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In-conduit capture of sub-micron volcanic ash particles via turbophoresis and sintering

Farquharson, Jamie I.; Tuffen, Hugh; Wadsworth, Fabian B.; Castro, Jonathan M.; Unwin, Holly; Schipper, C. Ian

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Authors

Jamie I. Farquharson

Hugh Tuffen

Jonathan M. Castro

Holly Unwin

C. Ian Schipper



Abstract

Ash emission in explosive silicic eruptions can have widespread impacts for human health, agriculture, infrastructure, and aviation. Estimates of the total grainsize distribution (TGSD) generated during explosive magma fragmentation underpins eruption models and ash dispersal forecasts. Conventionally, the TGSD constrained via erupted deposits is assumed to match the TGSD produced at explosive fragmentation. Here we present observations from within the vent of a recent rhyolitic eruption (Cordón Caulle, Chile, 2011–2012), demonstrating that fine (<63 μm diameter) and ultra-fine (<2.5 μm diameter) ash particles are captured and sintered to fracture surfaces, and thus sequestered in the shallow subsurface, rather than emitted. We establish a conceptual model—uniquely contextualised through a combination of syn-eruptive observations and detailed post-eruption field investigation—in which turbophoresis (particle migration towards zones of lower turbulence) and rapid sintering create an inverse relationship between particle size and the probability of its subsurface capture. Such size-dependent capture efficiency preferentially removes submicron-diameter ash from the erupted componentry, decoupling the erupted size distribution from magmatic source conditions and potentially playing an important role in modulating eruption dynamics.

Citation

Farquharson, J. I., Tuffen, H., Wadsworth, F. B., Castro, J. M., Unwin, H., & Schipper, C. I. (2022). In-conduit capture of sub-micron volcanic ash particles via turbophoresis and sintering. Nature Communications, 13, Article 4713. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32522-7

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Aug 1, 2022
Online Publication Date Aug 11, 2022
Publication Date 2022
Deposit Date Sep 15, 2022
Publicly Available Date Sep 15, 2022
Journal Nature Communications
Publisher Nature Research
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 13
Article Number 4713
DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32522-7

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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Advance online version This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.





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