lithospheric structure and tectonics at isidis planitia mars abstract we characterize the lithospheric structure of isidis planitia on mars by analyzing mars global surveyor and mars odyssey gravity and topography data using a flexural model of a thin elastic shell including bending and membrane stresses isidis planitia is a circular relatively flat plain formed near the end of the early noachian at the edge of the highlands lowlands boundary and the site of a large free air gravity anomaly features consistent with modification and filling of an impact basin our results suggest that the bulk density of the fill material inside isidis must be more than 2600 kg m 3 and higher densities are probable a comparison of the faulting observed at nili fossae to the predicted zone of extensional strain northwest of isidis constrains the thickness of the elastic lithosphere to be 100 180 km thick beneath the basin at the time of loading we also find that loads outside of the basin play a significant role in the interpretation of the tectonics simplified models tend to overestimate the lithospheric thickness we place relatively narrow bounds on the thermal gradient 3 4 6 5 k km 1 and heat flux 13 6 26 mw m 2 at isidis at the time of loading

observations of volcanic clouds in their first few days of atmospheric residence the 1992 eruptions of crater peak mount spurr volcano alaska abstract satellite so2 and ash measurements of mount spurr s three 1992 volcanic clouds are compared with ground based observations to develop an understanding of the physical and chemical evolution of volcanic clouds each of the three eruptions with ratings of volcanic explosivity index three reached the lower stratosphere 14 km asl but the clouds were mainly dispersed at the tropopause by moderate to strong 20 40 m s tropospheric winds three stages of cloud evolution were identified first heavy fallout of large 500 m pyroclasts occurred close to the volcano 25 km from the vent during and immediately after the eruptions and the cloud resembled an advected gravity current second a much larger highly elongated region marked by a secondary mass maximum occurred 150 350 km downwind in at least two of the three events this was the result of aggregate fallout of a bimodal size distribution including fine 25 m ash that quickly depleted the solid fraction of the volcanic cloud for the f

birth growth and morphologic evolution of the laghetto cinder cone during the 2001 etna eruption we have undertaken detailed observations of the formation of the laghetto cinder cone a new cone that formed during a 2 week period of intense activity in piano del lago on the upper slopes of mount etna in summer 2001 we describe the events leading to the formation of a small graben the formation of pit craters on the base of the graben the onset of phreatomagmatic activity a transition to intense strombolian activity and a return to phreatomagmatic activity as the eruption came to an end we discuss the reasons for these transitions and describe the morphological development of the cone during these events arcuate cracks on the southern part of the cone were related to withdrawal of magma at the end of the eruption other slope instabilities that developed during the eruption include the formation of small radial grain flows on the outer flanks of the cone and the collapse into the crater of part of the crater rim some of the failure planes we observed were first identified using a flir tm 695 thermal infrared camera this is the first time that infrared thermography has been used to detect instability of volcanic structures results obtained during this test case demonstrate that thermal cameras are a very useful tool for studies of volcanic instability

gravity inferred crustal attributes of visible and buried impact basins on mars 1 the impact basins of mars reveal important insights on martian tectonic evolution they involve strongly disrupted depressed regions of crust with likely enhanced porosity and permeability that may locally concentrate water and other crustal fluids hence the crustal properties of impact basins can also be important in the hunt for water and related clues for life on mars we assess the crustal details of impact basins by separating the mars global surveyor free air anomalies into terrain correlated and terrain decorrelated components the separation is based on the correlation spectrum between the free air anomalies and the gravity effects evaluated from the topography mapped by the mars orbital laser altimeter mola for topographically visible multiring basins like isidis striking circular patterns of alternating terrain correlated free air maxima and minima mark the uncompensated components of the central mantle plug and surrounding rings the first vertical derivatives of these anomalies effectively estimate the basin ring locations and a transient cavity depth to diameter ratio of 0 09 that is consistent with the ratio observed for lunar nearside multiring basins for the isidis basin we obtain an excavation depth of roughly 66 km that reflects considerably disrupted crust for concentrating local fluids since the noachian impact furthermore the related crustal terrain decorrelated free air anomalies suggest up to 2 km of high density basin fill may cap the central basin subtle quasi circular depressions in the relatively featureless mola terrain of the northern hemisphere have identified potentially buried impact basins frey et al 2002 an altimetry depression in acidalia planitia and another in utopia are also associated with ringed patterns of terrain decorrelated free air anomalies that may mark the uncompensated mass effects of buried impact basins the gravity derived transient excavation depths for these inferred basins are roughly 41 and 20 km respectively while the related ring diameters d follow the ubiquitous d rule of planetary impact basins the crust of these buried basins is likely to contain water at higher levels than the crust of the equatorial basins that was substantially dewatered with the development of the great northern basin hence analyzing surface fractures faults and other crustal discontinuities that can tap the more saturated crust of these inferred buried basins may facilitate the hunt for water on mars

