growth of volcanic ash aggregates in the presence of liquid water and ice an experimental approach key processes influencing the aggregation of volcanic ash and hydrometeors are examined with an experimental method employing vibratory pan aggregation mechanisms of aggregation in the presence of hail and ice pellets liquid water 30 wt and mixed water phases are investigated at temperatures of 18 and 20 c the experimentally generated aggregates examined in hand sample impregnated thin sections sem imagery and x ray microtomography closely match natural examples from phreatomagmatic phases of the 27 ka oruanui and 2010 eyjafjallajokull eruptions laser diffraction particle size analysis of parent ash and aggregates is also used to calculate the first experimentally derived aggregation coefficients that account for changing liquid water contents and subzero temperatures these indicate that dry conditions 1 in contrast liquid saturated conditions 15 20 wt liquid promote less size selective processes crystalline ice was also capable of preferentially selecting volcanic ash 31 m under liquid free conditions in a two stage process of electrostatic attraction followed by ice sintering however this did not accumulate more than a monolayer of ash at the ice surface these quantitative relationships may be used to predict the timescales and characteristics of aggregation such as aggregate size spectra densities and constituent particle size characteristics when the initial size distribution and water content of a volcanic cloud are known the presence of an irregularly shaped millimeter scale vacuole at the center of natural aggregates was also replicated during interaction of ash and melting ice pellets followed by sublimation fine grained rims were formed by adding moist aggregates to a dry mixture of sub 31 m ash which adhered by electrostatic forces and sparse liquid bridges from this we infer that the fine grained outer layers of natural aggregates reflect recycled exposure of moist aggregates to regions of volcanic clouds that are relatively dry and dominated by 31 m ash

magmatic precursors to the 18 may 1980 eruption of mount st helens usa perhaps the most difficult task facing volcanologists today is that of distinguishing between low level volcanic restlessness and activity that presages a full scale eruption we illustrate these difficulties by reexamining the sequence of events that led to the 18 may 1980 eruption of mount st helens activity that is often presented as a classic example of early phreatic explosions leading to a magmatic eruption this interpretation is problematic however given the known ascent of juvenile magma to within 250 m of the surface prior to the climactic event reexamination of ash samples from several precursory events shows that small amounts of juvenile material were erupted as early as 28 march 1980 just two weeks after the first seismic signals of reawakening and that the juvenile content of the ash had probably increased by early may the magmatic component of these eruptions was not recognized at the time because of the high crystallinity of the juvenile material a signature of extensive degassing induced crystallization during magma ascent identification of juvenile material in the precursory ash from mount st helens has important implications for initiation of eruptive activity

multiphase petrography of volcanic rocks using element maps a method applied to mount st helens 1980 2005 quantitative textural analyses including crystal size distributions csds provide insights into crystallisation kinetics of magmatic systems investigations of volcanic crystal textures often rely on greyscale variations on backscattered electron images to identify crystal phases which must then be thresholded and or traced manually a laborious task and investigations are typically restricted to a single crystal phase a method is presented that uses energy dispersive x ray element maps to generate textural data each pixel is identified as a crystal phase glass or vesicle according to relative chemical composition enabling concurrent acquisition of multiphase csd crystallinity and mineral mode data data processing is less time intensive for the operator but considerable instrument time is required to generate element maps the method is applied to 17 dacite samples from the 1980 1986 and 3 from the 2004 2005 eruptive periods of mount st helens volcano usa to provide quantitative insights into multiphase textural evolution all of the csds are curved and concave up in the standard csd plot with curvature increasing with plagioclase content to facilitate comparisons with previous studies csds for microlites 50 m length crystals are approximated as straight lines the line intercepts and slopes provide information on n 0 nucleation density and characteristic length or g the product of growth rate g and residence time respectively these parameters as well as the total groundmass crystallinity show distinct differences between explosive deposits from summer 1980 and post summer 1980 domes post summer 1980 microlite n 0 values are mostly at the lower end of the range of those measured for summer 1980 samples total groundmass crystallinities during summer 1980 are between 10 and 30 vol whereas post summer 1980 crystallinity increases to between 39 and 51 vol the range of n 0 values is similar to those previously published for mount st helens but g is consistently higher g of a may 1985 sample analysed in this study is approximately 2 m higher compared with previously published data for the same sample when processed using similar methodologies groundmass crystallinity data show similar trends to those previously published for the 1980 to 1986 eruption increasing sharply after summer 1980 then increasing more gradually during the dome building phase of the eruption the effects of varying l the apparent crystal size and crystal aspect ratio on resultant csds are also investigated whilst relative temporal variations in csds for a given dataset can be investigated absolute values from different studies cannot be compared unless methods of data acquisition and processing are exactly the same

variations in column height and magma discharge during the may 18 1980 eruption of mount st helens abstract peak eruption column heights for the b1 b2 b3 and b4 units of the may 18 1980 fall deposit from mount st helens have been determined from pumice and lithic clast sizes and models of tephra dispersal column heights determined from the fall deposit agree well with those determined by radar measurements b1 and b2 units were derived from plinian activity between 0900 and about 1215 hrs b3 was formed by fallout of tephra from plumes that rose off pyroclastic flows from about 1215 to 1630 hrs a brief return to plinian activity between 1630 and 1715 hrs was marked by a maximum in column height 19 km during deposition of b4 variations in magma discharge during the eruption have been reconstructed from modelling of column height during plinian discharge and mass balance calculations based on the volume of pyroclastic flows and coignimbrite ash peak magma discharge occurred during the period 1215 1630 hrs when pyroclastic flows were generated by collapse of low fountains through the crater breach pyroclastic flow deposits and the widely dispersed co ignimbrite ash account for 77 of the total erupted mass with only 23 derived from plinian discharge a shift in eruptive style at noon on may 18 may have been associated with increase in magma discharge and the eruption of silicic andesite mingled with the dominant mafic dacite increasing abundance of the silicic andesite during the period of highest magma discharge is consistent with the draw up and tapping of deeper levels in the magma reservoir as predicted by theoretical models of magma withdrawal return to plinian activity late in the afternoon when magma discharge decreased is consistent with theoretical predictions of eruption column behavior the dominant generation of pyroclastic flows during the may 18 eruption can be attributed to the low bulk volatile content of the magma and the increasing magma discharge that resulted in the transition from a stable convective eruption column to a collapsing one

hydrometeor enhanced tephra sedimentation constraints from the 18 may 1980 eruption of mount st helens 1 uncertainty remains on the origin of distal mass deposition maxima observed in many recent tephra fall deposits in this study the link between ash aggregation and the formation of distal mass deposition maxima is investigated through reanalysis of tephra fallout from the mount st helens 18 may 1980 msh80 eruption in addition we collate all the data needed to model distal ash sedimentation from the msh80 eruption cloud four particle size subpopulations were present in distal fallout with modes at 2 2 4 2 5 9 and 8 3 settling rates of the coarsest subpopulation closely matched predicted single particle terminal fall velocities sedimentation of particles 100 m was greatly enhanced predominantly through aggregation of a particle subpopulation with modal diameter 5 9 0 2 19 3 m mammatus on the msh80 cloud provided a mechanism to transport very fine ash particles with predicted atmospheric lifetimes of days to weeks from the upper troposphere to the surface in a matter of hours in this mechanism ash particles initiate ice hydrometeor formation high in the troposphere subsequently the volcanic cloud rapidly subsides as mammatus develop from increased particle loading and cloud base sublimation rapid fallout occurs as the cloud passes through the melting level in a process analogous to snowflake aggregation aggregates sediment en masse and form the distal mass deposition maxima observed in many recent volcanic ash fall deposits this work provides a data resource that will facilitate tephra sedimentation modeling and allow model intercomparisons

multiple levels of magma storage during the 1980 summer eruptions of mount st helens wa transitions in eruptive style explosive to effusive sustained to pulsatory are a common aspect of volcanic activity and present a major challenge to volcano monitoring efforts a classic example of such transitions is provided by the activity of mount st helens wa during 1980 where a climactic plinian event on may 18 was followed by subplinian and vulcanian eruptions that became increasing pulsatory with time throughout the summer finally progressing to episodic growth of a lava dome here we use variations in the textures glass compositions and volatile contents of melt inclusions preserved in pyroclasts produced by the summer 1980 eruptions to determine conditions of magma ascent and storage that may have led to observed changes in eruptive activity five different pyroclast types identified in pyroclastic flow and fall deposits produced by eruptions in june 12 july 22 and august 7 1980 provide evidence for multiple levels of magma storage prior to each event highly vesicular clasts have h2o rich 4 5 5 5 wt melt inclusions and lack groundmass microlites or hornblende reaction rims characteristics that require magma storage at p 160 mpa until shortly prior to eruption all other clast types have groundmass microlites ph20 estimated from both h2o bearing melt inclusions and textural constraints provided by decompression experiments suggest pre eruptive storage pressures of 75 40 and 10 mpa the distribution of pyroclast types within and between eruptive deposits can be used to place important constraints on eruption mechanisms fall and flow deposits from june 12 1980 lack highly vesicular microlite free pyroclasts this eruption was also preceded by a shallow intrusion on june 3 as evidenced by a seismic crisis and enhanced so2 emissions our constraints suggest that magma intruded to a depth of 4 km beneath the crater floor fed the june eruption in contrast eruptions of july and august although shorter in duration and smaller in volume erupted deep volatile rich magma if modeled as a simple cylinder these data require a step wise decrease in effective conduit diameter from 40 50 m in may and june to 8 12 m in july and august the abundance of vesicular intermediate to deep clast types in july and august further suggests that this change was effected by narrowing the shallower part of the conduit perhaps in response to solidification of intruded magma remaining in the shallow system after the june eruption eruptions from july to october were distinctly pulsatory transitioning between subplinian and vulcanian in character as originally suggested by scandone and malone 1985 a growing mismatch between the rate of magma ascent and magma disruption explains the increasingly pulsatory nature of the eruptions through time recent fragmentation experiments spieler et al 2004 suggest this mismatch may have been aided by the multiple levels at which magma was stored and degassed prior to these events

