Taking Earth's volcanic pulse: understanding global volcanic hazards by unlocking the ice core isotope archive

掌握地球火山脉搏：通过解锁冰芯同位素档案了解全球火山危害

• 批准号: MR/S033505/1
• 负责人: William Hutchison
• 金额: $ 59.64万
• 依托单位: University of St Andrews
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FS033505%2F1
• 关键词: Taking; Earth; volcanic; pulse; understanding

Explosive volcanic eruptions spew enormous quantities of ash and gas into the atmosphere. There are about 5-10 major volcanic events every year, and roughly 700 million people (10 % of the world's population) live close enough to be directly affected when they erupt. These eruptions may lead to significant human fatalities, and can also have devastating environmental impacts, covering the landscape in ash and acidic fallout, which destroys crops and harms livestock.Although most of us in the UK will never witness one of these eruptions up close they can still impact our lives. This was demonstrated by the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland in April and May 2010. Although the eruption was relatively minor and did not kill anyone, it disrupted the travel of millions of people and cost global economies billions of pounds. This emergency highlighted the vulnerability of our global trade and transport networks, and the fact that the UK is at constant threat from disruption by volcanic events. One of the key goals of volcanology is to study past volcanic events so that we can understand their return periods and environmental impacts, and help prepare society for the next 'big one'. Amazingly, the volcanic products from large explosive eruptions undergo regional and global distribution and can travel thousands of kilometres from their eruption source. However, in most surface environments this fine grained volcanic fallout is rapidly washed away and lost. Ice sheets are the expedition to this, and by drilling into the ice and extracting ice cores scientists can identify the sulphur-rich layers and ash deposited by these past eruptions. Although ice cores provide the undisputed best archive of past volcanism, interpreting this record is not straightforward. The main difficulties we face are understanding where the source volcano was located and what its climate impact might have been. Even in records that span the last 2500 years, we only know the location of 7 of the 25 largest volcanic eruptions. If scientists could learn how to extract more information about the likely source and environmental impacts of these eruptions from these records it would represent a major breakthrough. Not only would this help scientists target volcano monitoring in regions of the globe that are prone to large volcanic events, but by understanding the frequency and impacts of these past events we can prepare societies for future eruptions and reduce their economic impacts.My project will take advantage of recent analytical breakthroughs in ice core research. In particular, recent analyses suggest that volcanic sulphur chemistry encodes critical information about the height the volcanic plume reached in the atmosphere and the proximity of the eruptive source to the ice sheet. This method would therefore provide critical new information about where the volcano was located and its climate impact (since plumes injected higher into the atmosphere tend to cause the greatest global cooling). I will carefully interrogate these techniques for several well-known volcanic eruptions, where we already have good information on their source location, eruption style and climate impacts. Once calibrated, I will use this chemical fingerprinting technique to determine the eruptive style (plume height) and source location of all significant eruptions over the last 2000 years. Thus, this project will provide critical information about the magnitude, frequency and style of past eruptions which will be used to improve forecasts of future volcanic events. Being better prepared will help limit the loss of life and reduce the economic losses. For the UK, we'll gain a thorough understanding of the eruption frequency of large volcanic events in Iceland. For global society, we'll help pinpoint the source of past eruptions and evaluate the frequency of climate-changing eruptions on Earth.