quantitative assessment of volcanic ash hazards for health and infrastructure at mt etna italy by numerical simulation abstract we performed a quantitative hazard assessment to determine the potential impacts of volcanic tephra fall on human health and infrastructure in the vicinity of mt etna italy using the numerical model vol calpuff we explored the dynamics of long lasting weak plume eruptions and their effects on the surrounding region input data are based on credible estimates of the main parameters characterising the expected events as derived from the historically observed and reconstructed explosive record of mt etna monte carlo techniques are used to capture the effects on estimates of finer ash concentration and total ground deposition due to volcanological uncertainties and meteorological variability numerical simulations compute the likelihoods of experiencing critical 10 m volcanic particle vp 10 concentrations in ambient air and tephra ground deposition at various populated locations around the volcano including the city of catania and at key infrastructure such as airports and main roads results show how the towns and infrastructure on the east side of the volcano are significantly more exposed to ash related hazards than those on the west side in accordance with wind statistics simulation outcomes also illustrate how at the sites analysed the amount of deposited particulate matter is proportional to the intensity i e mass flow rate of the event whereas predicted values of vp 10 concentrations are significantly larger for smaller events due to the reduced dispersal of low altitude plumes the use of a simple re mobilization model highlights the fact that particle re suspension needs to be considered in the estimation of vp 10 values our findings can be used to inform civil protection agencies responsible for mitigating tephra fall impacts to human health road transport and aviation safety

a multidisciplinary effort to assign realistic source parameters to models of volcanic ash cloud transport and dispersion during eruptions during volcanic eruptions volcanic ash transport and dispersion models vatds are used to forecast the location and movement of ash clouds over hours to days in order to define hazards to aircraft and to communities downwind those models use input parameters called eruption source parameters such as plume height h mass eruption rate duration d and the mass fraction m63 of erupted debris finer than about 4 or 63 m which can remain in the cloud for many hours or days observational constraints on the value of such parameters are frequently unavailable in the first minutes or hours after an eruption is detected moreover observed plume height may change during an eruption requiring rapid assignment of new parameters this paper reports on a group effort to improve the accuracy of source parameters used by vatds in the early hours of an eruption we do so by first compiling a list of eruptions for which these parameters are well constrained and then using these data to review and update previously studied parameter relationships we find that the existing scatter in plots of h versus yields an uncertainty within the 50 confidence interval of plus or minus a factor of four in eruption rate for a given plume height this scatter is not clearly attributable to biases in measurement techniques or to well recognized processes such as elutriation from pyroclastic flows sparse data on total grain size distribution suggest that the mass fraction of fine debris m63 could vary by nearly two orders of magnitude between small basaltic eruptions 0 01 and large silicic ones 0 5 we classify eleven eruption types four types each for different sizes of silicic and mafic eruptions submarine eruptions brief or vulcanian eruptions and eruptions that generate co ignimbrite or co pyroclastic flow plumes for each eruption type we assign source parameters we then assign a characteristic eruption type to each of the world s 1500 holocene volcanoes these eruption types and associated parameters can be used for ash cloud modeling in the event of an eruption when no observational constraints on these parameters are available

a three dimensional eulerian model for transport and deposition of volcanic ashes abstract volcanic ash fallout represents a serious threat to people living near active volcanoes because it can produce several undesirable effects such as collapse of roofs by ash loading respiratory sickness air traffic disruption or damage to agriculture the assessment of such volcanic risk is therefore an issue of vital importance for public safety and its mitigation often requires to evaluate the temporal evolution of the phenomenon through reliable computational models we develop an eulerian model named fall3d for the transport and deposition of volcanic ashes the model is based on the advection diffusion sedimentation equation with a turbulent diffusion given by the gradient transport theory a wind field obtained from a meteorological limited area model lam and the source term derived from by buoyant plume theory it can be used to forecast either ash concentration in the atmosphere or ash loading on the ground model inputs are topography meteorological data given by a lam mass eruption rate and a particle settling velocity distribution a test application to the july 2001 etna eruption is presented

three dimensional volcanic aerosol dispersal a comparison between multiangle imaging spectroradiometer misr data and numerical simulations 1 the three dimensional reconstruction of volcanic plumes is a central goal to enhance our understanding on dispersal processes in this paper we use data from the multiangle imaging spectroradiometer misr on board nasa s terra spacecraft combined with a stereo matching retrieval procedure we show the potential of misr in capturing important features of volcanic plumes like column height optical depth type and shape of the finest particles of two highly explosive eruptions occurring on mount etna in 2001 and 2002 this work tests how tephra dispersal models reconstruct the 3 d shape of volcanic clouds we compare misr data with fall3d an eulerian model for the transport and deposition of volcanic ash and aerosols coupled with the weather research and forecasting mesoscale meteorological model agreement between simulations and misr data is good regarding both events although it could be improved by increasing the accuracy of the meteorological data a better constraint on volcanological input parameters like the height of the eruptive column and improving our understanding of processes such as aggregation phenomena and volcanic cloud microphysics

