes erupt?

Due to decompression

Magma is lighter than the solid rock around it

Types of volcanoes
1. Shield slopes are gentle (15o or less); shape resembles a Roman shield lying on the ground; made up of successive lava flows 2. Cinder cone relatively small (<300 m high); steep slopes (30 40o); made up of pyroclastic material
3. Composite or strato-volcano layered structure (tephra and lava flows)

Types of volcanoes
Shield volcanoes

Composite volcanoes

Cinder cone

What am I?

Stratovolcanoes

Santa Maria, Guatemala

Arenal, Costa Rica

Colima, Mexico

Mayon, Philippines

Distribution of volcanoes
Pacific Ring of Fire Hot spots Spreading centers

How big are volcanic eruptions?

Volcanic Explosivity Index or VEI - is based on a number of things (e.g. plume height, volume, etc.) that can be observed during an eruption.

Volcano explosivity index

VEI

Desc.

Plume Height < 100 m 100-1000 m 1-5 km 3-15 km 10-25 km

Volume 1000s m3 10,000s m3 1,000,000s m3 10,000,000s m3

Class. Hawaiian Haw/Strombolian Strom/Vulcanian Vulcanian Vulc/Plinian

How often daily daily weekly yearly 10's of years

Example Kilauea Stromboli Galeras, 1992 Ruiz, 1985

0 1 2 3 4

nonexplosive
gentle explosive severe cataclysmic

100,000,000s m3 1 km3
10s km3 100s km3 1,000s km3

Galunggung, 1982 St. Helens, 1981

Krakatau, 1883 Tambora, 1815 Yellowstone, 2 Ma

5
6 7 8

paroxysmal
colossal supercolossal megacolossal

>25 km
>25 km >25 km >25 km

Plinian
Plin/Ultra-Plinian Ultra-Plinian Ultra-Plinian

100's of years
100's of years 1000's of years 10,000's of years

Volcanic eruptions
Volcano
Kilauea, Hawaii
Mauna Loa, Hawaii

Year
1983
1976

Cubic Kilometers
"Large" Eruptions

0.1
0.375

Mauna Loa, Hawaii

Mt. Pelee, Martinique Mount St. Helens Askja, Iceland Vesuvius, Italy

1984
1902 1980 1875 79

0.22
0.5 0.7 2 3

"Major" Eruptions
Pinatubo, Philippines 1991 10

Krakatoa, Indonesia
Ilopango, El Salvador Santorini, Greece Mazama, Oregon Tambora, Indonesia

1883
300 1450BC 4000BC 1815

18
40 60 75 150

Volcano eruptions
Hawaiian - calmest eruption types - effusive emission of highly fluid basalt lavas with low gas contents - steady lava fountaining; production of thin lava flows

fire fountains

Volcano eruptions
HAWAIIAN Magma: fluid Explosive activity: very weak ejection of fluid blobs Effusive activity: then, often extensive flows Ejecta: cow-dung bombs and spatter, very little ash Structure(s): spatter cones and ramparts; very broad, flat lava cones

Volcano eruptions
Pahoehoe - basaltic lava with smooth, hummocky, or ropy surface
Aa - lava flows that have a rough rubbly surface composed of broken lava blocks (clinkers)

Volcano eruptions
Strombolian - short-lived, explosive outbursts of pasty lava ejected few tens or hundreds of meters - no sustained eruption column - episodic explosions with booming blasts

Volcano eruptions
STROMBOLIAN Magma: moderately fluid Explosive activity: weak to violent ejection of pasty fluid blebs Effusive activity: thicker, less extensive flows; flows may be absent Ejecta: spherical to fusiform bombs; cinder; small to large amounts of glassy ash Structure(s) cinder cones

Volcano eruptions
Vulcanian - begins with steam explosions that remove old, solid lithic (rock) material from the central vent - viscous, gas-rich magma that forms vitric (glassy) ash - eruption cloud develops above vent, with lightning occurences - more explosive than Strombolian eruptions

Volcano eruptions
VULCANIAN Magma: viscous Explosive activity: moderate to violent ejection of solid hot fragments of new lava Effusive activity: flows commonly absent, thick and stubby if present Ejecta: essential, glassy to lithic, blocks and ash, pumice Structure(s): ash cones, block cones, blockand-ash cones

Volcano eruptions
Peleean - formation of domes and glowing avalanches - During the opening stages of the eruption, violent glowing avalanches of hot ash travel down the flanks of the volcano

Volcano eruptions
PELEEAN Magma: viscous Explosive activity: like Vulcanian, commonly with glowing avalanches Effusive activity: domes and/or short, very thick flows; flows may be absent Ejecta: like Vulcanian Structure(s): Ash and pumice cones; domes

Volcano eruptions
Plinian - generate sustained eruptive columns, with some reaching heights of ~45 km. These eruptive columns produce widespread dispersals of tephra which cover large areas with an even thickness of pumice and ash.