shallow vsp work in the u s appalachian coal basin most geophysical applications in north american coal exploration have centered around the conventional surface seismic reflection method to provide continuous subsurface coverage for evaluating both good and anomalous coal reserve areas ruskey 1981 dobecki and bartel 1982 greaves 1984 lawton 1985 lyatsky and lawton 1988 gochioco and cotten 1989 lawton and lyatsky 1989 gochioco and kelly 1990 gochioco 1991 henson and sexton 1991 the surface seismic reflection method however has inherent resolution limitations because the seismic wavelet must propagate substantial distances through the weathered layer resulting in rapid attenuation of the desired higher frequencies since the depths and thicknesses of coal seams are usually known before hand it is imperative that the seismic reflection associated with the target coal seam is absolutely identified in the seismic section to avoid misinterpretations however it is common that checkshot data and sonic and density logs are not availabl

emplacement of the 18 may 1980 lateral blast deposit ene of mount st helens washington facies variations east northeast of mount st helens preserve a record of depositional processes in the 18 may 1980 lateral blast cloud this paper reports new field grain size and component data from the ene sector of the timber blowdown zone and presents a model for blast flow and sedimentation the first erupted ejecta was rich in juvenile components and extends to the distal blowdown limit the last erupted ejecta was rich in accidental lithics and reached no further than a few kilometres from the mountain due to waning discharge the blast cloud was a turbulent stratified flow which transported and deposited sediment in the manner of a high density turbidity current the possibility that the blast was emplaced as a giant shearing fluidised bed is not favoured by compositional zoning patterns depositional conditions were strongly influenced by the rate of suspended load fallout from the blast within about 8 km from vent rapid sedimentation caused deposition under moderate to high concentration conditions and formation of a basal hindered settling zone able to detach gravitationally and drain into local depressions the resulting proximal facies resembles a low aspect ratio ignimbrite fines depletion in the proximal facies is attributed to a combination of residual turbulence and rapid gas escape during particle settling and compaction through the hindered settling zone component data suggest that the blast head played no significant role in the generation of fines depletion in the blast deposit as suggested by previous workers with increasing distance from vent the rate of particle fallout declined and sedimentation took place under increasingly dilute and tractional conditions building up antidune like bedforms wavelengths of these bedforms range from 20 to 1 m and decrease away from vent there is a systematic relationship between antidune migration direction and depositional slope the transition from proximal ignimbrite like to distal surge like facies suggests a possible gradation in transport and deposition processes between conventional pyroclastic surges and high velocity pyroclastic flows

impact of the lateral blast on the spatial pattern and grain size characteristics of the 18 may 1980 mount st helens fallout deposit the 18 may 1980 eruption of mount st helens started with a lateral blast that fed a pyroclastic surge which then uplifted to form a co blast plume thirty minutes later plinian activity started at the vent and fluctuated in intensity for 9 h the resulting fallout deposit documented to 600 km from vent presents some striking features 1 displacement of the overall deposit to the north of the vent 2 a secondary thickness and mass maximum at 300 km from vent 3 a total grain size distribution dominated by fine ash 62 wt of the deposit 63 m and 4 individual grain size distributions that vary dramatically in the crosswind direction from strongly bimodal in the south to skewed unimodal in the north results from a new deconvolution of the individual grain size distributions show that they are a combination of a coarse subpopulation that decreases in size with distance from vent and a constant fine subpopulation with a mean of 15 m relative proportions of each subpopulation vary asymmetrically in the crosswind directions with the fine subpopulation preponderant toward the north and the coarse one dominating the south of the deposit both reach their absolute maxima in mass on the deposit axis componentry analyses of selected samples show that blast derived material is greatly enriched toward the north of the deposit these results indicate that the co blast plume dispersed fine grained material over great distances and dominated the fine subpopulation comparison with reanalysis data of atmospheric wind fields and satellite images of the spreading ash cloud suggests contrasting ash transport and depositional processes for the early co blast plume and the later vent derived plinian plumes the co blast plume is displaced to the north it had a high overshoot height and eastward dispersion via strong winds low in the stratosphere 10 15 km the plinian plumes were lower and dispersed most of the material to the southeast as the direction of high velocity winds shifted just before the late climactic plinian eruptive phase fine ash fine subpopulation was deposited continuously throughout the deposit with an increase of sedimentation rate 300 km from the vent where there is a secondary maximum in the deposit mass and thickness fine ash probably settled by a combination of enhanced sedimentation mechanisms including not only aggregation but also gravitational convective instabilities of cloud base hydrometeor formation and destruction and entrainment of small particles by larger ones finally we show that half of the deposit by mass in the medial area was deposited by the co blast plume and that a significant proportion of the mount st helens fallout deposit is nonjuvenile which has implications for the magmatic budget of this eruption

volcanic ash clusters tephra rafts and scavengers abstract much of the volcanic ash deposited in the vicinity of pullman washington from the may 18th eruption of mt st helens in 1980 fell in the form of composite ash clusters 0 25 to 0 5 mm in diameter particles in the clusters ranged from sub micron to more than 40 microns in size the porous clusters rafted large ash particles great distances and scavenged particles of all sizes as the wind blew them eastward the result is poorly sorted ash deposits as far as 644 km east missoula within individual clusters textural relationships suggest that both mechanical interlocking and electrostatic attraction played a role in cluster formation the clusters are very fragile and may never be preserved in the stratigraphic record but it is suggested that this kind of ash transport may well have occurred in the geologic past documentation of this ash cluster fall will promote a better understanding of the physical aspects of the downwind distribution of fine grained volcanic ash the poor size sorting in some ancient ash deposits may thus be explained

geostatistics and multivariate analysis as a tool to characterize volcaniclastic deposits application to nevado de toluca volcano mexico abstract grain size analysis of volcaniclastic deposits is mainly used to study flow transport and depositional processes in most cases by comparing some statistical parameters and how they change with distance from the source in this work the geospatial and multivariate analyses are presented as a strong adaptable geostatistical tool applied to volcaniclastic deposits in order to provide an effective and relatively simple methodology for texture description deposit discrimination and interpretation of depositional processes we choose the case of nevado de toluca volcano mexico due to existing knowledge of its geological evolution stratigraphic succession and spatial distribution of volcaniclastic units grain size analyses and frequency distribution curves have been carried out to characterize and compare the 28 ka block and ash flow deposit associated to a dome destruction episode and the el morral debris avalanche deposit originated from the collapse of the south eastern sector of the volcano the geostatistical interpolation of sedimentological data allows to realize bidimensional maps draped over the volcano topography showing the granulometric distribution sorting and fine material concentration into the whole deposit with respect to topographic changes in this way it is possible to analyze a continuous surface of the grain size distribution of volcaniclastic deposits and better understand flow transport processes the application of multivariate statistic analysis discriminant function indicates that this methodology could be useful in discriminating deposits with different origin or different depositional lithofacies within the same deposit the proposed methodology could be an interesting approach to sustain more classical analysis of volcaniclastic deposits especially where a clear field classification appears problematic because of a homogeneous texture of the deposits or their scarce and discontinuous outcrops our study is an example of the strong versatility of geospatial analysis to provide an effective and relatively clear methodology for the characterization of volcaniclastic deposits

modeling ash fall distribution from a yellowstone supereruption we used the volcanic ash transport and dispersion model ash3d to estimate the distribution of ashfall that would result from a modern day plinian supereruption at yellowstone volcano the simulations required modifying ash3d to consider growth of a continent scale umbrella cloud and its interaction with ambient wind fields we simulated eruptions lasting 3 days 1 week and 1 month each producing 330 km3 of volcanic ash dense rock equivalent dre results demonstrate that radial expansion of the umbrella cloud is capable of driving ash upwind westward and crosswind n s in excess of 1500 km producing more or less radially symmetric isopachs that are only secondarily modified by ambient wind deposit thicknesses are decimeters to meters in the northern rocky mountains centimeters to decimeters in the northern midwest and millimeters to centimeters on the east west and gulf coasts umbrella cloud growth may explain the extremely widespread dispersal of the 640 ka and 2 1 ma yellowstone tephra deposits in the eastern pacific northeastern california southern california and south texas

