A new multi-parameter toolkit to interrogate the source and climate impact of past volcanism

一个新的多参数工具包，用于询问过去火山活动的来源和气候影响

• 批准号: NE/S015345/1
• 负责人: William Hutchison
• 金额: $ 72.31万
• 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: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FS015345%2F1
• 关键词: new; multi; parameter; toolkit; interrogate

Explosive volcanic eruptions spew enormous quantities of ash and gas in to the atmosphere. There are about 5-10 major volcanic events every year, and roughly 600 million people (10 % of the world's population) live close enough to be directly affected when they erupt. These eruptions may cause 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 have an impact on 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 economics billions of pounds. This emergency highlighted the vulnerability of our modern globalised world, 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. Although in most surface environments this fallout is rapidly washed away and lost. Ice sheets are the expedition to this, and drilling into the ice and accessing core provides the undisputed best records of past volcanic eruptions. Unfortunately, reading this record of past volcanism is not straightforward, and although we can easily identify the sulphur-rich layers and ash deposited by these ancient eruptions, scientists have struggled to understand where the source volcano might be located or 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 we could learn how to get more information about the likely source and environmental impacts out of these ice core records, it would represent a major breakthrough - not only would be able to 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 reduce the 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 hence its climate changing potential. I'll also analyse the chemical composition of the tiny ash samples that get lofted all the way to the ice sheet (many of which are smaller in diameter than a human hair). I shall interrogate these techniques for several well-known volcanic eruptions, where we know both the source and their climate-impact. Once calibrated, I will use the technique to determine the source of unknown eruptions in the ice core record, and evaluate their climate and societal impact by comparing my results to other data sets. This project will provide critical information on the magnitude, frequency and style of past eruptions. This will lead to improved 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 6 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造成重大人员伤亡，还会造成毁灭性的环境影响，火山灰和酸性沉降物覆盖大地，从而毁坏农作物并造成伤害。尽管我们大多数英国人永远不会近距离目睹这些火山喷发，但它们仍然会对我们的生活产生影响，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。这次紧急事件凸显了我们现代全球化世界的脆弱性，以及英国持续面临威胁的事实。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。爆炸性喷发会发生区域性和全球性分布，并且可以从其喷发源传播数千公里，尽管在大多数地表环境中，这种沉降物很快就会被冲走并消失，而钻入冰层并进入核心。不幸的是，阅读这些过去火山活动的记录并不容易，尽管我们可以轻松识别这些古代火山喷发所沉积的富含硫的层和火山灰，但科学家们一直在努力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。了解如何从这些冰芯记录中获取有关可能的来源和环境影响的更多信息，这将是一项重大突破——不仅能够帮助科学家针对全球容易发生大型火山事件的地区进行火山监测，但通过了解这些过去事件的频率和影响，我们可以减少经济影响。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高度的关键信息。火山羽流到达我还将分析一直飘到冰盖上的微小火山灰样本的化学成分（其中许多样本的直径比人类的头发还小）。这些技术适用于几次著名的火山喷发，我们知道其来源及其对气候的影响。一旦校准，我将使用该技术来确定冰芯记录中未知喷发的来源，并评估其气候和社会。通过将我的结果与其他数据集进行比较，该项目将提供有关过去火山喷发的强度、频率和类型的重要信息，这将改进对未来火山事件的预测，从而有助于限制生命损失并减少。对于英国来说，我们将全面了解冰岛大型火山事件的喷发频率。对于全球社会来说，我们将帮助查明过去喷发的来源并评估导致气候变化的喷发频率。地球。