EaGER: Into the Vent: Probing the basaltic lava lake at Villarrica

New Mexico Institute Of Mining And Technology, Socorro NM

Investigators

Abstract

This Early Grant for Exploratory Research (EaGER) takes advantage of the unique geometry of the volcano Villarica (i.e., a small symmetric 150-m diameter crater and active localized vent ~65 m below the crater rim) to make direct sampling observations of gas and thermal flux and pressure fluctuations, while recording time-synchronized high definition video of lava lake surface activity. This exploratory phase of the project builds on an earlier expedition supported by National Geographic that helped address some initial engineering challenges to suspend and lower a payload of sensors down toward the active vent. This EaGER endeavors to capture lava lake surface activity and transient emissions of gas and pyroclasts to help us better understand this volcano's seismic and acoustic radiation, which is complex and remains poorly understood. It is expected that this experiment will lead to a better set of tools and observational techniques that can be applied to other volcanic systems in future studies. An ultimate goal of this project is to understand the nature and source of seismic and infrasonic tremors, which are common at Villarrica and other open vent volcanic systems. The research plan takes advantage of a concurrent seismic array that will be deployed by another team from Michigan Tech University (MTU), and it will enable the investigator and students to share in the logistics at the Villarica site and focus on vent observations from the summit following installation of the dense array by the MTU group. Students and faculty from both institutions will perform joint analysis of the datasets collaboratively. Worldwide, there are about a dozen currently active, persistently degassing, open vent volcanic systems. Villarrica's chemistry and eruption style is relatively common such that observations made in this study should help facilitate development and allow differentiation of models for eruption dynamics at similar volcanoes elsewhere. Direct observations of the vent will help differentiate the origin of various types of elastic energy, which originate both internally and at the surface.