rheological changes induced by clast fragmentation in debris flows on the basis of rotating drum analogue experiments we describe a fragmentation process acting within debris flows during transport and its influence on rheologic behavior our hypothesis is based on a detailed textural analysis including granulometry clast morphology and rheologic properties of the fluid matrix results of the experiments point out that breakage of certain granulometric classes produces fine particles like fine sand and silt the population growth of fine clasts with time leads to an increase in yield strength and viscosity that progressively modifies the rheologic behavior from a textural point of view this is reflected in a bimodal granulometric distribution up to now this characteristic has been explained as the effect of bulking and or sedimentation processes during transport our experimental results show that the type of fragmentation depends on particle size and is the consequence of strong clast clast interaction and clast fluid interactions coarse particles develop small fractures which cause the loss of sharp edges and asperities medium sized particles develop through going fractures that cause them to break apart the latter process explains why intermediate granulometric classes progressively diminish with time in debris flows analogue experiments enable us to study the efficacy of clast fragmentation in modifying the textural character and flow behavior of debris flows without the influence of external factors such as erosion and sedimentation the obtained results constitute the base of a new approach for modeling debris flow dynamics

a volcanic ash transport model and analysis of mount st helens ashfall a model is presented to compute the transport and deposition of volcanic ash particles calculations use variable winds along the particle trajectories the model was exercised by performing numerical experiments with data from the may 18 1980 eruption of mount st helens washington ashfall arrival times location of grounded ash a particle size distribution and particle size sorting across the grounded ash lobes were calculated and compared to observations agreement was generally found except for the particle size distribution the calculated size distribution contained particles that were larger than measured particle sizes this result supports the speculation made by others that falling aggregates break during landing and subsequent measurement

particle sedimentation and diffusive convection in volcanic ash clouds 1 understanding the longevity of volcanic ash clouds generated by powerful explosive eruptions is a long standing problem for assessing volcanic hazards and the nature and time scale of volcanic forcings on climate change it is well known that the lateral spreading and longevity of these clouds is influenced by stratospheric winds particle settling and turbulent diffusion observations of the recent 2010 eyjafjallajokull and 2011 grimsvotn umbrella clouds as well as the structure of atmospheric aerosol clouds from the 1991 mt pinatubo event suggest that an additional key process governing the cloud dynamics is the production of internal layering here we use analog experiments on turbulent particle laden umbrella clouds to show that this layering occurs where natural convection driven by particle sedimentation and the differential diffusion of primarily heat and fine particles give rise to a large scale instability where umbrella clouds are particularly enriched in fine ash this particle diffusive convection strongly influences the cloud longevity more generally cloud residence time will depend on fluxes due to both individual settling and diffusive convection we develop a new sedimentation model that includes both sedimentation processes and which is found to capture real time measurements of the rate of change of particle concentration in the 1982 el chichon 1991 mt pinatubo and 1992 mt spurr ash clouds a key result is that these combined sedimentation processes enhance the fallout of fine particles relative to expectations from individual settling suggesting that particle aggregation is not the only mechanism required to explain volcanic umbrella longevity

the boundary layer character of tidal currents in the eastern irish sea abstract the vertical profile of the tidal currents observed by a ship borne adcp at a site in the eastern irish sea where the water depth is 50 m was logarithmic with height above the bed in the lower 50 60 of the water column except for periods of about 1 h either side of slack water the maximum height of the boundary layer reached 40 m during the flood tide the shearing stress determined by the method of bowden et al 1959 showed a tendency to be uniform with height in the lower half of the water column while the eddy viscosity increased linearly away from the bed scaling on u z where u is the friction velocity both of these features are characteristic of the logarithmic profile region of a boundary layer flow estimates of zo the roughness length and cd the bottom drag coefficient were around 10 3 m and 2 4 10 3 consistent with the known character of the bed the scatter in the derived boundary layer parameters was reduced significantly by averaging the data within 30 min intervals which suggests the presence of tidal eddies having periods comparable to the 5 min sampling period of the adcp short period fluctuations in the flow were coherent over the lower 20 m of the water column and propagated vertically away from the bed

multiphase flow numerical modeling of the 18 may 1980 lateral blast at mount st helens usa volcanic lateral blasts are among the most spectacular and devastating of natural phenomena but their dynamics are still poorly understood here we investigate the best documented and most controversial blast at mount st helens washington state united states on 18 may 1980 by means of three dimensional multiphase numerical simulations we demonstrate that the blast front propagation final runout and damage can be explained by the emplacement of an unsteady stratified pyroclastic density current controlled by gravity and terrain morphology such an interpretation is quantitatively supported by large scale observations at mount st helens and will influence the definition and predictive mapping of hazards on blast dangerous volcanoes worldwide

improved space borne detection of volcanic ash for real time monitoring using 3 band method abstract for over 25 years thermal infrared data supplied by satellite based sensors are used to detect and characterize volcanic ash clouds using a commonly accepted method the 2 band reverse absorption technique this method is based on a two channel difference model using the opposite extinction features of water ice and ash particles at 11 and 12 m wavelengths although quite efficient with the supervision of a user this method shows however some limitations for reliable automated detection of volcanic ash in a real time fashion here we explore a method dedicated to the operational monitoring of volcanic ash that combines the 11 12 m brightness temperature difference btd11 12 with a second brightness temperature difference between channels 8 7 m and 11 m btd8 7 11 we first achieve a detailed microphysics analysis of different atmospheric aerosols volcanic ash water ice sulfuric acid mineral dust using optical properties e g extinction efficiency single scattering albedo and asymmetry parameter calculated by mie theory and showing that btd8 7 11 can be particularly efficient to remove most of artifacts then we tested this method for eight different eruptions between 2005 and 2011 from six different volcanoes mount etna piton de la fournaise karthala soufriere hills eyjafjallajokull and grimsvotn using data from the spinning enhanced visible and infrared imager seviri on board meteosat second generation msg geostationary satellite we show that between 95 6 and 99 9 of ash contaminated pixels erroneously identified by the btd11 12 method i e artifacts were detected and removed by the 3 band method for all eruptions the 3 band method shows a high and constant reliability having a false alarm rate in the range 0 002 0 08 hence allowing operational implementation for automated detection in case of a volcanic crisis

computer simulation of transport and deposition of the campanian y 5 ash analyses of grain size and modal composition of the campanian tuff ash layer y 5 from 11 deep sea cores have been carried out this layer represents ash fall that has been correlated with the 38 000 y b p campanian ignimbrite thunell et al 1979 a deposit formed by the largest eruption documented in the mediterranean region during the late pleistocene barberi et al 1978 the bulk deposit is bimodal in grain size and dominated by glass shards the calculated mean grain size of the coarse mode of the individual size distributions decreases with distance from the source and progressively approaches a near constant fine mode of approximately 13 microns distal samples are unimodal in grain size these data combined with a set of vertical profiles of wind 10 year average have been used as input to a computer model that simulates fallout of tephra modelling indicates that the downwind variation of grain size of the coarse mode can be accurately reproduced with transport of ash between 5 and 35 km the observed fine mode of the deposit cannot however be generated by transport of ash as individual particles at these elevations such transport would result in deposition of virtually all of the fine ash beyond the studied area deposition of fine ash within the studied distance of 1600 km from source can only occur by fallout as particle aggregates from a high eruption plume or as individual particles from co ignimbrite ash clouds with a maximum elevation of 3 km the large volume of ash in the fine mode 70 wt and the irregularity in azimuth of low level winds argue against major low level transport of co ignimbrite ash rather the ash may have been derived from both a plinian eruption column and high altitude clouds of co ignimbrite ash with settling of fine ash as particle aggregates

fine ash content of explosive eruptions abstract in explosive eruptions the mass proportion of ash that is aerodynamically fine enough to cause problems with jet aircraft or human lungs 50

goes weather satellite observations and measurements of the may 18 1980 mount st helens eruption we demonstrate the use of geostationary operational environmental satellite goes images of the may 18 1980 mount st helens volcanic plume in providing details of the dynamics and changing character of this major explosive eruption visible and thermal infrared ir data from a sequence of images at 30 min intervals from 0850 to 1720 local time lt give information on dispersal and plume top temperature initial visible and ir images at 0850 show the top of a spreading co ignimbrite like umbrella plume and an overshooting column emerging from it both rising off the ground hugging pyroclastic gravity flow generated by the opening directed blast the overshooting column had a minimum temperature significantly colder than local ambient atmosphere indicating substantial undercooling and a maximum altitude of 31 2 km at 0920 this large plume system then formed a high velocity radially spreading gravitationally driven current before becoming advected in the wind field at an average downwind velocity of 29 m s within 30 to 60 min the undercooled plume adjusted to ambient temperatures after this initial event the eruption column fluctuated over the next 8 hours between stable plinian column rise and unstable conditions favoring column collapse leading to pyroclastic flows and further development of co ignimbrite ash columns over this period of observation profiles of plume top temperatures derived from ir data versus distance along the downwind axis have distinctive patterns with steep slopes associated with co ignimbrite plumes and shallower slopes associated with plinian plumes moreover reflectance values from visible goes data change from lower to higher during periods of transition from darker toned plinian to lighter toned coignimbrite plumes indicating that in this case satellite data resolved changes in eruptive style from plumes with a coarser to a finer dominant particle size

