Estimated Ancient Volcanic Characteristics from Modern Spatter
Additional Funding Sources
This project is supported by a 2019-2020 STEM Undergraduate Research Grant from the Higher Education Research Council.
Abstract
The amount of gas in a volcanic fissure can be rather varied leading to a different number of vesicles and vesicle size in a clast. As the clast cools, after being ejected from the fissure vent, trapped gases trying to escape the molten rock solidify leaving voids inside the rock. The number of vesicles within the rock also correlate to the rate at which the clast cooled after being ejected from the fissure vent. The size of the vesicles can differ based on the cooling rate of the clast, slower cooling can allow for gases to accumulate and for larger vesicles. Fissure which create taller fountain have small more circular vesicles due to the short time the quickly escaping gasses travel through the fissure vent. By using collected data from the 2018 Hawai'ian eruption, we can use it as a reference point for analyzing the spatter clast of older eruptive events in the Northwest of the USA and other locations. With the data from this study we can determine relative fountain height and whether the fissure released more or less gas relatively compared to other fissures.
Estimated Ancient Volcanic Characteristics from Modern Spatter
The amount of gas in a volcanic fissure can be rather varied leading to a different number of vesicles and vesicle size in a clast. As the clast cools, after being ejected from the fissure vent, trapped gases trying to escape the molten rock solidify leaving voids inside the rock. The number of vesicles within the rock also correlate to the rate at which the clast cooled after being ejected from the fissure vent. The size of the vesicles can differ based on the cooling rate of the clast, slower cooling can allow for gases to accumulate and for larger vesicles. Fissure which create taller fountain have small more circular vesicles due to the short time the quickly escaping gasses travel through the fissure vent. By using collected data from the 2018 Hawai'ian eruption, we can use it as a reference point for analyzing the spatter clast of older eruptive events in the Northwest of the USA and other locations. With the data from this study we can determine relative fountain height and whether the fissure released more or less gas relatively compared to other fissures.