A global database of erupted mass: an important tool for the spatial and...

Galetto, F., and M. Pritchard, A global database of erupted mass: an important tool for the spatial and temporal quantification of volcanism from 1980 to 2019, . Cities on Volcanoes , Heraklion, GR.
Abstract: 
 
Volcanism is one of the main mechanisms exchanging mass and energy between the interior of the Earth and the Earth’s surface and atmosphere. Here we seek to improve estimates of the mass and composition erupted from 1980 to 2020 by building on previous work. We started with the database of the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program to identify the key eruptions (about 1500) that occurred from 1980 to 2020, making the largest such compilation of eruptions during this time period available. Then, we associated a range of masses to these eruptions from published articles. When available, we report both the total erupted volume and its partition into lava, tephra, and pyroclastic density currents as well as the composition of the erupted products, and SO2 emitted. For those eruptions (60-70%) without detailed studies available, we calculated the erupted volume from the Volcanic Explosive Index (VEI) reported in the Smithsonian database, except for the effusive eruptions (⸟15%), whose volume estimation would be underestimated if we used the VEI. We assigned to them a magnitude comparable to that of other lava flows at those volcanoes ± an order of magnitude. Thanks to this new database, we investigated the temporal and spatial evolution of volcanism from 1980 to 2020, also estimating the eruptive rate of each volcanic region of the world. In addition, we calculated the amount of tephra erupted into the atmosphere by the main explosive eruptions. Finally, we used this database to make a review of previously proposed relationships between the erupted masses of magma and SO2, which were based on smaller (<50%) compilations of eruptions. In most of the cases, we confirmed the previously proposed relationships, finding that the mass of erupted SO2 is usually between 1 and 0.05% of the erupted mass of magma. In addition, we found that the range of erupted SO2 with respect to the erupted mass of magma remains high regardless to the geodynamic setting. Previous work suggested that the predominantly basaltic magmas of non arc volcanoes (such as hotspots) had a different relationship between the erupted masses of magma and SO2 from arc volcanoes, but our work suggests that they have similar variability. This suggests no special behaviour of non arc volcanoes with respect to arc volcanoes and that SO2 can be lost or accumulated depending on the eruption.
Research Program: 
Earth Surface & Interior Program (ESI)
Location: 
Heraklion, GR
Conference: 
. Cities on Volcanoes
Funding Sources: 
NASA IDS: 80NSSC20K1674