the vol calpuff model for atmospheric ash dispersal 2 application to the weak mount etna plume of july 2001 1 here the application of the vol calpuff model by barsotti et al to a weak plume erupted from mount etna in july 2001 is presented and discussed the reconstruction of the explosive event was obtained by using high resolution weather forecasts produced by a mesoscale nonhydrostatic model and volcanic source data coming from observations and analytical studies the plume rise and atmospheric dispersal models were investigated over 5 d of eruption mostly in terms of column height aerial ash concentration and ground deposition modeling results are shown as a function of various source conditions and compared to independent observations derived from satellite images and deposit mapping the application of vol calpuff clearly highlights the crucial role played by meteorological conditions in determining dispersal dynamics some of the most important effects described by the model are 1 the large wind field influence on the plume height determination and tilting 2 the contrasting dispersal patterns of ash particles of different sizes 3 the complex and somehow nonintuitive distribution of ash on the ground resulting in preferential directions of dispersal and quite irregular deposit patterns and 4 the impossibility to reproduce both the column height and the deposit accumulation pattern by adopting a steady state vent mass flow rate over the investigated 4 d period due to observed temporal changes in eruption dynamics modeling results also suggest the need for further integration of simulation outcomes with remote sensing and field reconstructions on ash dispersal processes in future

a review of tephra transport and dispersal models evolution current status and future perspectives abstract tephra transport models try to predict atmospheric dispersion and sedimentation of tephra depending on meteorology particle properties and eruption characteristics defined by eruption column height mass eruption rate and vertical distribution of mass models are used for different purposes from operational forecast of volcanic ash clouds to hazard assessment of tephra dispersion and fallout the size of the erupted particles a key parameter controlling the dynamics of particle sedimentation in the atmosphere varies within a wide range largest centimetric to millimetric particles fallout at proximal to medial distances from the volcano and sediment by gravitational settling on the other extreme smallest micrometric to sub micrometric particles can be transported at continental or even at global scales and are affected by other deposition and aggregation mechanisms different scientific communities had traditionally modeled the dispersion of these two end members volcanologists developed families of models suitable for lapilli and coarse ash and aimed at computing fallout deposits and for hazard assessment in contrast meteorologists and atmospheric scientists have traditionally used other atmospheric transport models dealing with finer particles for tracking motion of volcanic ash clouds and eventually for computing airborne ash concentrations during the last decade the increasing demand for model accuracy and forecast reliability has pushed on two fronts first the original gap between these different families of models has been filled with the emergence of multi scale and multi purpose models second new modeling strategies including for example ensemble and probabilistic forecast or model data assimilation are being investigated for future implementation in models and or modeling strategies this paper reviews the evolution of tephra transport and dispersal models during the last two decades presents the status and limitations of the current modeling strategies and discusses some emergent perspectives expected to be implemented at operational level during the next few years improvements in both real time forecasting and long term hazard assessment are necessary to loss prevention programs on a local regional national and international level

uncertainty analysis of a model of wind blown volcanic plumes mathematical models of natural processes can be used as inversion tools to predict unobserved properties from measured quantities uncertainty in observations and model formulation impact on the efficacy of inverse modelling we present a general methodology history matching that can be used to investigate the effect of observational and model uncertainty on inverse modelling studies we demonstrate history matching on an integral model of volcanic plumes that is used to estimate source conditions from observations of the rise height of plumes during the eruptions of eyjafjallajokull iceland in 2010 and grimsvotn iceland in 2011 sources of uncertainty are identified and quantified and propagated through the integral plume model a preliminary sensitivity analysis is performed to identify the uncertain model parameters that strongly influence model predictions model predictions are assessed against observations through an implausibility measure that rules out model inputs that are considered implausible given the quantified uncertainty we demonstrate that the source mass flux at the volcano can be estimated from plume height observations but the magmatic temperature exit velocity and exsolved gas mass fraction cannot be accurately determined uncertainty in plume height observations and entrainment coefficients results in a large range of plausible values of the source mass flux our analysis shows that better constraints on entrainment coefficients for volcanic plumes and more precise observations of plume height are required to obtain tightly constrained estimates of the source mass flux

uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis of volcanic columns models results from the integral model plume mom the behavior of plumes associated with explosive volcanic eruptions is complex and dependent on eruptive source parameters e g exit velocity gas fraction temperature and grain size distribution it is also well known that the atmospheric environment interacts with volcanic plumes produced by explosive eruptions in a number of ways the wind field can bend the plume but also affect atmospheric air entrainment into the column enhancing its buoyancy and in some cases preventing column collapse in recent years several numerical simulation tools and observational systems have investigated the action of eruption parameters and wind field on volcanic column height and column trajectory revealing an important influence of these variables on plume behavior in this study we assess these dependencies using the integral model plume mom whereby the continuous polydispersity of pyroclastic particles is described using a quadrature based moment method an innovative approach in volcanology well suited for the description of the multiphase nature of magmatic mixtures application of formalized uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis techniques enables statistical exploration of the model providing information on the extent to which uncertainty in the input or model parameters propagates to model output uncertainty in particular in the framework of the iavcei commission on tephra hazard modeling inter comparison study plume mom is used to investigate the parameters exerting a major control on plume height applying it to a weak plume scenario based on 26 january 2011 shinmoe dake eruptive conditions and a strong plume scenario based on the climatic phase of the 15 june 1991 pinatubo eruption

weather radar observations of the hekla 2000 eruption cloud iceland the hekla eruption cloud on 26 27 february 2000 was the first volcanic cloud to be continuously and completely monitored advecting above iceland using the c band weather radar near the keflavik international airport real time radar observations of the onset advection and waning of the eruption cloud were studied using time series of ppi plan position indicator radar images including vmi normal echotop and cappi level 2 displays the reflectivity of the entire volcanic cloud ranges from 0 to 60 dbz the eruption column above the vent is essentially characterised by vmi normal and cappi level 2 values 30 dbz due to the dominant influence of lapilli and ash tephra on the overall reflected signal the cloud generated by the column was advected downwind to the north northeast it is characterised by values between 0 and 30 dbz and the persistence of these reflections likely result from continuing water condensation and freezing on ash particles echotop radar images of the eruption onset document a rapid ascent of the plume head with a mean velocity of 30 to 50 m s 1 before it reached an altitude of 11 12 km the evolution of the reflected cloud was studied from the area change in pixels of its highly reflected portions 30 dbz and tied to recorded volcanic tremor amplitudes the synchronous initial variation of both radar and seismic signals documents the abrupt increase in tephra emission and magma discharge rate from 18 20 to 19 00 utc on 26 february from 19 00 the 45 dbz and 30 45 dbz portions of the reflected cloud decrease and disappear at about 7 and 10 5 h respectively after the eruption began indicating the end of the decaying explosive phase the advection and extent of the reflected eruption cloud were compared with eyewitness accounts of tephra fall onset and the measured mass of tephra deposited on the ground during the first 12 h differences in the deposit map and volcanic cloud radar map are due to the fact that the greater part of the deposit originates by fallout off the column margins and from the base of the cloud followed by advection of falling particle in lower level winds

a statistical approach to evaluate the tephra deposit and ash concentration from puff model forecasts abstract in this paper we present a new statistical approach which provides tephra deposit load and ash concentration using puff a lagrangian model widely used to forecast volcanic ash dispersal during volcanic crisis we perform a parametric study in order to analyze the influence of each input parameter on model outputs for this test we simulate two eruptive scenarios similar to the 2001 scenario 1 and 1998 scenario 2 etna eruptions using high resolution weather data and a domain of 170 170 km results show that for both scenarios we are able to calculate the tephra deposit load and ash concentration but the use of millions of particles is required specifically up to 33 and 220 millions of particles were necessary to accurately predict the tephra deposit and ash concentration in air respectively this is approximately two orders of magnitude larger than the values typically considered running puff the parametric study shows that the horizontal diffusion coefficient the time step of the simulations the topography and the standard deviation of the particle distribution greatly affect the model outputs we also validate the model by best fit procedures results show a good comparison between field data of the 2001 etna eruption and puff simulations being inside 5 and 1 5 times the observed data comparable with results of eulerian models this work will allow to reliably outline the areas of contaminated airspace using puff or any other lagrangian model in order to define the no fly zone and ensure the safety aviation operations as required after the eyjafjallajokull eruption

the lunar mascons revisited the entire spectra of the surface topography and gravity field of lunar mascons are well presented by the high resolution clementine data the negative correlation between the topography and gravitational potential of the mascons suggests that they are dynamically supported both elastic support and viscous decay models are examined for the elastic support models the spectral characteristics and the lateral variations of the thickness of the elastic layer are determined on the basis of the thin spherical shell flexure formulation and using only the antivarying harmonics of the topography and potential an elastic layer thickness of about 50 km is required to support imbrium serenitatis and nectaris mascons about 35 km for crisium mascon and about 30 km for smythii and humorum mascons a layer of about 20 km thickness can support orientale mascon the strength envelopes of the upper 100 km of the moon within 4 3 gyr ago show that the elastic layer was not thick enough to support the mascons in the early history they decayed through viscous deformation of the lunar interior a lower limit of 6 1024 pa s is estimated for the lunar viscosity within 3 6 3 gyr ago we also determine the thicknesses of the crust and mare flows of the mascon basins on the basis of the assumption that the basins were isostatically compensated prior to the mascon formation the crust beneath the mascon basins is about 30 40 km except for crisium and orientale where the crust is about 20 km the mare flows of about 3 6 km are obtained for almost all of the mascon basins the topography and gravitational potential of aitken basin shows that the basin is compensated at 52 54 km depth the mantle beneath the basin has rebounded upward by about 20 30 km and is overlain by about 20 25 km of a mixture of the excavated crustal and mantle material the lack of a mascon and pervasive mare flows in the basin brings into question the current models of the mascon formation

