Inferring a shallow degassing model for Villarrica Volcano from seismic explosion signals and SO2 flux

<p>Villarrica is a basaltic volcano with an active lava lake in South Central Chile. The lava lake displays a variety of degassing styles from gentle seething to more violent Strombolian explosions. This activity is accompanied by sequences of transient seismic waveforms suggesting the presence of discrete gas bubbles in the upper magma column. Gas bubbles flow through liquid-filled pipes according to distinct patterns depending on viscosity of the liquid and volumetric gas flow rate. Laboratory experiments indicate that these regimes are characterized by distinct frequency distributions of bubble sizes and spacings. By assuming that these parameters are reflected by the magnitude of the transients and the time between them, we compared their statistical distributions to infer a flow regime for the shallow conduit of Villarrica. The approximately log-normal distributions indicate a sustained slug flow regime in which the gas ascends in trains of conduit-wide gas slugs. The event catalog for our analysis contained about 20,000 events and was generated from 12 days of seismic data from March 2012 acquired by a dense local network. A well-known problem in earthquake statistics is the incompleteness of event catalogs towards low magnitudes due to decreasing detectability in the ambient noise. We estimated the actual distribution of magnitudes by using a Monte Carlo simulation of the event detection based on the statistical properties of the observed seismic noise. The unknown source depth and mechanism introduce further ambiguity regarding the distributions. Nevertheless, we hope to refine the degassing model by taking into account degassing rates, magma properties and more detailed analysis of the nature of the seismic events.</p>

Vapor transport of silver and gold in basaltic lava flows

We documented occurrences of native copper (Cu), silver (Ag), and gold (Au) in a pāhoehoe flow from Kīlauea volcano (Hawaii, USA), an a‘ā flow from Mauna Loa volcano (Hawaii), and a mid-oceanic-ridge basalt (MORB) from the Chile Ridge (southeastern Pacific Ocean). Native Ag in Kīlauea and MORB samples consistently contained minor Cl (<1 wt%). Native Ag in Hawaiian basalts can occur at the center of nearly circular patches of relatively evolved minerals, which presumably formed after late-stage silicate liquid infilled pipe vesicles. Sulfur loss and oxidation of a Cu-sulfide phase can explain the native Cu, but not Au and Ag deposition. The rare occurrence of native Cu-Au-Ag alloys and the large native Au and Ag grain size suggest separate metal precipitation mechanisms. A fractional crystallization and degassing model envisions initial Au and Ag enrichment in crystallizing interstitial liquid and further enrichment in a separating vapor phase. From the flow interior, the metals ascend through ephemeral pipe vesicles as bisulfide (Au) or chloride (Ag) vapor complexes and precipitate in the transition zone below the upper vesicular zone, owing to temperature and oxidation state changes. Our results support igneous vapor transport of ore elements in mafic plutonic systems and imply preconcentration of gold during lava solidification before later hydrothermal remobilization.