̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Marie Edmonds

New drone technology advances volcanic monitoring

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Oct 2020 19:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��team, involving 20 researchers from seven countries, used long-range drones kitted out with a range of lightweight sensors to study the Manam volcano - one of the most active volcanoes in Papua New Guinea.

Their findings, published in the journal Science Advances, show how combined measurements from the air, earth and space can be used to understand volcanic contributions to the global carbon cycle, key to sustaining life on Earth.

One of the best ways to detect signs of an impending eruption is to ‘breathalyze’ a volcano by taking regular measurements of volcanic gases. Any change in the ratio of sulfur and carbon dioxide released can warn of an impending eruption. But sampling more remote or hazardous volcanoes like Manam is more challenging.

When the volcano last erupted between 2004 and 2006 the entire island was evacuated - crops were destroyed and water supplies contaminated. ̽��ֱ��islanders only started to return five years ago.

Previous studies have shown that Manam is one of the world’s biggest emitters of sulphur dioxide, but nothing was known of its CO₂ output.

Measuring volcanic CO₂ emissions is more challenging because it is already present in high concentrations in the atmosphere. ̽��ֱ��only way to get accurate readings is to take samples from close to active vents.

Collecting samples on Manam would be incredibly risky - not only is the vent flanked by precarious slopes, the volcano is also unmonitored so there would be little warning if an eruption struck.

Using drones equipped with miniaturised gas sensors, spectrometers and sampling devices the team piloted flights right into the plume emerging from Manam’s vent. ̽��ֱ��measurements captured gas composition, temperature and humidity in real-time.

̽��ֱ��project - Aerial-Based Observations of Volcanic Emissions (ABOVE) – saw the first global collaboration between scientists, remote-sensing specialists, engineers and pilots.

Project lead Dr Emma Liu of ̽��ֱ�� College London, who carried out the research while based at Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences, said: “these aerial measurements are pushing the frontiers of the current state-of-the-art in volcano monitoring - from the existing satellite data we know that Manam is a significant source of volcanic emissions, but that data came with a lot of uncertainty because it was measured at a distance.

“ ̽��ֱ��resources of the in-country volcano monitoring institute are small and the team has an incredible workload, but they really helped us make the links with the community living on Manam island.”

Following the fieldwork, the researchers raised funds to buy computers, solar panels and other technology to enable the local community – who have since put together a disaster preparedness group - to communicate via satellite from the island, and to provide drone operations training to Rabaul Volcanological Observatory staff to assist in their monitoring efforts.

ABOVE was part of the Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO), a global community of scientists on a ten-year quest to understand more about carbon in Earth.

“Volcanic emissions are a critical stage of the Earth’s carbon cycle - the movement of carbon between land, atmosphere, and ocean – but CO₂ measurements have so far been limited to a relatively small number of the world’s estimated 500 degassing volcanoes,” said co-author Professor Marie Edmonds, also from Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences. “Aerial gas measurements, collected along transects through the plume, together with ground-based and satellite data show that Manam is a major volcanic emission source on a global scale, which ranks fifth in terms of its carbon flux.”

Co-author Professor Alessandro Aiuppa ( ̽��ֱ�� of Palermo) described the findings as ‘a real advance in our field’, adding: “Ten years ago you could have only stared and guessed what Manam’s CO₂ emissions were.

“If you take into account all the carbon released by global volcanism, it’s less than a percent of the total emission budget, which is dominated by human activity. In a few centuries, humans are acting like thousands of volcanoes. If we continue to pump carbon into the atmosphere, it will make monitoring and forecasting eruptions using aerial gas observations even harder.”

“In order to understand the drivers of climate change you need to understand the carbon cycle in the Earth,” said co-author Professor Tobias Fischer from the ̽��ֱ�� of New Mexico. “We wanted to quantify the carbon emission from this very large carbon dioxide emitter. We had very few data in terms of carbon isotope composition, which would identify the source of the carbon and whether it is the mantle, crust or sediment. We wanted to know where that carbon comes from.”

“Drones are changing not only the way we monitor volcanoes – they also help us to understand what causes eruptions, and how carbon moves between the Earth’s interior and atmosphere,” said Edmonds. “If we know how volcanic emissions interacted with the climate in the past, we are closer to understanding controls on our present-day climate and how it may respond to future human-driven impacts.”

ABOVE was funded by Alfred P. Solan Foundation

Reference:
E.J. Liu et al. ‘Aerial strategies advance volcanic gas measurements at inaccessible, strongly degassing volcanoes.’ Science Advances (2020). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abb9103.