surface and crater exposed lithologic units of the isidis basin as mapped by coanalysis of themis and tes derived data products 1 the stratigraphy and mineral heterogeneity of surface and crater exposed deposits in the southwestern portion of the isidis basin were investigated using spatial spectral visible and thermophysical data sets from both the mars global surveyor and odyssey missions four themis spectral surface units were identified progressing from the libya montes highlands to the inner lowland plains of isidis planitia lithologic determinations of these spectral units were made by linear deconvolution analysis of tes data olivine rich surface materials correlate with a well documented high thermal inertia unit based on spatial and stratigraphic relationships interpreted from both crater exposed and surface exposures the olivine rich unit was determined to have formed subsequent to the isidis basin forming event morphology occurrence and linear deconvolution of this unit suggests that it may represent noachian age to hesperian age picritic lavas that erupted as early stage lavas originating from sources such as syrtis major beneath isidis and as far as tyrrhena patera these lavas are suggested to have partially filled the basin based on crater exposed occurrences and were subsequently buried by further evolved olivine poor lavas later these lavas were exposed by erosion and subsequent impacts into the basin crater scaling suggests significant infilling of the basin by these lavas that may account for craters with very high d d ratios and the well developed positive mass anomaly associated with the basin this study also demonstrates that the remote sensing of impact craters in conjunction with surface mapping is a potent mapping tool for understanding stratigraphy and the petrogenesis of the martian crust

mafalda an early warning modeling tool to forecast volcanic ash dispersal and deposition 1 forecasting the dispersal of ash from explosive volcanoes is a scientific challenge to modern volcanology it also represents a fundamental step in mitigating the potential impact of volcanic ash on urban areas and transport routes near explosive volcanoes to this end we developed a web based early warning modeling tool named mafalda modeling and forecasting ash loading and dispersal in the atmosphere able to quantitatively forecast ash concentrations in the air and on the ground the main features of mafalda are the usage of 1 a dispersal model named vol calpuff that couples the column ascent phase with the ash cloud transport and 2 high resolution weather forecasting data the capability to run and merge multiple scenarios and the web based structure of the procedure that makes it suitable as an early warning tool mafalda produces plots for a detailed analysis of ash cloud dynamics and ground deposition as well as synthetic 2 d maps of areas potentially affected by dangerous concentrations of ash a first application of mafalda to the long lasting weak plumes produced at mt etna italy is presented a similar tool can be useful to civil protection authorities and volcanic observatories in reducing the impact of the eruptive events mafalda can be accessed at http mafalda pi ingv it

effect of wind on the rise height of volcanic plumes a theoretical model of a volcanic plume based on applying the equations of motion in a plume centered coordinate system suggests that the interaction between a volcanic plume and wind causes enhanced entrainment of air and horizontal momentum plume bending and a decrease in plume rise height at constant eruption rate because of rapid dilution in the high windspeeds of the polar jet plumes that vary over more than one order of magnitude in mass eruption rate 106 to 107 108 kg s if injected into the polar jet may all attain rise heights only slightly different from that of the core of the jet 10 km as opposed to 17 33 km in a still atmosphere

insights into the formation and dynamics of coignimbrite plumes from one dimensional models coignimbrite plumes provide a common and effective mechanism by which large volumes of fine grained ash are injected into the atmosphere nevertheless controls on formation of these plumes as a function of eruptive conditions are still poorly constrained herein two 1 d axysymmetric steady state models were coupled the first describing the parent pyroclastic density current and the second describing plume rise global sensitivity analysis is applied to investigate controls on coignimbrite plume formation and describe coignimbrite source and the maximum plume height attained for a range of initial mass flow rates between 108 and 1010 kg s modeled liftoff distance the distance at which neutral buoyancy is attained assuming radial supercritical flow is controlled by the initial flow radius gas mass fraction flow thickness and temperature the predicted decrease in median grain size between flow initiation and plume liftoff is negligible calculated initial plume vertical velocities assuming uniform liftoff velocity over the pyroclastic density current invasion area are much greater several tens of m s than those previously used in modeling coignimbrite plumes 1 m s such velocities are inconsistent with the fine grain size of particles lofted into coignimbrite plumes highlighting an unavailability of large clasts possibly due to particle segregation within the flow prior to plume formation source radius and initial vertical velocity have the largest effect on maximum plume height closely followed by initial temperature modeled plume heights are between 25 and 47 km comparable with plinian eruption columns highlighting the potential of such events for distributing fine grained ash over significant areas

