RAPID: Collaborative Research: Rapid Response to Ongoing Tolbachik Eruption

俄罗斯堪察加半岛中部的托尔巴切克火山（Tolbachik）正在大规模喷发，经过36年的沉寂，于2012年11月27日爆发，几乎没有任何预警。在火山爆发的两天内，熔岩流已经移动了近10公里，覆盖了约14平方公里的区域。火山喷发形成了一系列的火山渣锥，形成了熔岩流，在撰写本文时，熔岩流在火山贫瘠的山坡上延伸了近20公里，一直延伸到白雪覆盖的森林中。调查人员将加入一个由火山学家组成的国际小组，该小组正在监测正在进行的火山活动，并将重点关注火山喷发的两个重要方面：(1)熔岩与冰雪的相互作用；(2)喷发的熔岩及其结晶物组成的时间变化。这两个主题对于提高我们对火山爆发的理解都是及时的。更定量地了解熔岩流如何与冰雪相互作用，对于评估冰雪覆盖的火山的危害，以及提高我们识别由熔岩-冰雪相互作用形成的古代沉积物的能力至关重要。很少有人在实地尝试定量研究从熔岩到雪或冰的热量传递；这需要在通过雪/冰主导环境传播的活跃熔岩流的前部进行直接的现场测量。虽然这些条件是非常短暂的，但它们现在出现在托尔巴克火山爆发时，周围的大部分景观已经被季节性积雪覆盖，这为测量熔岩和冰雪之间的热量传递创造了一个独特的机会，并为它们相互作用的实验和理论模型提供了更准确的约束。更好地了解熔岩流是如何迅速融化冰雪的，对于识别冰雪覆盖的火山（如喀斯喀特山脉的雷尼尔山）周围的危险区域非常重要。同样，在喷发期间和喷发后立即收集熔岩和火山灰样本也很重要，因为：(i)可以明确地确定它们的幼年起源，（ii）可以精确地知道它们的喷发时间。这些特征对于利用一系列喷发产物来观察喷发序列中的成分趋势以及确定触发和目前推动托尔巴克火山喷发的岩浆过程至关重要。这项RAPID奖励将允许在喷发产物被火山灰或后来的熔岩流掩埋之前对其进行取样。

This RAPID award funds a prompt response to the ongoing, massive eruption of Tolbachik volcano, central Kamchatka, Russia, which started with little warning on November 27, 2012, after 36 years of quiescence. Within two days of the eruption onset the lava flows had already traveled nearly 10 km, covering an area of ~14 km2. The eruption has formed a series of cinder cones that feed lava flows, which at the time of this writing extend for nearly 20 km over the barren slopes of the volcano down into snow-covered forests. The investigators will join an international team of volcanologists who are monitoring the ongoing activity, and will focus on two important aspects of the eruption: (1) interaction of lava with snow and ice, and (2) temporal variations of the composition of erupted lavas and their crystal cargo.Both of these topics are timely for improving our understanding of volcanic eruptions. Gaining a more quantitative understanding of how lava flows interact with snow and ice is critical for assessing hazards at snow and ice covered volcanoes and for improving our ability to recognize ancient deposits formed by lava-snow interactions. Few if any quantitative studies have been attempted in the field to quantify heat transfer from lava to snow or ice; this requires direct field measurements at the front of an active lava flow propagating through the snow/ice-dominating environment. While these conditions are highly ephemeral, they are now present at Tolbachik as the eruption began after much of the surrounding landscape had been covered by seasonal snow, which has created a unique opportunity to measure heat transfer between lava and snow/ice and provide more accurate constraints for experimental and theoretical modeling of their interaction. Having a better understanding of how lava flows rapidly melt snow and ice is important for identifying hazardous areas around snow and ice-covered volcanoes such as Mt. Rainier in the Cascades. Similarly, collection of lava and ash samples during and immediately after their eruption is important because: (i) their juvenile origin can be established unequivocally and (ii) their time of eruption is known precisely. These characteristics are critical for using a series of erupted products to observe compositional trends in the eruptive sequence and to identify magma processes that triggered and currently drive the eruption at Tolbachik. This RAPID award will allow sampling of the eruptive products before they are buried by ash or later lava flows.