grain size variation of tephra derived from volcanic umbrella clouds the relationships among the thickness and grain size of tephra fall deposits and the volumetric flow rate of their source umbrella clouds are analytically obtained the logarithm of the ratio of the probability distribution function based on grain size inr f in fall deposits at two localities from the vent r 1 and r 2 respectively has a linear relationship with the particle settling velocity v as in 1n r f frac pi r 2 2 r 1 2 nu q 1n a where q is the volumetric flow rate of the umbrella cloud and a is a constant for a given pair of localities the volumetric flow rate of the umbrella cloud can be estimated from granulometric data using this formula generally the thickness distance relationship of tephra fall deposits depends on the initial grain size distribution and the volumetric flow rate of the umbrella cloud the empirical relationship of the exponential thinning behaviour can be extrapolated towards infinite distance only for a specific initial grain size which is similar to a log normal distribution with 2 5 otherwise it holds only in a limited range of distances in applying these results to the 1991 eruption of mt pinatubo it is shown that the volumetric flow rate of the umbrella cloud during the climactic phase of 15 june was approximately 5x1010 m3 s which is fairly consistent with the expansion rate of the umbrella cloud observed in the satellite images

in situ observations of volcanic ash clouds from the faam aircraft during the eruption of eyjafjallajokull in 2010 1 during april may 2010 the uk facility for airborne atmospheric measurements faam bae 146 aircraft flew 12 flights targeting volcanic ash clouds around the uk the aircraft observed ash layers between altitudes of 2 8 km with peak mass concentrations typically between 200 2000 g m3 as estimated from a cloud and aerosol spectrometer cas a peak value of 2000 5000 g m3 was observed over scotland on 14 may 2010 although with considerable uncertainty due to the possible contamination by ice aerosol size distributions within ash clouds showed a fine mode 0 1 0 6 m associated with sulphuric acid and or sulphate and a coarse mode 0 6 35 m associated with ash the ash mass was dominated by particles in the size range 1 10 m volume equivalent diameter with a peak typically around 3 5 m electron microscope images and scattering patterns from the sid 2h small ice detector probe showed the highly irregular shape of the ash particles ash clouds were also accompanied by elevated levels of so2 10 100 ppbv strong aerosol scattering 50 500 10 6 m 1 and low angstrom exponents 0 5 to 0 4 from the 3 wavelength nephelometer coarse mode mass specific aerosol extinction coefficients kext based on the cas size distribution varied from 0 45 1 06 m2 g a representative value of 0 6 m2 g is suggested for distal ash clouds 1000 km downwind from this eruption

grain size areal thickness distribution and controls on sedimentation of the 1991 mount pinatubo tephra layer in the south china sea the june 15 1991 climactic eruption of mt pinatubo produced an extensive largely co ignimbrite derived airfall ash layer on luzon island and across the central south china sea the layer covers an area of 4 105 km2 with a volume of 5 5 km3 near the coast of luzon the deposit consists of two units a normally graded basal ash bed unimodal in grain size and a finer grained internally structureless upper ash bed showing grain size bimodality with increasing distance from the source the coarse particle populations of the two units merge and migrate towards a near constant fine population 11 m the distal region is covered by a fine mode dominated virtually ungraded single ash layer the reversal of the winds from easterly directions at upper tropospheric and stratospheric levels to westerly directions in the middle and lower troposphere indicates that both the coarse and fine mode components fell out from high altitude eruption clouds the high velocity upper level winds however would have transported fine grained ash particles far beyond the south china sea which suggests that their settling was accelerated by aggregation the boundary between the units thus marks a change from fallout of predominantly discrete pyroclasts to simultaneous fallout of aggregated fines and freely falling coarse grained particles the particle populations composing the upper ash bed were almost completely removed from the proximal areas by the upper level winds at lower elevations the counterclockwise circulation of a typhoon over the coastal area advected the ash south and eastward producing a thickness maximum in the medial region at about 160 km from source the strong displacement of fines possibly aided by wind turbulence led to a break in bulk tephra thinning rates close to the coastline in the distal region outside the influence of the typhoon southwest monsoonal winds caused a distinct lobe axis inflection and thickness asymmetry within this region at about 420 km from source fallout of particle aggregates created a second thickness maximum comparison of the field data with previous experimental observations and tephra flux records in the deep sea wiesner et al 1995 carey 1997 mccool 2002 implies that the transport of ash in the water column was largely determined by vertical density currents differences in the reaction of coarse and fine particles to turbulence in the descending plumes probably suppressed the segregation of fines but allowed the coarser pyroclasts to maintain their initial order of arrival at the sea surface considering typical fall rates of convective plumes modifications of the initial fallout position of the particles by the south china sea current system are on the order of only a few kilometers the results suggest that convective sedimentation processes ensure the preservation of atmospheric particle transport directions distances and fallout modes in the deep sea

sedimentology of the minoan deep sea tephra layer in the aegean and eastern mediterranean the minoan eruption of santorini resulted in deposition of pyroclastic material over a large area of the aegean sea and eastern mediterranean the eruptive activity commenced with a plinian phase which was followed by a phreatomagmatic phase and ended with numerous pyroclastic flows we present a sedimentological study of the minoan ash deposits found in cores taken throughout the region the cores are divided into three groups 1 those from the sub marine slopes immediately surrounding santorini 2 those from the aegean sea where the topography consists of many steep sided basins and 3 those from the eastern mediterranean where the topography is relatively flat and smooth this last group is designated the distal ash zone the deposits from the aegean sea have been remobilised as turbidity currents grain size distribution analysis reveals that these deposits are bimodal the mdo of the coarse population increasing away from source whilst that of the fine population remains uniform irrespective of distance from source the bimodality is caused by a combination of aggregation of fine particles in ash clouds produced during the last two phases of the eruptive activity and mixing of the coarse plinian and fine phreatomagmatic and co ignimbrite deposits within the turbidity current an unusual feature found in two of the cores is a coarse density sorted layer beneath the bouma a division of several turbidite units this is interpreted as an example of a flow head deposit as described by sparks and wilson 1983 the deposits from the distal ash fall zone are fine grained and unimodal containing phreatomagmatic and co ignimbrite material they show only very minor remobilisation of the original air fall ash due to the flat topography of the area the mdo of the deposit remains uniform irrespective of distance from source and is very similar to that of the fine population found in the bimodal aegean deposits this is interpreted as the result of aggregation of fines in the phreatomagmatic and co ignimbrite ash clouds the deposits in both areas have been extensively bioturbated a study of dispersed ash in the cores to reconstruct the original thickness of the ash layers suggests that ash layers less than 0 62 cm thick will be completely dispersed in the surrounding sediment whilst those thicker than 2 5 cm will be preserved as discrete layers the base being unaffected by bioturbation the deposits on the submarine slopes of santorini were not originally deposited as air fall ash but are derived from the erosion of coastal exposures of non welded ignimbrite they form storm sand layers and are typical of the type of deposit that may be formed by rapid erosion of fresh pyroclastic material after the eruption of an island arc volcano

interaction between volcanic plumes and wind during the 2010 eyjafjallajokull eruption iceland 1 estimates of volcanic source mass flux currently deduced from observations of plume height are crucial for ash dispersion models for aviation and population hazard this study addresses the role of the atmospheric wind in determining the height at which volcanic plumes spread in the atmosphere and the relationship between source mass flux and plume height in a wind field we present a predictive model of volcanic plumes that describes the bending over of the plume trajectory in a crosswind and show that model predictions are in accord with a dataset of historic eruptions if the profile of atmospheric wind shear is described the wind restricts the rise height of volcanic plumes such that obtaining equivalent rise heights for a plume in a windy environment would require an order of magnitude increase in the source mass flux over a plume in a quiescent environment our model calculations are used to calibrate a semi empirical relationship between the plume height and the source mass flux that explicitly includes the atmospheric wind speed we demonstrate that the model can account for the variations in plume height observed during the first explosive phase of the 2010 eyjafjallajokull eruption using independently measured wind speeds and show that changes in the observed plume height are better explained by changing meteorology than abrupt changes in the source mass flux this study shows that unless the wind is properly accounted for estimates of the source mass flux during an explosive eruption are likely to be very significant underpredictions of the volcanic source conditions

was the 18 may 1980 lateral blast at mt st helens the product of two explosions the 18 may 1980 lateral blast at mt st helens has been interpreted as the product of a single explosion by some stratigraphers and as two closely spaced explosions by others the stratigraphic evidence that bears on this question is inconclusive strata change dramatically over short distances and this complexity provides wide latitude for interpretation some independent non stratigraphic evidence however suggests that the blast was the product of two explosions or clusters of explosions the independent evidence comes from eyewitness accounts and photographs from satellite sensors and from seismic records this paper reviews the pertinent evidence offers a new interpretation and concludes that the blast was indeed the product of two explosions or clusters of explosions