Specially-adapted drones, developed by an international team involving scientists from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, are transforming how we forecast eruptions by allowing close-range measurements of previously inaccessible and hazardous volcanoes

These aerial measurements are pushing the frontiers of the current state-of-the-art in volcano monitoring

Emma Liu

ABOVE and beyond: new drones developed by UCL collaboration give rare insight into remote volcanoes

Emma Liu

View from Baliau village, Manam

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Link identified between continental breakup, volcanic carbon emissions and evolution

sc604 — Thu, 20 Jul 2017 18:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��researchers, from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, used existing measurements of carbon and helium from more than 80 volcanoes around the world in order to determine its origin. Carbon and helium coming out of volcanoes can either come from deep within the Earth or be recycled near the surface, and measuring the chemical fingerprint of these elements can pinpoint their source. When the team analysed the data, they found that most of the carbon coming out of volcanoes is recycled near the surface, in contrast with earlier assumptions that the carbon came from deep in the Earth’s interior. “This is an essential piece of geological carbon cycle puzzle,” said Dr Marie Edmonds, the senior author of the study.

Over millions of years, carbon cycles back and forth between Earth’s deep interior and its surface. Carbon is removed from the surface from processes such as the formation of limestone and the burial and decay of plants and animals, which allows atmospheric oxygen to grow at the surface. Volcanoes are one way that carbon is returned to the surface, although the amount they produce is less than a hundredth of the amount of carbon emissions caused by human activity. Today, the majority of carbon from volcanoes is recycled near the surface, but it is unlikely that this was always the case.

Volcanoes form along large island or continental arcs where tectonic plates collide and one plate slides under the other, such as the Aleutian Islands between Alaska and Russia, the Andes of South America, the volcanoes throughout Italy, and the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific. These volcanoes have different chemical fingerprints: the ‘island arc’ volcanoes emit less carbon which comes from deep in the mantle, while the ‘continental arc’ volcanoes emit far more carbon which comes from closer to the surface.

Over hundreds of millions of years, the Earth has cycled between periods of continents coming together and breaking apart. During periods when continents come together, volcanic activity was dominated by island arc volcanoes; and when continents break apart, continental volcano arcs dominate. This back and forth changes the chemical fingerprint of carbon coming to Earth’s surface systematically over geological time, and can be measured through the different isotopes of carbon and helium.

Variations in the isotope ratio, or chemical fingerprint, of carbon are commonly measured in limestone. Researchers had previously thought that the only thing that could change the carbon fingerprint in limestone was the production of atmospheric oxygen. As such, the carbon isotope fingerprint in limestone was used to interpret the evolution of habitability of Earth’s surface. ̽��ֱ��results of the Cambridge team suggest that volcanoes played a larger role in the carbon cycle than had previously been understood, and that earlier assumptions need to be reconsidered.

“This makes us fundamentally re-evaluate the evolution of the carbon cycle,” said Edmonds. “Our results suggest that the limestone record must be completely reinterpreted if the volcanic carbon coming to the surface can change its carbon isotope composition.”

A great example of this is in the Cretaceous Period, 144 to 65 million years ago. During this time period there was a major increase in the carbon isotope ratio found in limestone, which has been interpreted as an increase in atmospheric oxygen concentration. This increase in atmospheric oxygen was causally linked to the proliferation of mammals in the late Cretaceous. However, the results of the Cambridge team suggest that the increase in the carbon isotope ratio in the limestones could be almost entirely due to changes in the types of volcanoes at the surface.

“ ̽��ֱ��link between oxygen levels and the burial of organic material allowed life on Earth as we know it to evolve, but our geological record of this link needs to be re-evaluated,” said co-author Dr Alexandra Turchyn, also from the Department of Earth Sciences.

̽��ֱ��research was funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Deep Carbon Observatory and the European Research Council.

Reference:
Emily Mason, Marie Edmonds, Alexandra V. Turchyn. ‘Remobilization of crustal carbon may dominate volcanic arc emissions.’ Science (2017). DOI: 10.1126/science.aan5049.

Inset Image: Schematic diagram to show the possible sources of carbon in a subduction zone volcanic system.

Researchers have found that the formation and breakup of supercontinents over hundreds of millions of years controls volcanic carbon emissions. ̽��ֱ��results, reported in the journal Science, could lead to a reinterpretation of how the carbon cycle has evolved over Earth’s history, and how this has impacted the evolution of Earth’s habitability.

̽��ֱ��link between oxygen levels and the burial of organic material allowed life on Earth as we know it to evolve, but our geological record of this link needs to be re-evaluated.

Alexandra Turchyn

Image courtesy of the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center

ISS013-E-24184 (23 May 2006) --- Eruption of Cleveland Volcano, Aleutian Islands, Alaska is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 13 crewmember on the International Space Station.

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