the gravity field of mars results from mars global surveyor observations of the gravity field of mars reveal a planet that has responded differently in its northern and southern hemispheres to major impacts and volcanic processes the rough elevated southern hemisphere has a relatively featureless gravitational signature indicating a state of near isostatic compensation whereas the smooth low northern plains display a wider range of gravitational anomalies that indicates a thinner but stronger surface layer than in the south the northern hemisphere shows evidence for buried impact basins although none large enough to explain the hemispheric elevation difference the gravitational potential signature of tharsis is approximately axisymmetric and contains the tharsis montes but not the olympus mons or alba patera volcanoes the gravity signature of valles marineris extends into chryse and provides an estimate of material removed by early fluvial activity

2001 flank eruption of the alkali and volatile rich primitive basalt responsible for mount etna s evolution in the last three decades abstract since the early 1970s enhanced eruptive activity of mount etna has been accompanied by selective geochemical changes in erupted lavas among which a gradual increase of alkalis whose origin is still debated here we provide further insight into the origin of this recent evolution based on a detailed study of the chemistry and dissolved volatile content of melt inclusions trapped in olivine crystals of unusual plagioclase poor primitive basalt that was extruded during a highly explosive flank eruption in july august 2001 two types of lava were erupted simultaneously along a n s fracture system trachybasalts from the upper vents 2950 2700 m were simply drained out by fracturing of the central volcanic conduit they are identical to summit crater lavas and contain mg poor olivines fo 70 72 with evolved and volatile poor melt inclusions that represent late stage crystallisation during shallow open conduit degassing in contrast plagioclase poor basalt 80 of total extruded through the lower vents 2550 2100 m derived from lateral dyke intrusion of a more primitive and volatile rich magma across the sedimentary basement this primitive melt is best preserved in rare fo 82 4 80 5 skeletal olivines present in lapilli deposits from the most powerful activities at the 2550 m vent its high dissolved contents of h 2 o 3 4 wt co 2 0 11 to 0 41 wt s 0 32 wt cl 0 16 wt and f 0 094 wt point to its closed system ascent from 400 to 250 mpa 12 to 6 5 km depth b s l however the predominance of euhedral olivine phenocrysts with common reverse zoning cores fo 76 78 and rims fo 78 80 and decrepited inclusions shows that most of the erupted basalt derived from a slightly more evolved crystallizing body of the same magma that was invaded by the uprising primitive melt prior to erupting the few preserved inclusions in these olivines indicate pre eruptive storage of that magma body at about 5 km depth b s l in coherence with seismic data we propose that the 2001 flank eruption resulted from gradual overpressuring of etna s shallow plumbing system due to the influx of volatile rich primitive basalt that may have begun several months in advance we find that this basalt is much richer in alkalis 2 0 wt k 2 o and has higher s cl 2 0 but lower cl k and cl f ratios than all pre 1970s etnean lavas 1 4 wt k 2 o s cl 1 5 as further exemplified by melt inclusions in entrained olivine xenocrysts combining these new observations with previously published data we argue that the 2001 basalt represents a new alkali rich basic end member feeding mt etna only few amount of which had previously been extruded during a 1974 peripheral eruption and more recently during brief paroxysmal summit events over the last three decades this new magma has progressively mixed with and replaced the former k poorer trachybasalts filling the plumbing system leading to extrusion of gradually more primitive and alkali richer lavas its geochemical singularities cannot result from shallow crustal contaminations instead they suggest the involvement of an alkali richer but cl poorer arc type component during recent magma genesis beneath etna

reconstructing eruptive source parameters from tephra deposit a numerical study of medium sized explosive eruptions at etna volcano since the 1970s multiple reconstruction techniques have been proposed and are currently used to extrapolate and quantify eruptive parameters from sampled tephra fall deposit datasets atmospheric transport and deposition processes strongly control the spatial distribution of tephra deposit therefore a large uncertainty affects mass derived estimations especially for fall layer that are not well exposed this paper has two main aims the first is to analyse the sensitivity to the deposit sampling strategy of reconstruction techniques the second is to assess whether there are differences between the modelled values for emitted mass and grainsize versus values estimated from the deposits we find significant differences and propose a new correction strategy a numerical approach is demonstrated by simulating with a dispersal code a mild explosive event occurring at mt etna on 24 november 2006 eruptive parameters are reconstructed by an inversion information collected after the eruption a full synthetic deposit is created by integrating the deposited mass computed by the model over the computational domain i e an area of 7 5 104 km 2 a statistical analysis based on 2000 sampling tests of 50 sampling points shows a large variability up to 50 for all the reconstruction techniques moreover for some test examples power law errors are larger than estimated uncertainty a similar analysis on simulated grain size classes shows how spatial sampling limitations strongly reduce the utility of available information on the total grain size distribution for example information on particles coarser than 4 is completely lost when sampling at 1 5 km from the vent for all columns with heights less than 2000 m above the vent to correct for this effect an optimal sampling strategy and a new reconstruction method are presented a sensitivity study shows that our method can be extended to a wide range of eruptive scenarios including those in which aggregation processes are important the new correction method allows an estimate of the deficiency for each simulated class in calculated mass deposited providing reliable estimation of uncertainties in the reconstructed total whole deposit grainsize distribution