the initial giant umbrella cloud of the may 18th 1980 explosive eruption of mount st helens abstract the initial eruption column of may 18th 1980 reached nearly 30 km altitude and released 10 17 joules of thermal energy into the atmosphere in only a few minutes ascent of the cloud resulted in forced intrusion of a giant umbrella shaped cloud between altitudes of 10 and 20 km at radial horizontal velocities initially in excess of 50 m s the mushroom cloud expanded 15 km upwind forming a stagnation point where the radial expansion velocity and wind velocity were equal the cloud was initiated when the pyroclastic blast flow became buoyant the flow reduced its density as it moved away from the volcano by decompression by sedimentation and by mixing with and heating the surrounding air observations indicate that much of the flow covering an area of 600 km 2 became buoyant within 1 5 minutes and abruptly ascended to form the giant cloud calculations are presented for the amount of air that must have been entrained into the flow to make it buoyant assuming an initial temperature of 450 c and a magmatic origin for the explosion these calculations indicate that the flow became buoyant when its temperature was approximately 150 c and the flow consisted of a mixture of 3 25 10 11 kg of pyroclasts and 5 0 10 11 kg of air if sedimentation is considered these figures reduce to 1 1 10 11 kg of pyroclasts and 1 0 10 11 kg of air

a reappraisal of mount st helens ash clusters depositional model from experimental observation abstract ash clusters depositing the distal ash of the may 18 1980 eruption of mount st helens are supposed to be generated due to electrostatic forces within the eruption cloud therefore an experimental attempt was made to test electrostatic ash clustering which produced fallout with artificial ash clusters in the laboratory its grain size characteristics were similar to the mount st helens ash proximal fallout was coarse grained but showed a fine tail on the distribution curve medial ash was bimodal with the distribution minimum at 45 63 m distal ash was fine grained 63 m and cluster modifying ash 63 m clustering and subsequent deposition of two different typs of ash aggregates explain the grain size characteristics of the mount st helens and the experimental fallout ash proximal fallout was deposited as single grain clusters composed of a large particle 63 m with adhering fines settling at the grain specific rates of the largest particle distal fallout settled as fine ash clusters made up of ash 90 wt of which were

mt st helens evidence of increased magmatic gas component abstract this paper presents measurements of so 2 flux and ash leachate chemistry from mt st helens volcano during the period may 18 to july 22 which are in contrast to similar data from before may 18 comparison of post 18 may so 2 data with similar data from other volcanoes leads to the conclusion that between 15 and 25 may the so 2 flux reached typical magmatic levels ash leachate chemistry from the eruption of 18 may 22 june and 22 july also indicate a large magmatic gas component concentrations of cl and so 2 4 on may 18 ash increase with distance from the volcano and decrease with time leachate chemistry is used to estimate that a minimum of 2 4 10 5 tons of s were released on may 18 low f concentrations on the ash though increasing present to health hazards

sedimentation of long lasting wind affected volcanic plumes the example of the 2011 rhyolitic cordon caulle eruption chile sedimentation processes and fragmentation mechanisms during explosive volcanic eruptions can be constrained based on detailed analysis of grain size variations of tephra deposits with distance from vent and total grain size distribution tgsd grain size studies strongly rely on deposit exposure and in case of long lasting eruptions can be complicated by the intricate interplay between eruptive style atmospheric conditions particle accumulation and deposit erosion the 2011 cordon caulle eruption chile represents an ideals laboratory for the study of long lasting eruptions thanks to the good deposit accessibility in medial to distal area all layers analyzed are mostly characterized by bimodal grain size distributions with both the modes and the fraction of the coarse subpopulation decreasing rapidly with distance from vent and those of the fine subpopulation being mostly stable due to gradually changing wind direction the two subpopulations characterizing the deposit of the first 2 days of the eruption are asymmetrically distributed with respect to the dispersal axis the tgsd of the climactic phase is also bimodal with the coarse subpopulation representing 90 wt of the whole distribution polymodality of individual samples is related to size selective sedimentation processes while polymodality of the tgsd is mostly related to the complex internal texture e g size and shape of vesicles of the most abundant juvenile clasts the most representative tgsd could be derived based on a combination of the voronoi tessellation with a detailed analysis of the thinning trend of individual size categories finally preferential breakage of coarse pumices on ground impact was inferred from the study of particle terminal velocity

the quaternary pyroclastic succession of southeast tenerife canary islands explosive eruptions related caldera subsidence and sector collapse a much revised quaternary stratigraphy is presented for ignimbrites and pumice fall deposits of the bandas del sur in southern tenerife new ar 41 ar 39 data obtained for the arico granadilla fasnia poris la caleta and abrigo formations are presented allowing correlation with previously dated offshore marine ashfall layers and volcaniclastic sediments we also provide a minimum age of 287 7 ka for a major sector collapse event at the gaimar valley the bandas del sur succession includes more than seven widespread ignimbrite sheets that have similar characteristics including widespread basal plinian layers predominantly phonolite composition ignimbrites with similar extensive geographic distributions thin condensed veneers with abundant diffuse bedding and complex lateral and vertical grading patterns lateral gradations into localized massive facies within palaeo wadis and widespread lithic breccia layers that probably record caldera forming eruptions each ignimbrite sheet records substantial bypassing of pyroclastic material into the ocean the succession indicates that las canadas volcano underwent a series of major explosive eruptions each starting with a plinian phase followed by emplacement of ignimbrites and thin ash layers some of coignimbrite origin several of the ignimbrite sheets are compositionally zoned and contain subordinate mafic pumices and banded pumices indicative of magma mingling immediately prior to eruption because passage of each pyroclastic density current was characterized by phases of non deposition and erosion the entire course of each eruption is incompletely recorded at any one location accounting for some previously perceived differences between the units because each current passed into the ocean estimating eruption volumes is virtually impossible nevertheless the consistent widespread distributions and the presence of lithic breccias within most of the ignimbrite sheets suggest that at least seven caldera collapse eruptions are recorded in the bandas del sur succession and probably formed a complex nested collapse structure detailed field relationships show that extensive ignimbrite sheets e g the arico poris and la caleta formations relate to previously unrecognized caldera collapse events we envisage that the evolution of the nested las cahadas caldera is more complex than previously thought and involved a protracted history of successive ignimbrite related caldera collapse events and large sector collapse events interspersed with edifice building phases

improving on mass flow rate estimates of volcanic eruptions 1 we introduce a novel analytical expression that allows for fast assessment of mass flow rate of both vertically rising and bent over volcanic plumes as a function of their height while first order physical insight is maintained this relationship is compared with a one dimensional plume model to demonstrate its flexibility and then validated with observations of the 1980 mount st helens and of the 2010 eyjafjallajokull eruptions the influence of wind on the dynamics of volcanic plumes is quantified by a new dimensionless parameter and it is shown how even vertically rising plumes such as the one associated with the mount st helens 1980 eruption can be significantly affected by strong wind comparison between a one dimensional model and the analytical equation gives anr2 value of 0 88 while existing expressions give negativer2 values due to their inability to adapt to different source and atmospheric conditions therefore this new expression has important implications both for current strategies of real time forecasting of ash transport in the atmosphere and for the characterization of explosive eruptions based on the study of tephra deposits in addition this work provides a framework for the application of more complete three dimensional numerical models as it greatly reduces the parameter space that needs to be explored

volcan reventador s unusual umbrella 1 photographs of a volcanic column in a recent eruption of reventador show a prominently scalloped umbrella that is unlike any umbrella previously documented on a volcanic column we propose that the scallops in this umbrella are the result of a turbulent rayleigh taylor rt instability a type of fluid instability with no precedents in volcanology negative buoyancy drives this instability and we ascribe the unusual negative buoyancy of the reventador umbrella to the fact that the reventador column fed on a cool co ignimbrite cloud from the wavelength of the scallops we estimate a value for the eddy viscosity of the umbrella d 4 000 m2 s the first such value to be inferred directly from an observation in the field collapse of the umbrella back to the ground could result in a previously unrecognized hazardous flow we hope this work will elicit new reports on scalloped umbrellas and further study of the characteristics and evolution of such umbrellas

explosive energy during volcanic eruptions from fractal analysis of pyroclasts abstract despite recent advances by means of experiments and high resolution surveys and the growing understanding of the physical processes before and during volcanic eruptions duration and type of eruptive activity still remain highly unpredictable this uncertainty hinders appropriate hazard and associated risk assessment tremendously in an effort to counter this problem experimentally generated pyroclasts have been studied by fractal statistics with the aim of evaluating possible relationships between eruption energy and fragmentation efficiency rapid decompression experiments have been performed on three differently porous sample sets of the 1990 1995 eruption of unzen volcano japan at 850 c and at initial pressure values above the respective fragmentation threshold u kueppers b scheu o spieler d b dingwell fragmentation efficiency of explosive volcanic eruptions a study of experimentally generated pyroclasts j volcanol geotherm res 153 2006 125 135 o spieler b kennedy u kueppers d b dingwell b scheu j taddeucci the fragmentation threshold of pyroclastic rocks epsl 226 2004 139 148 the size distribution of generated pyroclasts has been studied by fractal fragmentation theory and the fractal dimension of fragmentation df a value quantifying the intensity of fragmentation has been measured for each sample results show that size distribution of pyroclastic fragments follows a fractal law i e power law in the investigated range of fragment sizes indicating that fragmentation of experimental samples reflects a scale invariant mechanism in addition df is correlated positively with the potential energy for fragmentation pef while showing a strong influence of the open porosity of the samples results obtained in this work indicate that fractal fragmentation theory may allow for quantifying fragmentation processes during explosive volcanic eruptions by calculating the fractal dimension of the size distribution of pyroclasts it emerges from this study that fractal dimension may be utilised as a proxy for estimating the explosivity of volcanic eruptions by analysing their natural pyroclastic deposits

