HR: 13:40h
AN: V12E-01    [PDF]
TI: The Chemistry of Tropospheric Volcanic Plumes
AU: * Mather, T A
EM: tam21@cam.ac.uk
AF: Dept. of Earth Sciences Cambridge Univ, Downing St., Cambridge, CB2 3EQ United Kingdom
AU: Allen, A G
EM: a.g.allen@bham.ac.uk
AF: School of Geography Earth and Environmental Sciences Birmingham Univ, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT United Kingdom
AU: Pyle, D M
EM: dmp11@cam.ac.uk
AF: Dept. of Earth Sciences Cambridge Univ, Downing St., Cambridge, CB2 3EQ United Kingdom
AU: Oppenheimer, C
EM: co200@cam.ac.uk
AF: Dept. of Geography Cambridge Univ, Downing Place, Cambridge, CB2 3EN United Kingdom
AU: McGonigle, A J
EM: ajsm2@cam.ac.uk
AF: Dept. of Geography Cambridge Univ, Downing Place, Cambridge, CB2 3EN United Kingdom
AU: Tsanev, V I
EM: vip20@cam.ac.uk
AF: Dept. of Geography Cambridge Univ, Downing Place, Cambridge, CB2 3EN United Kingdom
AB: Persistently degassing volcanoes contribute substantial amounts of many different chemical species to the troposphere, including acidic gases (sulfur dioxide, HF and HCl), toxic trace metals (including mercury, cadmium and lead) and aerosols of different types. The continuous release of such species from active volcanoes may lead to significant short- and medium-range environmental impacts as well as constituting an important contribution to global natural emissions inventories. However, the emissions from many important volcanic centers remain poorly characterized meaning that the global volcanic emissions of many species are not reliably constrained. Further, the chemical evolution of volcanic plumes from emission source (magma) to the point of deposition remains poorly understood. Our work seeks to build upon and extend previous efforts in this field. We have deployed a range of field instruments at active volcanoes (including those in Nicaragua, Italy and Chile) in order to study different aspects of volcanic plume chemistry. These studies have included the use of an impactor (particles), sun photometry (particles), filter packs (particles and gases) and UV spectrometry (gases). Our primary aims are to look for trends in emission composition with style of degassing (e.g. open-vent vs fumarolic) and to consider how the emittants are processed during transport under different atmospheric conditions. As well as contributing to the understanding of local and regional scale impacts of volcanic plumes, this work will enable us to improve global flux estimates of volcanic emissions, such as trace metals and aerosols (particularly important given the ongoing efforts of climate modelers to include particles in their models). We are also working to identify previously unconsidered components in volcanic plumes. We have recently identified nitric acid emissions from volcanoes, suggesting that volcanoes are not only important atmospheric sources of chemicals exsolved from magma, but may also be important as high temperature reaction environments for plume-air mixtures.
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801)
DE: 0320 Cloud physics and chemistry
DE: 0330 Geochemical cycles
DE: 8409 Atmospheric effects (0370)
DE: 8424 Hydrothermal systems (8135)
SC: Volcanology, Geochemistry, Petrology [V]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting