Challenges in constraining and understanding Strombolian (and Hawaiian) volcanism

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

• Bruce Houghton, University of Hawaii
• Tuesday 08 October 2013, 16:30-17:30
• Harker 1 seminar room, Department of Earth Sciences.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact John Maclennan.

Activity at Stromboli is exceptionally well characterized on time scales from milliseconds to millennia but it remains a challenge to identify what portion of that activity should be defined as “Strombolian’ in the strict sense of naming an eruption style, in a fashion that is useful at other volcanoes. Here I look at delineating the limits of ‘Strombolian style’, particularly in the context of demarcation from Hawaiian fountaining eruptions. That demarcation has generally been articulated in terms of transient versus sustained activity linked to mechanical decoupling versus partial coupling of exsolved volatiles. Plotting basaltic activity as an erupted mass-duration plot reveals some of the issues. Individual ‘normal’ Strombolian explosions occupy the short duration, small volume rate corner of such a plot, very clearly distinguished from high Hawaiian fountains that have durations that are 3 to 5 orders of magnitude longer and mass discharge rates that are 10 to 100 times larger. However the spectrum of activity called names such as ‘low fountains’, ‘gas pistoning’ and ‘paroxysms’ fills much of the area between these extremes. Finally, while Hawaiian fountains are sustained for hours to days, they are seldom steady, and new high-speed imagery shows that even normal Strombolian explosions are pulsatory in nature. The implication is that typical Strombolian explosions are not compatible with simple slugs (Taylor bubbles) and that typical Hawaiian fountains are not simple examples of either purely coupled bubbly flow or annular flow.

This talk is part of the Department of Earth Sciences Seminars (downtown) series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Department of Earth Sciences Seminars (downtown)
• Department of Earth Sciences seminars
• Harker 1 seminar room, Department of Earth Sciences
• ps635

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.