textural and chemical variation in plagioclase phenocrysts from the 1980 eruptions of mount st helens usa this study presents major and trace element chemistry of plagioclase phenocrysts from the 1980 eruptions of mount st helens volcano despite the considerable variation in textures and composition of plagioclase phenocrysts distinct segments have been cross correlated between crystals the variation of sr and ba concentration in the melt as calculated from the concentration in the phenocrysts using partition coefficients suggests the cores and rims crystallised from compositionally different melts offset by the plagioclase crystallisation vector in both of these melts sr and ba are correlated despite the abundance of plagioclase in the 1980 dacites we propose that rapid crystallisation of plagioclase upon magma ascent caused a shift in melt composition towards lower sr and higher ba as documented in the rims of the phenocrysts although the cores of the phenocrysts crystallised at relatively shallow depths they preserve the sr and ba of the deep seated melts as they ascended from a deeper region further magma ascent resulted in microlite nucleation which is responsible for a similar shift to even lower sr concentration as observed in the groundmass of post 18 may 1980 samples

compositional heterogeneity of tephras from the 1980 eruptions of mount st helens samples collected at hourly intervals on may 18 19 1980 at three sites 200 km downwind from mount st helens have made possible a detailed reconstruction of the conditions that contribute to the compositional heterogeneity of mineral and glass components observed in distal tephra layers the air fall tephra deposited at the sites during the first 7 hours of the may 18 eruption is mostly coarse grained microlite rich nonjuvenile glass and feldspar grain size maxima in this initial tephra can be related to the cataclysmic blast at 0832 and a subsequent pulse of the eruption at 1200 juvenile microlite free glass increases in relative abundance at the sampling sites beginning at about 1900 such a change between nonjuvenile and juvenile tephra can be related to a 5 km increase in column height associated with the last major pulse of the eruption which occurred at 1700 at the volcano electron microprobe study of both microlite rich and microlite free pumice in the time series samples reveals significant compositional differences interstitial glass in nonjuvenile pumice deposited during the first few hours at the sampling sites is enriched in sio2 and k2o and depleted in tio2 feo and mgo relative to juvenile glass by comparison major element composition of the least evolved juvenile glass sampled during the last several hours of the eruption displays a slight trend toward less evolved composition least squares calculations suggest that the more evolved character of the nonjuvenile glass can be explained by greater fractional crystallization brought about by enhanced cooling in a cryptodome prior to eruption whereas the temporal changes observed in juvenile glass composition during the last several hours of the eruption suggest the presence of a small slightly zoned magma chamber at depth electron microprobe study of glass coated ilmenites magnetites and plagioclases provides the following estimates of the physical conditions in this reservoir 865 50 c ph2o 2 2 kbar and log o2 11 7 analyses of bulk pumice glass and selected mineral phases from may 25 june 12 july 22 and october 16 18 pumices erupted from mount st helens indicate that the bulk pumice magma compositions have become slightly more andesitic with time while mineral and co existing glass compositions have changed significantly in post may 18 eruptions with both being more highly evolved than those associated with the may 18 eruption an application of the magnetite ilmenite geothermometer to june 12 and july 22 samples indicates temperatures of 919 30 c and 930 50 c respectively least squares calculations suggest that such evolved post may 18 glass and mineral phases can be derived by fractional crystallization of a magma composition like bulk may 18 pumice into approximately 50 crystals and 50 residual liquid such partitioning between crystals and residual liquid appears to have occurred on the scale of centimeters and is interpreted as a consequence of accelerated crystallization under reduced water pressure

simulation of the 1980 eruption of mount st helens using the ash tracking model puff abstract the dispersal of volcanic ash from the may 18 1980 eruption of mount st helens msh has been simulated using the lagrangian ash tracking model puff previous applications of the model were limited to smaller short lived eruptions with ash dispersal occurring mainly within the troposphere two high resolution atmospheric reanalysis datasets era 40 and ncep ncar 40 allowed msh ash cloud dispersal to be simulated up to 30 km elevation the 1980 eruption was divided into two distinct eruptive phases 1 an initial relatively short lived blast surge phase that injected ash up to 30 km and 2 a subsequent nine hour plinian phase that maintained an average eruption column height of 16 km using puff the two phases of the msh eruption were modeled separately based on a range of individual input parameters and then combined to produce an integrated simulation of the entire eruption the trajectory and areal extent of the modeled atmospheric ash cloud best match the actual distribution of msh ash when input parameters are set to values inferred from satellite and radar data collected on may 18 1980 the prevailing wind field exerts the strongest control on the advection and ultimate position of the modeled ash cloud making the maximum column height and the vertical distribution of ash the most sensitive of the puff input parameters for this event the results indicate that the puff model works well at simulating the dispersal of ash injected well into the lower stratosphere from a moderate relatively long lived eruption such as msh however attempts to use puff to recreate some granulometric aspects of the msh fallout deposit such as the maximum particle size as a function of distance from source were not successful puff consistently predicts much greater fallout distances for small ash particles

vesiculation of may 18 1980 mount st helens magma the may 18 1980 eruption of mount st helens washington produced both white and gray pumice similar in composition but varying in phenocryst microlite and vesicle content the white pumice has fewer phenocrysts no microlites and higher vesicularity and is thus less dense than the gray in addition vesicles in the white pumice are larger and more interconnected than those in the gray both white and gray have effective crystal free vesicularities 85 7 and 72 2 respectively close to the traditionally accepted fragmentation vesicularity of 75 77 given that the two pumice types were erupted concurrently for several phases of the eruption and therefore probably had similar eruption paths we suggest that differences in vesicularity and vesicle size distributions result from the presence or absence of microlites the presence of microlites in the gray pumice not only increased the magma viscosity and effective vesicularity but appears to have aided bubble nucleation and hindered bubble expansion and coalescence thus magmas with microlites may fragment at a lower bulk vesicularity than those without microlites fragmented microlite bearing clasts are also likely to expand less after fragmentation and therefore more closely preserve the bubble distribution and structure at the time of magma fragmentation

a new view of the dynamics stability and longevity of volcanic clouds abstract powerful explosive volcanic eruptions inject ash high into the atmosphere which spreads to form umbrella clouds identifying key physical processes governing the dynamics stability and longevity of umbrella clouds is central to assessing volcanic hazards as well as the nature of volcanic forcings on climate here we present a series of laboratory experiments producing turbulent particle laden jets and subsequent axisymmetric intrusive gravity currents into a stratified environment our experiments reproduce many of the main dynamical regimes observed during the formation of an explosive volcanic column and highlight new dynamics for the umbrella cloud theoretical predictions of column collapse from a simple model of a turbulent jet are in good agreement with experimental observations as well as previous studies depending on the flow intensity the strength of the initial environmental density stratification and the particle concentration at the source resulting umbrella clouds can however evolve through a series of new regimes as a result of the dynamics of particle sedimentation within these flows as well as from their bases using scaling theory we show that during cloud spreading internal sedimentation drives the growth and intermittent overturn of thin gravitationally unstable particle boundary layers pbls as particle rich plumes this pbl driven convection can have remarkable effects ranging from progressive dilution of clouds to their catastrophic overturn and collapse in natural eruptions whether the dynamics of pbls play a major role in particle sedimentation depends on the grain size distribution inside the cloud and on eruption column height in general particles larger than 60 m 1 mm are expected to settle individually whereas finer particles will accumulate pbls resulting in the formation of armless mammatus clouds or dangerous gravity currents at much larger distances from the volcanic vent than ever considered before such dynamics is apparent in observations of numerous modern eruptions and is inferred from the deposits of historic and prehistoric eruptions for where there exist appropriate data consideration of the consequences of these phenomena for problems such as volcanic hazards to humans and climate change may thus be very important in the assessment of future eruptions

a model for wet aggregation of ash particles in volcanic plumes and clouds 2 model application 1 the occurrence of particle aggregation has a dramatic effect on the transport and sedimentation of volcanic ash the aggregation process is complex and can occur under different conditions and in multiple regions of the plume and in the ash cloud in the companion paper costa et al develop an aggregation model based on a fractal relationship to describe the rate particles are incorporated into ash aggregates the model includes the effects of both magmatic and atmospheric water present in the volcanic cloud and demonstrates that the rate of aggregation depends on the characteristics of the initial particle size distribution the aggregation model includes two parameters the fractal exponent df which describes the efficiency of the aggregation process and the aggregate settling velocity correction factor e which influences the distance at which distal mass deposition maxima form both parameters are adjusted using features of the observed deposits here this aggregation model is implemented in the fall3d volcanic ash transport model and applied to the 18 may 1980 mount st helens and the 17 18 september 1992 crater peak eruptions for both eruptions the optimized values for df 2 96 3 00 and e 0 27 0 33 indicate that the ash aggregates had a bulk density of 700 800 kg m 3 the model provides a higher degree of agreement than previous fully empirical aggregation models and successfully reproduces the depositional characteristics of the deposits investigated over a large range of scales including the position and thickness of the secondary maxima