lunar multiring basins and the cratering process abstract numerous studies of the lunar gravity field have concluded that the lunar moho is substantially uplifted beneath the young multiring basins this uplift is presumably due to the excavation of large quantities of crustal material during the cratering process and subsequent rebound of the impact basin floor using a new dual layered crustal thickness model of the moon the excavation cavities of some nearside multiring basins grimaldi and larger and younger than tranquillitatis were reconstructed by restoring the uplifted moho to its preimpact location the farside south pole aitken spa basin was also considered due to its importance in deciphering lunar evolution restoring the moho to its preimpact position beneath these basins resulted in a roughly parabolic depression from which the depth and diameter of the excavation cavity could be determined using these reconstructed excavation cavities the basin forming process was investigated excavation cavity diameters were generally found to be on the small side of most previous estimates for orientale the modeled excavation cavity lies within the inner rook ring additionally with the exception of the three largest basins serenitatis imbrium and south pole aitken the depth diameter ratios of the excavation cavities were found to be 0 115 0 005 a value consistent with theoretical and experimental results for impact craters orders of magnitude smaller in size the three largest basins however appear to have significantly shallower depths of excavation compared to this trend it is possible that this may reflect a different physical process of crater formation e g nonproportional scaling special impact conditions or postimpact modification processes the crustal thickness model also shows that each basin is surrounded by an annulus of thickened crust we interpret this thickened crust as representing thick basin ejecta deposits and we show that the radial variation in the thickness of these deposits is consistent with scaling laws obtained from small scale experimental studies if multiring basins ever possessed a terraced main crater rim this terraced zone may be presently unrecognizable at the surface due to the emplacement of ejecta deposits that exceed a few kilometers in thickness exterior to the excavation cavity rim we also show that the interiors of many basins were superisostatic before mare volcanism commenced those basins that were closest to approaching a premare isostatic state lie close to or within an anomalous geochemical province rich in heat producing elements

potential anomalies on a sphere applications to the thickness of the lunar crust a new technique for calculating potential anomalies on a sphere due to finite amplitude relief has been developed we show that by raising the topography to the nth power and expanding this field into spherical harmonics potential anomalies due to topography on spherical density interfaces can be computed to arbitrary precision using a filter for downward continuing the bouguer anomaly we have computed a variety of crustal thickness maps for the moon assuming both a homogeneous as well as a dual layered crust the crustal thickness maps for the homogeneous model give plausible results but this model is not consistent with the seismic data petrologic evidence and geoid to topography ratios all of which suggest some form of crustal stratification several dual layered models were investigated and it was found that only models with both upper and lower crustal thickness variations could satisfy the gravity and topography data these models predict that the entire upper crust has been excavated beneath the major nearside multiring basins additionally significant amounts of lower crustal material was excavated from these basins especially beneath crisium this model also predicts that mantle material should not have been excavated during the south pole aitken basin forming event and that lower crustal material should be exposed at the surface in this basin

a palaeoenvironmental investigation of sediments from the prehistoric mine of copa hill cwmystwyth mid wales this paper investigates the use of mine sediments to reconstruct the vegetational changes and atmospheric pollution history associated with prehistoric and mediaeval metal mining in the ystwyth valley dyfed mid wales pollen charcoal plant macrofossils fossil insects and chemical analyses are presented from radiocarbon dated sediments contained within a prehistoric mine situated on the upper slope of copa hill close to the village of cwmystwyth the results provide additional support to the hypothesis that prehistoric mining had a negligible impact on woodland and that deforestation took place after bronze age mining ceased although high concentrations of cu pb and zn were determined from sediments of prehistoric and roman age the patterns bear little resemblance to off site atmospheric pollution records and to the archaeological evidence for metal mining interpreting geochemical data from mine contexts is problematic as numerous factors influence the distribution and concentration of metals however an on site and off site approach to investigate human environment interactions caused by metal mining is advocated

