Up, Up and Away: Studying Volcanoes With BalloonAugust 15, 2008People do all kinds of crazy things in Hawaii, but flying balloons over a volcano usually isn't one of them. Unless you're Adam Durant, that is. Durant, an adjunct geological sciences faculty member at Michigan Technological University, and colleagues took meteorological balloons to the Kilauea volcano this summer to make the first on-location measurements of volcanic gases as they actually spew from the mouth of the volcano. The Kilauea volcano began erupting in March. Durant and Matt Watson, also an adjunct faculty member at Michigan Tech, are working with Paul Voss of Smith College to measure the temperature, composition and water content of the volcanic gases. Durant and Watson both are Michigan Tech alumni who are doing postdoctoral work at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. "The first flight was a success and made the first in situ measurements of gases in a volcanic plume using meteorological balloons," Durant reported in a talk at Michigan Tech. In addition to seeing volcanoes up close-Durant and his colleagues wear goggles and breathing masks at the infernal mouth of the volcano-he analyzes the plumes using controlled meteorological (CMET) balloons, which have altitude control and drift with winds. "The balloons are piloted remotely by satellite link," Durant explained, "with flight visualization using Google Earth. We were looking at tropospheric volcanic emissions of sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and water, which can be hazardous to human and animal health and degrade ecosystems." The scientists released two balloons in July that rode the winds in and out of the plumes emanating from Kilauea's Halema'uma'u crater. Using instruments hanging below the balloon, the researchers measured the gases as the plumes rose up and away from the active volcano, one of three on Hawaii. After the first balloon was released into strong winds left over from tropical storm Elida, it worked for a couple of hours, ascending to 2,500 meters around Mauna Loa mountain. The flight lasted for just under two hours before the balloon crashed into the mountain north of the launch site. Durant and Watson spent the next three hours scouring the jungle on steep mountain slopes before finally locating the balloon, mostly intact. The next day's launch was even more eventful. Voss worked through the night at home in Massachusetts, while Durant worked remotely in the field to fly the balloon using Google Earth. The balloon remained airborne so long that the researchers had to ask the Federal Aviation Administration to extend the flight beyond their approved window. After five hours, they finally had to terminate the flight themselves, to avoid exceeding the new FAA window or interfering with Hilo or Kona airports. This flight landed in a macadamia nut tree plantation. The Google Earth images were so clear "we could count the rows of trees to find the balloon," Durant said. They also managed to land the balloon close to a major highway. "It sure beat slugging it out through a jungle," he remarked. The preliminary data is already interesting, Durant says. "We are fairly confident of three findings. First, this work is feasible for measuring sulfur dioxide (SO2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) in volcanic emissions for several hours after eruptions. Second, there is a loss of SO2 after one hour of flight away from the source, which could reflect conversion to sulfate aerosol (which may lower the Earth's temperature by reflecting away solar radiation). And third, there is a clear stratification of SO2 above CO2 within the plumes." The stratification could represent separation of the gases through meteorological processes such as water droplet formation, Durant said This finding has implications for remote sensing studies that aim to measure volcanic gas emission rates. Their research could have immediate consequences for neighboring residents. "One of the largest subdivisions in America is Ocean View, and it is downwind from the volcano on the west side of the island," Durant noted. "We detected sulfur dioxide over the development, several hours after it was erupted into the atmosphere." Although they detected considerably less than the 500 parts per million at the source, the level is still high enough to warrant more monitoring, he said. Durant and colleagues would like to return to Hawaii to conduct another, larger study with more accurate (and expensive) instrumentation, to collect more data on the gases that Kilauea belches out. The devil is in the details, it seems, even in paradise. Michigan Technological University is a leading public research university, conducting research, developing new technologies and preparing students to create the future for a prosperous and sustainable world. Michigan Tech offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in engineering, forestry and environmental sciences, computing, technology, business Michigan Technological University |
|||||||||||||||||||||
| Related Volcano Current Events and Volcano News Articles Supervolcano eruption -- in Sumatra -- deforested India 73,000 years ago A new study provides "incontrovertible evidence" that the volcanic super-eruption of Toba on the island of Sumatra about 73,000 years ago deforested much of central India, some 3,000 miles from the epicenter, researchers report. Study uses satellite imagery to identify active magma systems in East Africa's Rift Valley A team from the University of Miami, University of El Paso and University of Rochester have employed Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) images compiled over a decade to study volcanic activity in the African Rift. The study, published in the November issue of Geology, studies the section of the rift in Kenya. African Desert Rift Confirmed as New Ocean in the Making In 2005, a gigantic, 35-mile-long rift broke open the desert ground in Ethiopia. At the time, some geologists believed the rift was the beginning of a new ocean as two parts of the African continent pulled apart, but the claim was controversial. HyBIS explores the Casablanca seamount In October, the hydraulic benthic interactive sampler HyBIS maintained by the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS) made ten dives over the Casablanca Seamount, a four-kilometre high seamount located some 300 miles west of Morocco. Tsunami waves reasonably likely to strike Israel "There is a likely chance of tsunami waves reaching the shores of Israel," says Dr. Beverly Goodman of the Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa following an encompassing geo-archaeological study at the port of Caesarea. "Tsunami events in the Mediterranean do occur less frequently than in the Pacific Ocean, but our findings reveal a moderate rate of recurrence," she says. Scientists measure the rate of ascent of volcanic magma Plinian volcanic eruptions are notoriously destructive. These very powerful eruptions often occur after long periods of quiescence and are preceded by relatively short periods of seismic restiveness. 'Rosetta Stone' of supervolcanoes discovered in Italian Alps Scientists have found the "Rosetta Stone" of supervolcanoes, those giant pockmarks in the Earth's surface produced by rare and massive explosive eruptions that rank among nature's most violent events. The eruptions produce devastation on a regional scale - and possibly trigger climatic and environmental effects at a global scale. Researchers to study rebirth of an island after volcanic eruption When Alaska's Kasatochi Volcano erupted on Aug. 7, 2008, it virtually sterilized Kasatochi Island, covering the small Aleutian island with a layer of ash and other volcanic material several meters thick. UB Geologists to Help Communicate the Dangers of Colombian Volcano During the past decade, residents of Pasto, Colombia, and neighboring villages near Galeras, Colombia's most dangerous volcano, have been threatened with evacuation, but compliance varies. Obsidian 'trail' provides clues to how humans settled, interacted in Kuril Islands Archaeologists have used stone tools to answer many questions about human ancestors in both the distant and near past and now they are analyzing the origin of obsidian flakes to better understand how people settled and interacted in the inhospitable Kuril Islands. More Volcano Current Events and Volcano News Articles |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||