This RAPID award funds a prompt response to the ongoing, massive eruption of Tolbachik volcano, central Kamchatka, Russia, which started with little warning on November 27, 2012, after 36 years of quiescence. Within two days of the eruption onset the lava flows had already traveled nearly 10 km, covering an area of ~14 km2. The eruption has formed a series of cinder cones that feed lava flows, which at the time of this writing extend for nearly 20 km over the barren slopes of the volcano down into snow-covered forests. The investigators will join an international team of volcanologists who are monitoring the ongoing activity, and will focus on two important aspects of the eruption: (1) interaction of lava with snow and ice, and (2) temporal variations of the composition of erupted lavas and their crystal cargo.
Both of these topics are timely for improving our understanding of volcanic eruptions. Gaining a more quantitative understanding of how lava flows interact with snow and ice is critical for assessing hazards at snow and ice covered volcanoes and for improving our ability to recognize ancient deposits formed by lava-snow interactions. Few if any quantitative studies have been attempted in the field to quantify heat transfer from lava to snow or ice; this requires direct field measurements at the front of an active lava flow propagating through the snow/ice-dominating environment. While these conditions are highly ephemeral, they are now present at Tolbachik as the eruption began after much of the surrounding landscape had been covered by seasonal snow, which has created a unique opportunity to measure heat transfer between lava and snow/ice and provide more accurate constraints for experimental and theoretical modeling of their interaction. Having a better understanding of how lava flows rapidly melt snow and ice is important for identifying hazardous areas around snow and ice-covered volcanoes such as Mt. Rainier in the Cascades. Similarly, collection of lava and ash samples during and immediately after their eruption is important because: (i) their juvenile origin can be established unequivocally and (ii) their time of eruption is known precisely. These characteristics are critical for using a series of erupted products to observe compositional trends in the eruptive sequence and to identify magma processes that triggered and currently drive the eruption at Tolbachik. This RAPID award will allow sampling of the eruptive products before they are buried by ash or later lava flows.