total grain size distribution and volume of tephra fall deposits on 17 june 1996 ruapehu volcano new zealand produced a sustained andesitic sub plinian eruption which generated a narrow tephra fall deposit extending more than 200 km from the volcano the extremely detailed data set from this eruption allowed methods for the determination of total grain size distribution and volume of tephra fall deposits to be critically investigated calculated total grain size distributions of tephra fall deposits depend strongly on the method used and on the availability of data across the entire dispersal area the voronoi tessellation method was tested for the ruapehu deposit and gave the best results when applied to a data set extending out to isomass values of 1 g m 2 the total grain size distribution of a deposit is also strongly influenced by the very proximal samples and this can be shown by artificially constructing subsets from the ruapehu database unless the available data set is large all existing techniques for calculations of total grain size distribution give only apparent distributions the tephra fall deposit from ruapehu does not show a simple exponential thinning but can be approximated well by at least three straight line segments or by a power law fit on semi log plots of thickness vs area 1 2 integrations of both fits give similar volumes of about 4 106 m3 integration of at least three exponential segments and of a power law fit with at least ten isopach contours available can be considered as a good estimate of the actual volume of tephra fall integrations of smaller data sets are more problematic

fall out and deposition of volcanic ash during the 1979 explosive eruption of the soufriere of st vincent abstract the 1979 explosive activity of soufriere volcano st vincent commenced on april 13th and continued for two weeks producing eleven eruption columns the activity produced air fall ash with abundant accretionary lapilli plus minor pyroclastic flows and base surge deposits the dispersal of the columns was observed by an sms 1 geostationary satellite all but two of the plumes were dispersed entirely to the east the last event on april 26th formed a minor lobe to the east and a major lobe to the south southeast the april 26th column was observed to rise to 8 km within five minutes and ascended to a maximum of 14 km in the next hour the magma discharge rate was greater than 3000 m3 s the plume expanded at a rate of 4000 km2 hr and was dispersed at a mean velocity of 15 m s the ash deposits show bimodal grain size distribution with 95 of the ash collected being sub 1 mm diameter modelling of the ash fall out has allowed interpretation of grainsize parameters in a quantitative manner the fall velocities of ash particles appear to have been reduced by turbulence and downwind ascent of the plume which is attributed to fallout of ash reducing the plume density the coarse population of the april 26th deposit displayed a systematic change in md and away from source the fine mode displays uniform md and everywhere and is interpreted as having been deposited in the form of accretionary lapilli

chronology and pyroclastic stratigraphy of the may 18 1980 eruption of mount st helens washington many timed observations make it possible to subdivide the 9 hour plinian eruption of mount st helens on may 18 1980 into six phases defined by eruption style the phases are correlated with stratigraphic subunits of ashfall tephra and pyroclastic flow deposits the suite of pyroclastic deposits indicates that the eruption became more pumice rich and compositionally diverse with time perhaps owing to concurrent eruption of less evolved gas poor parts of the magma body with the more evolved gas rich parts the paroxysmal phase i 0832 0900 consisted of landslides lithic pyroclastic flows of a lateral blast and other explosions and a weak pre plinian column phase i pyroclastic deposits include lithic ash flow deposits intercalated with and overlying the voluminous debris avalanche deposit and basal pumice lapilli tephra that underlies a pisolitic ash layer the early plinian phase ii 0900 1215 consisted of vertical ejection of tephra with an early pulse of small pyroclastic flows on the upper flanks 1010 1035 a brief period of lithic ash ejection 1035 1100 and a pumice rich pulse that accompanied growth in height of the eruption column 1100 1215 deposits include minor pyroclastic flows on the crater rim and a reversely graded sequence of proximal tephra that include the lower pumice lapilli layer the lower lithic ash layer and the middle pumice lapilli layer all of which consist of evolved white dacitic pumice 63 64 sio2 during the early ash flow phase iii 1215 1500 the height of the eruption column decreased vertical ejection of tephra ceased and pyroclastic flows were fed from intermittent fountains phase iii deposits consist of a poorly exposed sequence 12 m of ash flow tuff that consist of many thin flow units 2 m each containing pumiceous white dacite 63 64 sio2 and denser gray silicic andesite 61 62 sio2 and fine grained ash cloud deposits interbedded with a nongraded middle pumice ash layer the climactic phase iv 1500 1715 developed in two stages fountain fed pyroclastic flows followed by a short pulse 1625 1715 of vigorous vertical ejection of tephra these stages were accompanied by the peak seismic energy release and peak eruption column height respectively climactic deposits consist of a thick 35 m sequence of thick lapilli rich ash flow sheets 4 12 m each with white and gray pumice and streaky scoria bands 60 sio2 in pumice breccia clasts and the reversely graded upper pumice lapilli layer that is interbedded with fine grained ash cloud deposits during the late ash flow phase v 1715 1815 eruption intensity waned but included a brief episode of small pyroclastic flows 1745 1815 phase v deposits consist of small distributary lobes of ash flow tuff containing white and gray pumice and minor fine ash deposits phase vi activity 1815 to may 19 1980 consisted of a low energy ash plume with transient increases in intensity while seismicity continued at depth sustained vertical discharge of phase ii prodeced evolved dacitewith high s cl ratios ash flow activity of phase iii is attributed to decreases in gas content indicated by reduced s cl ratios and increased clast density of the less evolved gray pumice climactic events are attributed to vent clearing and exhaustion of the evolved dacite

the mysteries of mammatus clouds observations and formation mechanisms mammatus clouds are an intriguing enigma of atmospheric fluid dynamics and cloud physics most commonly observed on the underside of cumulonimbus anvils mammatus also occur on the underside of cirrus cirrocumulus altocumulus altostratus and stratocumulus as well as in contrails from jet aircraft and pyrocumulus ash clouds from volcanic eruptions despite their aesthetic appearance mammatus have been the subject of few quantitative research studies observations of mammatus have been obtained largely through serendipitous opportunities with a single observing system e g aircraft penetrations visual observations lidar radar or tangential observations from field programs with other objectives theories describing mammatus remain untested as adequate measurements for validation do not exist because of the small distance scales and short time scales of mammatus modeling studies of mammatus are virtually nonexistent as a result relatively little is known about the environment formation mechanisms properties microphysics and dynamics of mammatus this paper presents a review of mammatus clouds that addresses these mysteries previous observations of mammatus and proposed formation mechanisms are discussed these hypothesized mechanisms are anvil subsidence subcloud evaporation sublimation melting hydrometeor fallout cloud base detrainment instability radiative effects gravity waves kelvin helmholtz instability rayleigh taylor instability and rayleigh benard like convection other issues addressed in this paper include whether mammatus are composed of ice or liquid water hydrometeors why mammatus are smooth what controls the temporal and spatial scales and organization of individual mammatus lobes and what are the properties of volcanic ash clouds that produce mammatus the similarities and differences between mammatus virga stalactites and reticular clouds are also discussed finally because much still remains to be learned research opportunities are described for using mammatus as a window into the microphysical turbulent and dynamical processes occurring on the underside of clouds

influence of particle aggregation on deposition of distal tephra from the may 18 1980 eruption of mount st helens volcano the may 18 1980 eruption of mount st helens msh produced an extensive ashfall deposit in washington idaho and montana with a minumum volume of 0 55 km3 tephra an unusual feature of the deposit is the occurrence of a second thickness maximum 325 km ene of msh near ritzville washington grain size and component abundance analysis of samples along the main dispersal axis indicates that ash in this region is very fine grained mean size 22 m poorly sorted polymodal and rich in glass shards and pumice fragments a computer simulation of ash fallout from an atmospherically dispersed eruption plume was developed to evaluate various hypotheses for the origin of the distal ash characteristics particularly the thickness versus distance relationship the model was constrained by observations of the eruption column height elevation of major ash transport lateral spreading of the eruption plume and atmospheric wind structure in the vicinity of msh results of different simulations indicate that the second thickness maximum cannot be attributed to either decreased wind velocities over central washington or injection of fine ash above the horizontal wind velocity maximum near the tropopause for the model to fit the observed characteristics of the deposit significant particle aggregation of ash finer than 63 m must be invoked the best fit occurs when ash less than 63 m is aggregated into particles several hundred microns in diameter with a settling velocity of 0 35 m s support for this process comes from the observation and collection of fragile ash clusters of similar size which fell at pullman washington during the may 18 eruption sorem 1982 the premature fallout of fine ash as particle aggregates is a fundamental process in the origin of the grain size characteristics variations in component abundances and thickness versus distance relationship of the may 18 msh ash fall deposit

erosion transport and segregation of pumice and lithic clasts in pyroclastic flows inferred from ignimbrite at lascar volcano chile abstract investigations have been made on the distribution of pumice and lithic clasts in the lithic rich soncor ignimbrite 26 5 ka and the 1993 pumice flow deposits of lascar volcano chile the soncor ignimbrite shows three main lithofacies which grade into one another coarse lithic breccias range from matrix poor stratified varieties irregular shaped sheets and elongate hummocks in proximal environments to breccia lenses with pumiceous ignimbrite matrix massive lithic rich facies comprise the bulk of the ignimbrite pumice rich facies are bimodal with abundant large pumice clasts often with reverse grading rare lithic clasts and occur distally and on high ground adjacent to deep proximal valleys in the 1993 pyroclastic flow deposits lithic rich facies are deposited on slopes up to 14 whereas pumice rich facies are deposited only on slopes

estimation of eruption source parameters from umbrella cloud or downwind plume growth rate abstract we introduce a new method to estimate mass eruption rate mer and mass loading from the growth of a volcanic umbrella cloud or downwind plume using satellite images or photographs where ground based observations are available this new method is compared with pre existing models and documented mass eruption rate given in the research literature we applied the method to five well studied eruptions mount st helens 1980 redoubt 1990 pinatubo 1991 hekla 2000 and eyjafjallajokull 2010 and to five less well documented eruptions kliuchevsko i 1994 okmok 2008 kasatochi 2008 sarychev peak 2009 and bezymianny 2012 the mass eruption rate is obtained by estimation of the radius of the umbrella cloud with time or by estimation of the width of the downwind plume with distance from the volcano the results given by the new method show a more fully characterized mer as a function of time than do the results given by pre existing methods and allow a faster remote assessment of the mass eruption rate even for volcanoes that are difficult to study the method thus may provide an additional important path to the estimation of source parameters and the forecasting of ash cloud propagation in addition in cases where numerous methods are available use of the method yields new independent measures of mass eruption rate hence an ability to estimate uncertainty in mass eruption rate which could be used in probabilistic estimations of ash cloud propagation

particle size density relationships in pyroclastic deposits inferences for emplacement processes in moving pyroclastic systems particles are sorted as a function of their sizes densities and shapes the analysis of the distribution of these characteristics in particle populations of pyroclastic deposits is a major tool in evaluating properties and regimes of parent transport systems this paper reports a study of size density relationships of component subpopulations from selected quaternary pyroclastic deposits of the latera volcanic complex vulsini italy by means of integrated field and laboratory investigations including grain size and component analyses density measurements and sem crystal morphoscopy three kinds of particle size density relationships characterize the studied deposits as follows 1 a significant correlation of decreasing sizes with increasing component densities exists for direct suspension sedimentation products including plinian fall and pyroclastic surge deposits 2 a wide data dispersion with poor correlation normally occurs for the main zones of deposits from high concentration pyroclastic flows and 3 component subpopulations occur in a narrow size range irrespective of density in granular systems dominated by grain collisions such as traction zones beneath low concentration pyroclastic surges and sheared basal layers of pyroclastic flows the regression coefficients of size density relationships appear as a comparative measure of particle concentration in the parent systems consistent with that inferred from the degree of sorting and abrasion of crystal subpopulations from sequential fragmentation transport analysis of grain size data and quantitative morphoscopy the crystal component becomes less sorted and more abraded as the fit to the size density relationship decreases from plinian fall to pyroclastic surge to pyroclastic flow consistent with increasing particle concentration in the transporting current

sedimentation of tephra by volcanic plumes i theory and its comparison with a study of the fogo a plinian deposit sao miguel azores sedimentation of ejecta from volcanic plumes has been studied as a function of distance from the source in the fogo a plinian deposit sao miguel azores the fogo a trachytic pumice deposit is reversely graded and can be divided into two parts on the basis of pumice colour abundance of syenite accessory lithic clasts and distribution the lower syenite poor part was dispersed to the south and was clearly influenced by wind the upper syenite rich part is coarsegrained and has a nearly symmetrical distribution around the vent elongation of isopachs to the east indicate a weak wind influence the grain size variations of lithic and crystal components in the upper coarse part were studied total accumulation and accumulation per unit area expressed in kg m2 show good fits to a gaussian function at distances greater than 7 km for grain diameters less than 2 cm these results agree with a theoretical model for a radially spreading turbulent current moving over a quiescent fluid the gaussian coefficient is shown to be a function of grain size and the flow rate of material into the umbrella region of the eruption column the coefficient is therefore also a function of column height the column height deduced from these data is 21 km which is in broad agrrement with the column height of 27 km deduced from maximum clast dispersal using the method of carey and sparks 1986 the accumulation of clasts larger than 2 cm agrees with a theory for the fallout of clasts from the margins of the ascending eruption column which treats the plume as a succession of large eddies that decrease their mass of particles as an exponential function of time calculations are also presented for the influence of the radial inflow of surrounding air into the column on the deposition of clasts these calculations constrain the wind speed during the later part of the fogo a eruption to be at most a few metres per second the study has allowed four different dynamic categories of clast behaviour to be recognised in eruption columns

tephra sedimentation during the 2010 eyjafjallajokull eruption iceland from deposit radar and satellite observations the april may 2010 eruption of eyjafjallajokull volcano iceland was characterized by a nearly continuous injection of tephra in the atmosphere that affected various economic sectors in iceland and caused a global wide interruption of air traffic eruptive activity during 4 8 may 2010 was characterized based on short duration physical parameters in order to capture transient eruptive behavior of a long lasting eruption i e total grainsize distribution erupted mass and mass eruption rate averaged over 30 minute activity resulting 30 minute total grainsize distribution based on both ground and msg seviri satellite measurements is characterized by mdphi of about 2 phi and a fine ash content of about 30wt accumulation rate varied by two orders of magnitude with an exponential decay away from the vent whereas mdphi shows a linear increase until about 18 km from vent reaching a plateau of about 4 5 phi between 20 56 km associated mass eruption rate is in between 0 6 1 2 x 10 5 kg s 1 in situ sampling showed how fine ash mainly fell as aggregates of various typologies about 5 to 9 wt of the erupted mass remained in the cloud up to 1000 km from the vent suggesting that nearly half of the ash 7 phi settled as aggregates within the first 60 km particle sphericity and shape factor varied between 0 4 and 1 with no clear correlation with size and distance from vent our experiments also demonstrate how satellite retrievals and doppler radar grainsize detection can provide real time description of the source term but for a limited particle size range

ascent driven crystallisation of dacite magmas at mount st helens 1980 1986 we introduce a novel scheme that enables natural silicic glasses to be projected into the synthetic system qz ab or h2o in order to relate variations in volcanic glass chemistry to changing pressure p and temperature t conditions in the sub volcanic magma system by this means an important distinction can be made between ascent driven and cooling driven crystallisation under water saturated or undersaturated conditions in samples containing feldspar and a silica phase quartz or tridymite quantitative p t estimates of the conditions of last equilibrium between crystals and melt can be made formation of highly silicic melts i e 77 wt sio2 is a simple consequence of the contraction of the silica phase volume with decreasing pressure such that high silica glasses can only form by crystallisation at low pressure resorption of quartz crystals appears to be a further diagnostic feature of decompression crystallisation groundmass and inclusion glasses in dacites from the 1980 1986 eruption of mount st helens volcano wa span a wide range in sio2 68 80 wt anhydrous the compositions of the least evolved sio2 poor inclusions in amphibole phenocrysts record entrapment of silicic liquids with 5 4 wt water corresponding to a water saturation pressure of 200 mpa at 900 c the compositions of more evolved higher sio2 plagioclase hosted inclusions and groundmass glasses are consistent with extensive ascent driven fractional crystallisation of plagioclase oxide and orthopyroxene phenocrysts and microlites to low pressures during this polybaric crystallisation plagioclase phenocrysts trapped melts with a wide range of dissolved water contents 3 5 5 7 wt magmas erupted during the plinian phase of the 18 may 1980 eruption were derived from a large reservoir at depths of 6 km subsequent magmas ascended to varying depths within the sub volcanic system prior to extraction from glass chemistry and groundmass texture two arrest levels have been identified at depths of 0 5 1 and 2 4 km a single dome sample from february 1983 contains groundmass plagioclase tridymite and quartz testifying to temperatures of at least 885 c at 11 mpa these shallow storage conditions are comparable to those in the cryptodome formed during spring 1980 the corresponding thermal gradient 0 2 c mpa 1 is consistent with near adiabatic magma ascent from 8 km we argue that the crystallisation history of mount st helens dacite magma was largely a consequence of decompression crystallisation of hot magma beyond the point of water saturation this challenges the conventional view that phenocryst crystallisation occurred by cooling in a large magma chamber prior to the 1980 1986 eruption because the crystallisation process is both polybaric and fractional it cannot be simulated directly using isobaric equilibrium crystallisation experiments however calculation of the phase proportions in water saturated 910 15 c experiments by rutherford et al 1985 over the pressure range 220 125 mpa reproduces the crystallisation sequence and phenocryst modes of mount st helens dacites from 18 may 1980 by allowing for the effects of fractional versus equilibrium crystallisation entrained residual source material and small temperature differences between nature and experiment phase compositions can also be matched to the natural samples we conclude that decompression of water saturated magma may be the dominant driving force for crystallisation at many other silicic volcanic centres