Dr. Dario Tedesco - Nyiragongo volcano : when scientists’ normal toolkit doesn’t work

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Dr. Dario Tedesco, Campania U.

Mardi 19 octobre 2021 à 13h00 - Tuesday, October 19, 2021 at 1:00 pm
Lien Zoom / Zoom link: https://uqam.zoom.us/j/87397698577
Résumé / abstract:

Nowadays, volcanic eruptions are often considered predictable or at least easily monitored. Recently, as with Mt Nyiragongo and its neighboring Nyamulagira volcano, eruptive events, from small to medium magnitude have shown no evident precursors, even when monitored by high-tech scientific networks. But perhaps we need to re-define what we mean by the three terms: quiescent, active, and erupting. Mount Nyiragongo with its permanent (or semi-permanent) lava lake is the most active volcano in Africa and one of the most active worldwide. Although its activity is well-characterized by scientists, it seems that many did not consider the lava lake as indicative that the volcano was actually already erupting. This frame of mind may falsely lead us to expect obvious precursors prior to a Nyiragongo flank eruption, rather than to consider that perhaps the volcano is already erupting. The truth is (and was) that with magma already at the surface (constantly feeding the lava lake) the usual parameters that volcanologists monitor (VT and long-period earthquakes, tremors and vertical deformation) may not foretell the cracking/fissuring that results in the flank lava effusion that has now occurred in 1977, 2002, and 2021. This means that if scientists wish to forecast future Nyiragongo’s flank lavas that can bury parts of Goma, they must look for new parameters that could be more indicative of the crustal spreading that allows the lava to leak out the side of the volcano. In effect, scientists must recognize that this open-conduit volcano is already erupting, and we need to look for different kinds of precursors.

Mot de passe / password : isotope

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Nyiragongo volcano : when scientists’ normal toolkit doesn’t work

Ajouter au calendrier 2021-10-19 13:00:00 2024-03-28 20:16:50 Dr. Dario Tedesco - Nyiragongo volcano : when scientists’ normal toolkit doesn’t work Nowadays, volcanic eruptions are often considered predictable or at least easily monitored. Recently, as with Mt Nyiragongo and its neighboring Nyamulagira volcano, eruptive events, from small to medium magnitude have shown no evident precursors, even when monitored by high-tech scientific networks. But perhaps we need to re-define what we mean by the three terms: quiescent, active, and erupting. Mount Nyiragongo with its permanent (or semi-permanent) lava lake is the most active volcano in Africa and one of the most active worldwide. Although its activity is well-characterized by scientists, it seems that many did not consider the lava lake as indicative that the volcano was actually already erupting. This frame of mind may falsely lead us to expect obvious precursors prior to a Nyiragongo flank eruption, rather than to consider that perhaps the volcano is already erupting. The truth is (and was) that with magma already at the surface (constantly feeding the lava lake) the usual parameters that volcanologists monitor (VT and long-period earthquakes, tremors and vertical deformation) may not foretell the cracking/fissuring that results in the flank lava effusion that has now occurred in 1977, 2002, and 2021. This means that if scientists wish to forecast future Nyiragongo’s flank lavas that can bury parts of Goma, they must look for new parameters that could be more indicative of the crustal spreading that allows the lava to leak out the side of the volcano. In effect, scientists must recognize that this open-conduit volcano is already erupting, and we need to look for different kinds of precursors. Mot de passe / password : isotope Geotop admin@example.com America/New_York public