Kilauea, Stromboli and Etna are the three most intensely monitored, continually active basaltic volcanoes in the world. This continuity of eruptive activity and the existing and ongoing real-time geophysical and geochemical observations make these volcanoes ideal for this study. Using well-characterized volcanoes, the researchers expect results that can be applied to less well-constrained basaltic eruptions. Kīlauea and Stromboli are also locations of large and growing volcano-tourism operations. Summit eruptions pose particular issues for management agencies because the sites are highly accessible and thus there is a need to balance the strong public interest in viewing the activity against the issue of public safety. The Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, for example, records over 5000 visitors per day to the summit of Kīlauea. This group's aim is to assist with satisfying public thirst for information and a need for improved forecasting of the likely course of all future eruptions.
Coupling high-speed photography and high-resolution analysis of released volcanic gas offers a powerful new way to first describe and then interpret volcanic explosions. This study will couple these two techniques in real-time for the first time at Kīlauea, Hawaii and Stromboli, and, if activity permits, Etna, Italy. This has the potential to revolutionize ideas of the final stages of melt and bubble rise leading to an eruption. Researchers will examine a spectrum of types of activity, from short, widely spaced explosions (Strombolian) to fountains lasting hours to days (Hawaiian), via three synchronized high-speed cameras paired to volcanic gas studies using Fournier Transform Infrared techniques and low-cost, portable, and precise multicomponent gas sensors. They suggest that the exact form and duration of these eruptions is driven by the form and timing of pulses of meter-sized gas bubbles that rise, and interact in a highly dynamic fashion under the vent.
