Characterizing high energy explosive eruptions at Stromboli volcano using multidisciplinary data: An example from the 9 January 2005 explosion

Abstract

Stromboli is well known for its persistent, normal explosive activity, consisting of intermittent, mild to moderate, Strombolian explosions that typically occur every 10–20 min. All tephras erupted during this activity usually fall back into the crater terrace, and consist of volatile-poor scoriae fed by Highly Porphyritic (HP) magma. More occasionally, large explosions or “paroxysms” eject a greater quantity of tephra, mainly consisting of HP scoriae and pumice clasts of Low Porphyritic (LP) magma, but also including large lithic blocks. In addition to this activity, between 2004 and 2006 high energy explosions, displaying an intermediate eruptive style between that of normal and paroxysmal explosions in terms of column height, duration and tephra dispersal, were observed to occur at a frequency of one to eight events per year. While many volcanological, geochemical and geophysical studies have focused in the last few years on the two endmembers of activity, i.e. normal or paroxysmal, a detailed investigation on these intermediate types of events has not been carried out yet. Here we report of a study on the 9 January 2005 explosion, one of the high energy explosions during which the main fountaining phase lasted nearly a minute causing ejection of coarse bombs up to a height of 120 m, and of ash and lapilli to N200 m. An accompanying ash plume rose up to 500 m at the end of the explosion. We present a multidisciplinary approach that integrates the results from analysis of live-camera images with compositional and textural characterization of the erupted products. Major element composition of glassy groundmass and 3D views of textures in the erupted scoriae support the hypothesis based on volcanological observations that this explosion falls between normal and paroxysmal activity, for which we use the term “intermediate”. By comparing the video-camera images of the 9 January 2005 explosion with volcanological features of other high energy explosions that occurred at Stromboli between June 2004 and October 2006, we find that three additional events can be considered intermediate explosions, suggesting that this type of activity may be fairly common on this volcano. The results of this study, although preliminary given our limited dataset, clearly indicate that the methodology used here can be successfully applied to better define the range of eruptive styles typifying the normal explosive activity, potentially improving our capability of eruption forecasting and assessing volcanic hazard at Stromboli.