Statistical distribution of series of 12 monthly concentration samples for environmental classification of rivers

International audienceEnvironmental monitoring and classification of rivers in the northern hemisphere is frequently hampered by lack of infrastructure in the scarcely populated areas of the north. Carefully designed economical methods are important. Analysis of 15 constituents in 14 rivers in Iceland show that monthly samples for a period of 1 year are sufficient for classification provided that the correct statistical distribution is known. Normalizing and plotting all the constituents in each river by rank shows systematic deviations from both the normal and lognormal distributions. When the constituents are pooled by river the result is one distribution for each river, all very similar. A new cumulative distribution function (DoC) is formed as the average of these. It has a long tail similar to that of the lognormal distribution but below the 60% quantile, the DoC differs a lot from the lognormal so if it is to be used, an unbiased estimate of the scale and location parameters will in most cases be difficult to obtain if more than 30?40% of the highest points is used. The influence of the DoC on the classification result is very strong when the 90% quantile is used for classification, but fades out at the 60% quantile. It is shown that the storage effect in rivers with a lake that holds some weeks flow in storage, can have a great influence on the classification result

The impact of the 1783-1784 AD Laki eruption on global aerosol formation processes and cloud condensation nuclei

The 1783–1784 AD Laki flood lava eruption commenced on 8 June 1783 and released 122 Tg of sulphur dioxide gas over the course of 8 months into the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere above Iceland. Previous studies have examined the impact of the Laki eruption on sulphate aerosol and climate using general circulation models. Here, we study the impact on aerosol microphysical processes, including the nucleation of new particles and their growth to cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) using a comprehensive Global Model of Aerosol Processes (GLOMAP). Total particle concentrations in the free troposphere increase by a factor ~16 over large parts of the Northern Hemisphere in the 3 months following the onset of the eruption. Particle concentrations in the boundary layer increase by a factor 2 to 5 in regions as far away as North America, the Middle East and Asia due to long-range transport of nucleated particles. CCN concentrations (at 0.22% supersaturation) increase by a factor 65 in the upper troposphere with maximum changes in 3-month zonal mean concentrations of ~1400 cm<sup>−3</sup> at high northern latitudes. 3-month zonal mean CCN concentrations in the boundary layer at the latitude of the eruption increase by up to a factor 26, and averaged over the Northern Hemisphere, the eruption caused a factor 4 increase in CCN concentrations at low-level cloud altitude. The simulations show that the Laki eruption would have completely dominated as a source of CCN in the pre-industrial atmosphere. The model also suggests an impact of the eruption in the Southern Hemisphere, where CCN concentrations are increased by up to a factor 1.4 at 20° S. Our model simulations suggest that the impact of an equivalent wintertime eruption on upper tropospheric CCN concentrations is only about one-third of that of a summertime eruption. The simulations show that the microphysical processes leading to the growth of particles to CCN sizes are fundamentally different after an eruption when compared to the unperturbed atmosphere, underlining the importance of using a fully coupled microphysics model when studying long-lasting, high-latitude eruptions

Melt mixing causes negative correlation of trace element enrichment and CO<inf>2</inf> content prior to an Icelandic eruption

