The study presents significant advances in the understanding of the explosive dynamics of the Tajogaite volcano during the 2021 Eruption.
A new paper on the temporal variability of explosive activity at Tajogaite volcano, Cumbre Vieja (Canary Islands), during the 2021 eruption from ground-based infrared photography and videography has just been published in the prestigious international scientific journal Frontiers in Earth Science.
This work, promoted by the Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands (INVOLCAN) and led by Janine Birnbaum, researcher at Columbia University (USA), involved researchers from INVOLCAN, the Institute of Technology and Renewable Energy (ITER), and the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (Italy).
During the last few years, INVOLCAN has consolidated its experience in the application of thermography as a tool for volcanic monitoring. The eruption of the Tajogaite volcano in 2021 was a turning point with the acquisition of new thermographic instrumentation and collaboration with leading scientists and institutions in this field.
The study was based on the acquisition of thermographic images and videos using ground-based thermal photography and videography during the eruption of the Tajogaite volcano. This allowed investigating the evolution of the explosive activity on multiple time scales (seconds-minutes, hours and days-weeks). Thermal imaging allowed us to observe correlated activity among the multiple explosive vents, suggesting that they must have been connected in the subsurface at shallow depths, with temporal variability controlled by gas flow.
Likewise, this study suggests that the variability in the proportion of eruptive material ejected in an effusive or explosive manner depends on whether the magma is rich in gas. This variation determines whether the eruption becomes more explosive or more effusive, depending on the degree of degassing of the magma.
This work has been possible thanks to the VOLRISKMAC (MAC/3.5b/124) and VOLRISKMAC II (MAC2/3.5b/328) projects, co-funded by the European Commission’s international cooperation program INTERREG V-A Spain-Portugal MAC 2014-2020. In addition to the projects Cumbre Vieja Emergencia, funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of the Government of Spain; TFassistance, funded by the Cabildo Insular de Tenerife; and LPvolcano, funded by the Cabildo Insular de La Palma.
Reference to the article:
- Birnbaum J, Lev E, Hernandez PA, Barrancos J, Padilla GD, Asensio-Ramos M, Calvo D, Rodríguez F, Pérez NM, D’Auria L and Calvari S (2023). Temporal variability of explosive activity at Tajogaite volcano, Cumbre Vieja (Canary Islands), 2021 eruption from ground-based infrared photography and videography. Front. Earth Sci. 11:1193436. doi: 10.3389/feart.2023.1193436