utopia and hellas basins mars twins separated at birth 1 using topography and gravity data as constraints we formulate spherical harmonic thin elastic shell models to determine the subsurface structure of the hellas and utopia basins for hellas we show that our model is consistent with the elastic thickness results of mcgovern et al 2002 2004 the thin elastic lithosphere at the time of formation implies that hellas is close to isostatic since utopia formed earlier we argue that an isostatic assumption is justified for the utopia basin before it was filled from this supposition we derive a system of equations that allows us to solve for the amount of fill the prefill topography and the amount of flexure due to the fill within the utopia basin an analysis of the parameter space shows that the fill density and the amount of fill is strongly dependent on the elastic thickness at the time of infilling a thinner elastic lithosphere favors a denser fill while a thicker lithosphere will allow for less dense material likewise larger crustal thickness values lead to smaller fill density values the presence of quasi circular depressions interpreted as impact craters within the utopia basin indicates that the majority of the material within utopia was deposited prior to 4 04 4 11 ga the early timing for the deposition combined with the heat imparted by the basin forming event argues for a thinner lithosphere which could in turn suggest fill densities that are more consistent with a volcanic load than with pure sediment or ice rich material these results are supported using an alternative method of determining the amount of fill and flexure within utopia this model assumes that hellas and utopia were initially identical and that the only difference in their subsequent evolution was the addition of material in the utopia basin the volume of material needed to fill utopia is immense on the order of 50 million km3 or more the high density obtained for the fill requires that it contain a large igneous component the source of which is problematic relaxing the isostatic assumption to a reasonable degree perturbs the density bound only slightly

stealth quasi circular depressions sqcds in the northern lowlands of mars 1 while qcds are quasi circular depressions revealed in the mars orbiter laser altimeter mola gridded data set stealth qcds sqcds are those qcds that have no obvious structural representation in visible images of mars it has been suggested that sqcds are surface representations of buried impact craters and on the basis of this assumption size frequency distributions of all qcds in the northern lowlands have been constructed to date the buried lowland floor expanding upon previous studies of stealth qcds around the utopia basin 446 sqcds with diameters ranging from 7 to 115 km have been identified in the northern lowlands of mars the direct relationship of sqcd surface relief to diameter indicates that stealth qcds form due to differential compaction of a cover material over buried impact craters a comparison of sqcd location to the geologic map of the northern lowlands reveals that stealth qcds are only located in geologic units predicted to be capable of differential compaction consistent with models of their formation the slope of the trend of the sqcds surface relief versus diameter has a coefficient of determination r2 approaching 1 when sqcds are evaluated by geologic unit and by regions of inferred comparable cover thickness trend slope analysis also indicates that the lowland cover material is thickest in the scandia region and the center of the borealis and utopia basins and thinnest in isidis planitia and north of arabia terra

wind driven dispersal of volcanic ash plumes and its control on the thermal structure of the plume top the dispersal of an ash plume as it propagates downwind with the ash settling under gravity is presented it is shown that wind shear the initial plume height and the plume grain size distribution have an important role in the dispersal of the ash in particular in determining the evolution of the upper surface and the leading edge of the ash cloud once the ash has thermally equilibrated with the atmosphere the temperature of the upper surface of the ash plume is directly related to its altitude as a result we can use the model to interpret satellite images of the temperature of the upper surface of ash plumes these calculations are compared with new analyses of satellite data from the 18 may 1980 eruptions of mount st helens in which both thermal infra red and visible goes satellite data were examined in accord with the data the model is able to predict the rate at which the mount st helens ash plume propagated downwind through a combination of the wind shear and gravitational settling of different size particles the model is also able to explain the observed thermal structure of the upper surface of the ash plume in which the temperature initially decreases but then increases with downwind distance as the ash falls through the tropopause

investigation of the complex dynamics and structure of the 2010 eyjafjallajokull volcanic ash cloud using multispectral images and numerical simulations 1 we investigated the structure and evolution of the 2010 eyjafjallajokull volcanic cloud and its dispersal over iceland and europe integrating satellite multispectral images and numerical simulations data acquired by medium resolution imaging spectrometer meris and advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer aster have been analyzed to quantify the cloud extent and composition the vol calpuff dispersal code was applied to reconstruct the transient and 3 d evolution of the cloud source parameters estimated on the base of available a posteriori volcanological data sets have been used quantitative comparisons between satellite retrievals and modeling results were performed for two selected instants of time during the first and third eruptive phases on a regional scale sensitivity of the model to initial volcanological conditions has been analyzed at continental scale several complex non intuitive features of cloud dynamics have been highlighted and strengths and limitations of the adopted methods identified the main findings are the level of quantitative agreement between satellite observations and numerical results depends on ash cloud composition particle sizes and concentration with better agreement for smaller particles and higher concentrations the agreement between observations and modeling outcomes also depends on the temporal stability of volcanological conditions and the complexity of the meteorological wind field the irregular dispersion of ash as reconstructed from satellite data and numerical modeling can be well explained by the different response of particle sizes to strong vertical wind shear and by resuspension processes acting at ground level eruptive source conditions are the main source of uncertainty in modeling especially during an ongoing crisis and at long range scales