Description: The Laacher See eruption (LSE) in Germany ranks among Europe's largest volcanic events of the Upper Pleistocene1,2. Although tephra deposits of the LSE represent an important isochron for the synchronization of proxy archives at the Late Glacial to Early Holocene transition3, uncertainty in the age of the eruption has prevailed4. Here we present dendrochronological and radiocarbon measurements of subfossil trees that were buried by pyroclastic deposits that firmly date the LSE to 13,006 ± 9 calibrated years before present (bp; taken as ad 1950), which is more than a century earlier than previously accepted. The revised age of the LSE necessarily shifts the chronology of European varved lakes5,6 relative to the Greenland ice core record, thereby dating the onset of the Younger Dryas to 12,807 ± 12 calibrated years bp, which is around 130 years earlier than thought. Our results synchronize the onset of the Younger Dryas across the North Atlantic–European sector, preclude a direct link between the LSE and Greenland Stadial-1 cooling7, and suggest a large-scale common mechanism of a weakened Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation under warming conditions8–10.

Description: From oxic atmosphere to metallic core, the Earth’s components are broadly stratified with respect to oxygen fugacity. A simple picture of reducing oxygen fugacity with depth may be disrupted by the accumulation of oxidised crustal material in the deep lower mantle, entrained there as a result of subduction. While hotspot volcanoes are fed by regions of the mantle likely to have incorporated such recycled material, the oxygen fugacity of erupted hotspot basalts had long been considered comparable to or slightly more oxidised than that of mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) and more reduced than subduction zone basalts. Here we report measurements of the redox state of glassy crystal-hosted melt inclusions from tephra and quenched lava samples from the Canary and Cape Verde Islands, that we can independently show were entrapped prior to extensive sulphurdegassing. We find high ferric iron to total iron ratios (Fe3+/ Fe) of up to 0.27–0.30, indicating that mantle plume primary melts are significantly more oxidised than those associated with mid-ocean ridges and even subduction zone. These results, together with previous investigations from the Erebus, Hawaiian and Icelandic hotspots, confirm that mantle upwelling provides a return flow from the deep Earth for components of oxidised subducted lithosphere and suggest that highly oxidised material accumulates or is generated in the lower mantle. The oxidation state of the Earth’s interior must therefore be highly heterogeneous and potentially locally inversely stratified.

Description: Published

Description: 115978

Description: 3V. Proprietà chimico-fisiche dei magmi e dei prodotti vulcanici

Description: JCR Journal

Description: Active lava lakes represent a variety of open-vent volcanism in which a sizable body of lava accumulates at the top of the magma column, constrained by the vent and/or crater geometry. The longevity of lava lakes reflects a balancing of cooling and outgassing occurring at the surface and input of hot and gas-rich magma from below. Due to their longevity and relative accessibility, lava lakes provide a natural laboratory for studying fundamental volcanic processes such as degassing, convection and cooling. This article examines all seven lakes that existed at the time of writing in 2018, located in the Pacific, Antarctica, Africa, and South and Central America. These lakes span all tectonic environments, and a range of magma compositions. We focus on analysis of the lake surface motion using image velocimetry, which reveals both similarities and contrasts in outgassing and lake dynamics when comparing the different lakes. We identify two categories of lake behavior: Organized (Erta’Ale, Nyiragongo, Kīlauea after 2011, and Erebus) and Chaotic (Villarrica, Masaya, Marum). This division does not map directly to lake size, viscosity, gas emission rate, or temperature. Instead, when examined together, we find that the lakes follow a linear relationship between average surface speed and the ratio of total gas flux to lake surface area. This relationship points to the combined importance of both flux and lake size in addition to the total volume of gas emission, and suggests that a shared deep mechanism controls the supply of heat and gas to all lakes. On the other hand, the differences between Chaotic and Organized lakes highlight the important role of the geometry of the conduit-lake transition, which superimposes a shallow signal on that of the deep circulation. The spatial patterns of surface motion we document suggest that the release of gas bubbles at Chaotic lakes is more efficient (i.e., bubbles are less likely to be retained and recycled) compared with Organized lakes. In addition, the data presented here indicate that the solidified crust of Organized lakes plays a role in regulating convection and outgassing in lava lakes.

Description: Published

Description: 16-31

Description: 5V. Processi eruttivi e post-eruttivi

Description: JCR Journal

Description: This chapter is arguably the most complete compilation of sulfur volcanism of any given volcano on Earth: Poás. Sulfur volcanism at Poás is described in historical literature since 1828, and in scientific literature since the 1960’s. We first classify the various manifestations of sulfur volcanism at crater lake bearing volcanoes (subaerial and sublacustrine sulfur pools, sulfur spherules, flows, cones/hornitos, and sweat, and pyroclastic and burning sulfur), based on work by Japanese pioneers of the early 1900s. Their first observations and models have passed the test of time and still stand as theories today. Comparing the sulfur volcanism at Poás with the one at other (55) volcanoes, it is honest to say that only White Island (New Zealand) and Kawah Ijen (Indonesia) are the only ones comparable with Poás, being the most dynamic of them all.

Description: Published

Description: 45-78

Description: 4V. Processi pre-eruttivi