Volcano eruptions
PLINIAN Magma: viscous Explosive activity: ejection of large volumes of ash; caldera collapse Effusive activity: ash flows, small to very luminous; may be absent Ejecta: glassy ash and pumice Structure(s): widespread pumice lapilli and ash beds; generally no cone-building

Volcano eruptions
Surtseyan or Phreatomagmatic generated by the intereaction of magma with either groundwater or surface water. - much more explosive; as the water is heated, it flashes to steam and expands explosively, thus fragmenting the magma into exceptionally fine-grained ash.

Ukinrek, Alaska (1977)

Volcanoes in the Philippines

www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph

Active volcanoes
Name of Volcano Babuyan Claro Banahaw Biliran Province Cagayan Laguna, Quezon Biliran Island Elevation (Km) 0.843 2.169 1.340

No. of Historical Eruptions

4 3 1

Latest Eruption/Activity 1917 1843 1939 Sept. 26

Buddajo
Bulusan Cagua

Sulu
Sorsogon Cagayan Cagayan Cagayan (Babuyan Island Group) Camiguin Batanes Camarines Sur Negros Oriental

0.62
1.565 1.160 0.712 0.843 1.332 1.009 1.143 2.435

2
15 2 1 6 5 1 2 21

1897
1994 Nov.-1995 Jan. 1907 1857 1978 Jan. 6-9 1948 Sept. 31 - 1953 July 1454 1642 Jan. 4 10 August 1996

Camiguin de Babuyanes
Didicas Hibok-hibok Iraya Iriga Kanlaon

Leonard Kniaseff

Davao del Norte

0.200

No Data

No Data

Active volcanoes
Name of Volcano Makaturing Matumtum Province Lanao del Sur Cotobato Elevation (Km) 1.940 2.286 No. of Historical Eruptions 7 1 Latest Eruption/Activity 1882 1911 March 07

Mayon
Musuan

Albay
Bukidnon

2.460
0.646

48
2

2001 Jun. 24-Jul. 26

1867

Parker
Pinatubo

Cotobato
Boundaries of Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales

1.784
1.445

1
3

1640 Jan. 04
1992 July 09 - August 16

Ragang Smith Taal

Cotobato
Cagayan(Babuyan Island Group)

2.815 0.688 0.311

7 5 33

1916 July 1924 1977 Oct. 3

Batangas

Monitoring volcanic eruptions

Monitoring volcanic eruptions

Volcanic steam plumes rise from new fumaroles on the north flank of Pinatubo after steamdriven explosions on 2 April 1991.

Increase in CO2 and SO2 concentrations

Monitoring volcanic eruptions

Increase in the frequency of volcanic quakes. Why?

Monitoring volcanic eruptions

Magma rises into reservoir beneath volcano

Rising magma and volcanic gases exert pressure

High pressure causes rocks to break, triggering earthquakes

Monitoring volcanic eruptions

Volcanoes change shape before and during eruptions A series of small ground cracks appeared on the crater floor of Mount St. Helens before it erupted. About two days later, the cracks moved and "bent" the line. The crater floor was deformed or changed shape along thrust faults as magma forced its way up the conduit. Within a few days, the rising magma erupted onto the surface of the volcano's lava dome.

Monitoring volcanic eruptions

Volcano deformation is measured using electronic distance measurements.

Monitoring volcanic eruptions

The Global Positioning System (GPS) can pinpoint horizontal and vertical movement of the ground.

Precursors of an impending volcanic eruption

Increase in the frequency of volcanic quakes with rumbling sounds; occurrence of volcanic tremors Increased steaming activity; change in color of steam emission from white to gray due to entrained ash Crater glow due to presence of magma at or near the crater
www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph

Precursors of an impending volcanic eruption Ground swells (or inflation), ground tilt and ground fissuring due to magma intrusion Localized landslides, rockfalls and landslides from the summit area not attributable to heavy rains Noticeable increase in the extent of drying up of vegetation around the volcano's upper slopes
www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph

Precursors of an impending volcanic eruption Increase in the temperature of hot springs, wells (e.g. Bulusan and Kanlaon) and crater lake (e.g. Taal) near the volcano Noticeable variation in the chemical content of springs, crater lakes within the vicinity of the volcano Drying up of springs/wells around the volcano
www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph

Volcanic hazards

Volcanic hazards
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Volcanic gases SO2, CO2 , HCl, etc. Lava flow streams of molten rock Pyroclastic flow hot, dry rock fragments Lahar mixture of water and rock fragments Tephra volcanic rock that are blasted into the air

Volcanic hazards

Mount Pinatubo eruption

Magmatic explosive eruption on 12 June 1991 forms enormous eruption column of gas and ash above the volcano.

Mount Pinatubo eruption

The Mt. Pinatubo ash cloud is rendered in blue, while the moisture-laden cloud from Typhoon Yunya shows up as white. By noon, the sky was pitch black and it was raining mud.

Ashfall deposits

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/

Effects
Gases health problems Lahars severe flooding, destruction to lives and property Lava flows destruction to lives and property Tephra obscure sunlight, impassable roads, infrastructure damages

Effects
Environmental/climate effects of volcanic eruptions:
Fine ash blocks sunlight SO2 + H2O produces fine aerosols (fine droplets) that block sunlight SO2 produces acid rain

Benefits
Fertile agricultural lands Source of geothermal energy benign source of electricity