Records of and controls on temporal variations in activity at arc volcanoes

Many attributes of volcanic activity, whether physical, geochemical/petrological, or geophysical, change over timescales from minutes to millions of years. Understanding the nature of these variations and their controls is essential both for hazard assessment and to understand volcanic and magmatic processes. Arc volcanism entails a relatively broad range of eruption styles and magma compositions, and thus wide-ranging hazards and a variety of eruption records. Despite their significance, records of activity for many arc volcanoes are inadequately characterised, so any temporal variability is poorly constrained. In this thesis, I investigate temporal variations in different styles of activity (dome-forming, Plinian-style, and effusive/glaciovolcanic) on a range of timescales (days–years, millennia, and hundreds of ky, respectively), from diverse records (seismicity, tephra deposits, and effusive eruption products), at four arc volcanoes. I analyse seismic time-series from Soufrière Hills Volcano (Montserrat) and Volcán de Colima (Mexico) using two statistical techniques, identifying temporal variation in the extent of long-range correlations and randomness in these data, which has potential to inform real-time monitoring and constrain eruptive processes. I also present new composition data for and review previous studies of tephra deposits from Volcán Hudson (Chile), revising its explosive eruption history and finding previously unrecognised shifts in the magma composition erupted through the Holocene. I also describe and analyse sequences of lithofacies from effusive eruptions of a range of magma compositions from Volcán Sollipulli (Chile), inferring varying extents of interaction with ice during their emplacement, and so changes in eruption style through time. These case studies highlight the importance of detailed characterisation of temporally varying records of volcanic activity, and some of the limitations of and uncertainties in these records and their interpretation.</p

Long-range correlations identified in time-series of volcano seismicity during dome-forming eruptions using detrended fluctuation analysis

Understanding the underlying structure of data from volcano monitoring is essential to identify precursors to changes in eruptive activity and to comprehend volcanic processes. However, effective analysis of longer-term trends in these signals is challenging as volcanic data are not necessarily statistically stationary or linear, particularly those from lava dome-forming volcanoes, which are commonly characterised by pulsatory eruptive activity. Here, we use detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA), a statistical technique previously applied to nonstationary data, to identify long-range (slowly decaying, e.g. power-law) correlations in a number of time-series of volcano seismicity recorded during the recent dome-forming eruptions of Volcán de Colima, Mexico, and Soufrière Hills Volcano, Montserrat. For all the time-series analysed, correlation strength varies through time and/or on different timescales; in some cases, this variation is periodic, seasonal, and/or related to activity. These results may provide new insights into eruptive processes and possibly further constrain the generation mechanisms of a number of the volcano-seismic event classes analysed. Furthermore, the correlation properties of real-time seismic measurements are shown (retrospectively) to contain information valuable to real-time volcano monitoring that is not identifiable by conventional analysis techniques. This study therefore demonstrates that long-range correlation analysis may be useful for extracting additional information from monitoring data at dome-forming or similar volcanoes. © 2013 Elsevier B.V

Glaciovolcanism at Volcán Sollipulli, southern Chile: Lithofacies analysis and interpretation

© 2015 The Authors. Magma-ice-meltwater interactions produce diverse landforms and lithofacies, reflecting the multitude of factors that influence glaciovolcanism, including both magmatic (e.g., composition, eruption rate) and glacial (e.g., ice thickness, thermal regime) conditions. This is exemplified by the walls of the partly ice-filled summit caldera of Volcán Sollipulli, a stratovolcano in southern Chile, which include lithofacies from eruptions of a wide range of magma compositions beneath or in contact with ice. Here we analyse these lithofacies and hence propose new interpretations of the eruptive and glacial history of Sollipulli. The facies include a thick, laterally extensive sequence of fragmental glaciovolcanic deposits, comprising massive, mafic lava pillow-bearing hyaloclastite overlain by sills and then hyaloclastic debris flow deposits (similar to Dalsheidi-type sequences). The distribution and thickness of these units indicate an unusual abundance of magma-meltwater interaction for an arc stratovolcano in temperate latitudes, perhaps due to eruptions beneath a thick ice cap. Coherent lava coulées, domes, lobes, and stacks of basaltic andesite-trachydacite composition are present around the top of the caldera rim; these display morphologies and fracture patterns on caldera-facing margins that indicate that the caldera was filled with ice when these lavas were erupted. The lithofacies characterised in this study demonstrate the diversity of glaciovolcanism that is possible at arc stratovolcanoes capped by temperate ice or with ice-filled calderas, and the potential for uncertainties in inference of the palaeoenvironmental conditions of their emplacement

Late Quaternary tephrostratigraphy of southern Chile and Argentina

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe