Newland, Eric L;
Mingotti, Nicola;
Woods, Andrew W;
(2022)
Dynamics of deep-submarine volcanic eruptions.
Scientific Reports
, 12
(1)
, Article 3276. 10.1038/s41598-022-07351-9.
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Abstract
Deposits from explosive submarine eruptions have been found in the deep sea, 1–4 km below the surface, with both flow and fall deposits extending several km’s over the seafloor. A model of a turbulent fountain suggests that after rising 10–20 m above the vent, the erupting particle-laden mixture entrains and mixes with sufficient seawater that it becomes denser than seawater. The momentum of the resulting negatively buoyant fountain is only sufficient to carry the material 50–200 m above the seafloor and much of the solid material then collapses to the seafloor; this will not produce the far-reaching fall deposits observed on the seabed. However, new laboratory experiments show that particle sedimentation at the top of the fountain enables some of the hot, buoyant water in the fountain to separate from the collapsing flow and continue rising as a buoyant plume until it forms a radially spreading intrusion higher in the water column. With eruption rates of 10$$^6$$<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow /> <mml:mn>6</mml:mn> </mml:msup> </mml:math>–10$$^7$$<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow /> <mml:mn>7</mml:mn> </mml:msup> </mml:math>$$\hbox {kg s}^{-1}$$<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mtext>kg</mml:mtext> <mml:mspace /> <mml:msup> <mml:mtext>s</mml:mtext> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:math>, we estimate that this warm water may rise a few 100’s m above the fountain. Some of the finer grained pyroclasts can be carried upwards by this flow and as they spread out in the radial intrusion, they gradually sediment to form a fall deposit which may extend 1000’s m from the source. Meanwhile, material collapsing from the dense fountain forms aqueous pyroclastic flows which may also spread 1000’s m from the vent forming a flow deposit on the seabed. Quantification of the controls on the concurrent fall and flow deposits, and comparison with field observations, including from the 2012 eruption of Havre Volcano in the South Pacific, open the way to new understanding of submarine eruptions.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Dynamics of deep-submarine volcanic eruptions |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41598-022-07351-9 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07351-9 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Earth Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10205035 |
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