Insights into the 9 December 2019 eruption of Whakaari/White Island from analysis of TROPOMI SO(2) imagery

Small, phreatic explosions from volcanic hydrothermal systems pose a substantial proximal hazard on volcanoes, which can be popular tourist sites, creating casualty risks in case of eruption. Volcano monitoring of gas emissions provides insights into when explosions are likely to happen and unravel...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science Advances
Main Authors: Burton, Mike, Hayer, Catherine, Miller, Craig, Christenson, Bruce
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2021
Subjects:
Research Articles
New Zealand
White Island
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8213235/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34144990
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abg1218
Description
Summary:Small, phreatic explosions from volcanic hydrothermal systems pose a substantial proximal hazard on volcanoes, which can be popular tourist sites, creating casualty risks in case of eruption. Volcano monitoring of gas emissions provides insights into when explosions are likely to happen and unravel processes driving eruptions. Here, we report SO(2) flux and plume height data retrieved from TROPOMI satellite imagery before, during, and after the 9 December 2019 eruption of Whakaari/White Island volcano, New Zealand, which resulted in 22 fatalities and numerous injuries. We show that SO(2) was detected without explosive activity on separate days before and after the explosion, and that fluxes increased from 10 to 45 kg/s ~40 min before the explosion itself. High temporal resolution gas monitoring from space can provide key insights into magmatic degassing processes globally, aiding understanding of eruption precursors and complementing ground-based monitoring.

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