火山喷发会向大气中喷出大量火山灰和气体。每年大约会发生 5-10 次重大火山事件，大约有 7 亿人（占世界人口的 10%）生活在附近，会在火山喷发时直接受到影响。这些火山喷发可能会导致重大人员伤亡，也可能产生毁灭性的环境影响，火山灰和酸性沉降物覆盖大地，从而毁坏农作物并伤害牲畜。我们英国人永远不会近距离目睹这些火山喷发，但它们仍然会影响我们的生活，2010 年 4 月和 5 月冰岛埃亚菲亚德拉冰盖火山的喷发就证明了这一点。尽管这次喷发相对较小，没有造成任何人死亡，它扰乱了数百万人的旅行，并使全球经济损失了数十亿英镑。这一紧急情况凸显了我们全球贸易和运输网络的脆弱性，以及英国不断受到火山破坏的威胁。火山学的主要目标之一是研究过去的火山事件，以便我们了解它们的重现期和环境影响，并帮助社会为下一次“大火山”做好准备。和全球分布，并且可以从其喷发源传播数千公里。然而，在大多数地表环境中，这种细粒火山沉降物很快就会被冲走并消失，并且通过钻入冰层和冰层。提取冰芯科学家可以识别过去火山喷发所沉积的富含硫的层和火山灰，尽管冰芯提供了无可争议的过去火山活动的最佳档案，但解释这一记录并不简单，我们面临的主要困难是了解火山的源头在哪里。即使在过去 2500 年的记录中，我们也只知道 25 次最大火山喷发中的 7 次的位置，如果科学家们能够学会如何做到这一点的话。从这些记录中提取有关这些火山喷发的可能来源和环境影响的更多信息，这将是一项重大突破，这不仅有助于科学家对全球易发生大型火山事件的地区进行火山监测，而且可以了解其频率。以及这些过去事件的影响，我们可以为社会未来的火山喷发做好准备，并减少其经济影响。我的项目将利用冰芯研究的最新分析突破，特别是最近的分析表明，火山硫化学编码了有关火山高度的关键信息。火山因此，这种方法将提供有关火山所在位置及其气候影响的重要新信息（因为注入大气层更高的羽流往往会导致全球最大的降温）。 ）我将仔细研究几次著名火山喷发的这些技术，我们已经掌握了有关其源位置、喷发类型和气候影响的详细信息，一旦校准，我将使用这种化学指纹技术来确定喷发类型。因此，该项目将提供有关过去喷发的规模、频率和类型的重要信息，这些信息将用于改进对未来火山事件的预测。对于英国来说，我们将有助于限制生命损失并减少经济损失。对于全球社会来说，我们将帮助查明火山爆发的根源。火山喷发并评估地球上气候变化喷发的频率。

项目成果

Gas Emissions and Subsurface Architecture of Fault-Controlled Geothermal Systems: A Case Study of the North Abaya Geothermal Area

断层控制的地热系统的气体排放和地下结构：北阿巴亚地热区的案例研究

• DOI: http://dx.10.1029/2022gc010822
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems
• 作者: Hutchison W

Volcanic activity and hazard in the East African Rift Zone.

东非裂谷区的火山活动和危险。

• DOI: http://dx.10.1038/s41467-021-27166-y
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Nature communications
• 影响因子: 16.6
• 作者: Biggs J

The sulfur isotope evolution of magmatic-hydrothermal fluids: insights into ore-forming processes

岩浆热液的硫同位素演化：对成矿过程的见解

• DOI: 10.1016/j.gca.2020.07.042
• 发表时间: 2020-11-01
• 期刊: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
• 影响因子: 5
• 作者: W. Hutchison;A. Finch;A. Boyce
• 通讯作者: A. Boyce

Mid-to Late Holocene East Antarctic ice-core tephrochronology: Implications for reconstructing volcanic eruptions and assessing their climatic impacts over the last 5,500 years

全新世中晚期东南极冰芯年代学：对重建过去 5,500 年火山喷发和评估其气候影响的意义

• DOI: http://dx.10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108544
• 发表时间: 2024
• 期刊: Quaternary Science Reviews
• 影响因子: 4
• 作者: Abbott P

Fluidal pyroclasts reveal the intensity of peralkaline rhyolite pumice cone eruptions.

流体火山碎屑揭示了过碱性流纹岩浮石锥喷发的强度。

• DOI: http://dx.10.1038/s41467-019-09947-8
• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: Nature communications
• 影响因子: 16.6
• 作者: Clarke B