Major elements, trace elements and volatiles were measured in 110 olivine-hosted melt inclusions from the subglacial Skuggafjöll eruption in the Eastern Volcanic Zone of Iceland. Variations in melt inclusion trace element concentrations can be accounted for by incomplete mixing of diverse mantle parental melts accompanied by variable extents of fractional crystallisation. Binary mixing between an incompatible trace element-enriched and depleted melts provides a good fit to observed variations in trace element ratios such as Ce/Y. Surprisingly, the CO2 contents of melt inclusions correlate negatively with their degree of trace element enrichment. Depleted, low-Ce/Y inclusions with ∼1200 ppm CO2 have high CO2/Nb contents (∼400), suggesting that melts experienced little or no CO2 exsolution before inclusion entrapment. Enriched, high-Ce/Y inclusions contain ∼300 ppm CO2, have low CO2/Nb (contents 50–100) and melts are likely to have exsolved much of their original CO2 contents prior to inclusion entrapment. The negative correlation between CO2 content and trace element enrichment may arise either from the more efficient exsolution of CO2 from enriched melts, or from the intrusion of CO2-supersaturated depleted melts into enriched melts that had already exsolved much of their original CO2 contents. Some inclusions have lower CO2 contents than predicted from binary mixing models, which suggests that at least some CO2 exsolution occurred concurrently with mixing. Enriched inclusions record entrapment pressures of ∼0.5 kbar. These pressures probably correspond to the depth of mixing. Higher pressures recorded in depleted inclusions may have resulted from the development of CO2 supersaturation during ascent from storage at ≥1.5 kbar. The presence of CO2 supersaturation in melt inclusions has the potential to constrain timescales of melt inclusion entrapment.This work was supported by a Natural Environment Research Council studentship to D.A.N. (NE/1528277/1) and a Natural Environment Research Council Ion Microprobe Facility award (IMF461/0512).This is the final published version of the article, which can also be found online here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X14003604

Disruption of Tephra Fall Deposits Caused by Lava Flows during Basaltic Eruptions

Observations in the USA, Iceland and Tenerife, Canary Islands reveal how processes occurring during basaltic eruptions can result in complex physical and stratigraphic relationships between lava and proximal tephra fall deposits around vents. Observations illustrate how basaltic lavas can disrupt, dissect (spatially and temporally) and alter sheet-form fall deposits. Complexity arises through synchronous and alternating effusive and explosive activity that results in intercalated lavas and tephra deposits. Tephra deposits can become disrupted into mounds and ridges by lateral and vertical displacement caused by movement (including inflation) of underlying pāhoehoe lavas and clastogenic lavas. Mounds of tephra can be rafted away over distances of 100 s to 1,000 s m from proximal pyroclastic constructs on top of lava flows. Draping of irregular topography by fall deposits and subsequent partial burial of topographic depressions by later lavas can result in apparent complexity of tephra layers. These processes, deduced from field relationships, have resulted in considerable stratigraphic complexity in the studied proximal regions where fallout was synchronous or alternated with inflation of subjacent lava sheets. These mechanisms may lead to diachronous contact relationships between fall deposits and lava flows. Such complexities may remain cryptic due to textural and geochemical quasi-homogeneity within sequences of interbedded basaltic fall deposits and lavas. The net effect of these processes may be to reduce the usefulness of data collected from proximal fall deposits for reconstructing basaltic eruption dynamics

Diffusive over-hydration of olivine-hosted melt inclusions

The pre-eruptive water content of magma is often estimated using crystal-hosted melt inclusions. However, olivine-hosted melt inclusions are prone to post-entrapment modification by H+ diffusion as they re-equilibrate with their external environment. This effect is well established for the case of H+ loss from olivine-hosted inclusions that have cooled slowly in degassed magma. Here we present evidence for the opposite effect: the addition of H+ into inclusions that are held in melts that are enriched in H2O with respect to the trapped melts. The compositional variability in a suite of 211 olivine-hosted inclusions from the Laki and Skuggafjöll eruptions in Iceland's Eastern Volcanic Zone indicates that diffusive H+ gain governs the H2O content of incompatible trace element depleted inclusions. Individual eruptive units contain olivine-hosted inclusions with widely varying incompatible element concentrations but near-constant H2O. Furthermore, over 40% of the inclusions have H2O/Ce>380H2O/Ce>380, significantly higher than the H2O/Ce expected in primary Icelandic melts or mid-ocean ridge basalts (150–280). The fact that the highest H2O/Ce ratios are found in the most incompatible element depleted inclusions indicates that hydration is a consequence of the concurrent mixing and crystallisation of compositionally diverse primary melts. Hydration occurs when olivines containing depleted inclusions with low H2O contents are juxtaposed against more hydrous melts during mixing. Melt inclusions from a single eruption may preserve evidence of both diffusive H+ loss and H+ gain. Trace element data are therefore vital for determining H2O contents of melt inclusions at the time of inclusion trapping and, ultimately, the H2O content of the mantle source regions.This work was supported by NERC grant NE/I012508/1 and a NERC studentship NE/1528277/1 to DAN. MEH acknowledges a Junior Research Fellowship from Murray Edwards College, Cambridge.This is the final published version. It first appeared at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X15003647#

Big grains go far: Understanding the discrepancy between tephrochronology and satellite infrared measurements of volcanic ash

There is a large discrepancy between the size of volcanic ash particles measured on the ground at least 500 km from their source volcano (known as cryptotephra) and those reported by satellite remote sensing (effective radius of 0.5-9 I1/4m; 95% of particles reff plateaus at around 9 I1/4m. Assuming Mie scattering by dense spheres when interpreting satellite infrared brightness temperature difference (BTD) data puts an upper limit on retrieved particle sizes. If larger, irregularly shaped ash grains can also produce a BTD effect, this will result in further underestimation of grain size, e.g. in coarse ash clouds close to a volcano

Sulfur, Chlorine, and Flourine Degassing and Atmospheric Loading by the 1783 - 1784 AD Laki (Skaftar Fires) Eruption in Iceland

The 1783-1784 Laki tholeiitic basalt fissure eruption in Iceland was one of the greatest atmospheric pollution events of the past 250 years, with widespread effects in the northern hemisphere. The degassing history and volatile budget of this event are determined by measurements of pre-eruption and residual contents of sulfur, chlorine, and fluorine in the products of all phases of the eruption. In fissure eruptions such as Laki, degassing occurs in two stages: by explosive activity or lava fountaining at the vents, and from the lava as it flows away from the vents. Using the measured sulfur concentrations in glass inclusions in phenocrysts and in groundmass glasses of quenched eruption products, we calculate that the total accumulative atmospheric mass loading of sulfur dioxide was 122 Mt over a period of 8 months. This volatile release is sufficient to have generated approximately 250 Mt of H2SO4 aerosols, an amount which agrees with an independent estimate of the Laki aerosol yield based on atmospheric turbidity measurements. Most of this volatile mass (approximately 60 wt.%) was released during the first 1.5 months of activity. The measured chlorine and fluorine concentrations in the samples indicate that the atmospheric loading of hydrochloric acid and hydrofluoric acid was approximately 7.0 and 15.0 Mt, respectively. Furthermore, approximately 75% of the volatile mass dissolved by the Laki magma was released at the vents and carried by eruption columns to altitudes between 6 and 13 km. The high degree of degassing at the vents is attributed to development of a separated two-phase flow in the upper magma conduit, and implies that high-discharge basaltic eruptions such as Laki are able to loft huge quantities of gas to altitudes where the resulting aerosols can reside for months, or even 1-2 years. The atmospheric volatile contribution due to subsequent degassing of the Laki lava flow is only 18 wt.% of the total dissolved in the magma, and these emissions were confined to the lowest regions of the troposhere and therefore important only over Iceland. This study indicates that determination of the amount of sulfur degassed from the Laki magma batch by measurements of sulfur in the volcanic products (the petrologic method) yields a result which is sufficient to account for the mass of aerosols estimated by other methods

Mafic tiers and transient mushes: evidence from Iceland.

It is well established that magmatism is trans-crustal, with melt storage and processing occurring over a range of depths. Development of this conceptual model was based on observations of the products of magmatism at spreading ridges, including Iceland. Petrological barometry and tracking of the solidification process has been used to show that the Icelandic crust is built by crystallization over a range of depths. The available petrological evidence indicates that most of the active rift zones are not underlain by extensive and pervasive crystal mush. Instead, the microanalytical observations from Iceland are consistent with a model where magmatic processing in the lower crust occurs in sills of decimetric vertical thickness. This stacked sills mode of crustal accretion corresponds to that proposed for the oceanic crust on the basis of ophiolite studies. A key feature of these models is that the country rock for the sills is hot but subsolidus. This condition can be met if the porosity in thin crystal mushes at the margins of the sills is occluded by primitive phases, a contention that is consistent with observations from cumulate nodules in Icelandic basalts. The conditions required for the stabilization of trans-crustal mushes may not be present in magmatic systems at spreading ridges. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Magma reservoir architecture and dynamics'