The impact of pre-existing gas on the ascent of explosively erupted magma

Most, if not all, magmas contain gas bubbles at depth before they erupt. Those bubbles play a crucial role in eruption dynamics, by allowing magma to degas, which causes the magma to accelerate as it ascends towards the surface. There must be a limit to that acceleration, however, because gas bubbles cannot grow infinitely fast. To explore that limit, a series of experiments was undertaken to determine the maximum rate at which bubbly high-silica rhyolite can decompress. Rhyolite melt that was hydrated at 150 MPa with ~5.3 wt.% dissolved water and contained 7 to 18 vol.% bubbles can degas in equilibrium at 875°C when decompressed at rates up to 1.2 MPa s⁻¹ from 150 to 78 MPa, and up to 1.8 MPa s⁻¹ when decompressed further to 42 MPa. In contrast, that same rhyolite cannot degas in equilibrium at 750°C if decompressed faster than 0.015–0.025 MPa s⁻¹. When combined with other published experiments, the maximum rate of decompression for equilibrium degassing is found to increase by a factor of ten for every 50–75°C increase in temperature. When compared to predictions from conduit flow models that assume equilibrium degassing, it is found that such models greatly over-estimate the rate at which relatively cold rhyolite can decompress, whereas that assumption is largely correct for hot rhyolite, and thus for most other magmas, all of which are less viscous than rhyolite. In addition, most bubbles that were 20–30 μm in size at high pressure were lost from the population at low pressure. That absence suggests that only relatively large vesicles seen in volcanic pumice may be relics of pre-eruptive bubbles, even if small bubbles were originally present at depth.     

Fear of crime, cultural threat and the countryside

Summary This paper argues that the study of crime and the fear of crime in rural areas reveals much about the geography of crime, policing and rural society. Drawing upon a crime and safety survey conducted with residents of a rural parish in Worcestershire it establishes a link between fear of crime and 'cultural threats' to residents' dominant constructions of rurality. It concludes by considering the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act and its implications for rural policing and society.     

Influence of pre-eruptive storage conditions and volatile contents on explosive Plinian style eruptions of basic magma

Sub-Plinian to Plinian eruptions of basic magma present a challenge to modeling volcanic behavior because many models rely on magma becoming viscous enough during ascent to behave brittlely and cause fragmentation. Such models are unable, however, to strain low viscosity magma fast enough for it to behave brittlely. That assumes that such magmas actually have low viscosities, but the rare Plinian eruptions of basic magma may in fact result from them being anomalously viscous. Here, we examine two such eruptions, the 122 B.C. eruption of hawaiitic basalt from Mt. Etna and the late Pleistocene eruption of basaltic andesite from Masaya Caldera, to test whether they were anomalously viscous. We carried out hydrothermal experiments on both magmas and analyzed glass inclusions in plagioclase phenocrysts from each to determine their most likely pre-eruptive temperatures and water contents. We find that the hawaiite was last stored at 1,000–1,020°C, whereas the basaltic andesite was last stored at 1,010–1,060°C, and that both were water saturated with ∼3.0 wt.% water dissolved in them. Such water contents are not high enough to trigger Plinian explosive behavior, as much more hydrous basic magmas erupt less violently. In addition, despite being relatively cool, the viscosities of both magmas would range from ∼10^2.2–2.5 Pa s before erupting to ∼10⁴ Pa s when essentially degassed, all of which are too fluid to cause brittle disruption. Without invoking special external forces to explain all such eruptions, one of the more plausible explanations is that when the bubble content reaches some critical value the fragile foam-like magma disrupts. The rarity of Plinian eruptions of basic magma may be because such magmas must ascend fast enough to retain their bubbles.     

1980年圣海伦斯火山爆发对之后30年火山学研究的启示

1980年5月18日,圣海伦斯火山发生了一次大规模喷发,这一事件令科学家和大众惊叹不已。巨大的山体滑坡、气浪以及随之而来的柱状喷发（高达25km,持续时间长达9hr）等影像记录震惊全世界,同时也激起了人们对此次火山喷发事件研究的兴趣（图1）。     

A simple method for the determination of ionic diffusion coefficients in flooded soils

Soil cores from river marginal wetlands from the Torridge and Severn catchments in the UK were collected to study rates of soil denitrification at different sites and at two stations (levee and backplain depression) at the river margin. Half the cores were sterilized prior to flooding to destroy the denitrifying bacteria. After flooding and equilibration, monitoring the concentration of amended nitrate in the supernatant of the sterile cores over a period of 7 days provided a simple procedure for the estimation of the diffusion coefficient of the nitrate ion in the flooded soils. An expression was developed that permitted this diffusion coefficient to be extracted from the slope of a plot of supernatant concentration versus (time)^1/2. The values obtained, at 15 °C, varied from 2·4 to 6·8 × 10^?10m²s^?1. Sterile cores are usually treated as controls in denitrification experiments; this work develops a procedure whereby they may yield useful soil process information. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New Molecular Species in Comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) Observed with the Caltech Ssubmillimeter Observatory

We present millimeter-wave observations of HNCO, HC₃N, SO, NH₂CHO, H¹³CN, and H₃O⁺ in comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp)obtained in February–April, 1997 with the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO). HNCO, first detected at the CSO in comet C/1996B2 (Hyakutake), is securely confirmed in comet Hale-Bopp via observations of three rotational transitions. The derived abundance with respect to H₂O is (4-13) × 10^-4. HC₃N, SO, and NH₂CHO are detected for the first time in a comet. The fractional abundance of HC₃N based on observations of three rotational lines is (1.9 ± 0.2) × 10^-4. Four transitions of SO are detected and the derived fractional abundance, (2-8) ×10^-3, is higher than the upper limits derived from UV observations of previous comets. Observations of NH₂CHO imply a fractional abundance of (1-8) × 10^-4. H₃O is detected for the first time from the ground. The H¹³CN (3-2)transition is also detected and the derived HCN/H¹³CN abundance ratio is 90 ± 15, consistent with the terrestrial¹²C/¹³C ratio. In addition, a number of other molecular species are detected, including HNC, OCS, HCO⁺, CO⁺, and CN(the last two are first detections in a comet at radio wavelengths). This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Predicting ground water nitrate concentration from land use

Ground water nitrate concentrations on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, were analyzed to assess the effects of land use on ground water quality. Exploratory data analysis was applied to historic ground water nitrate concentrations to determine spatial and temporal trends. Maximum likelihood Tobit and logistic regression analyses of explanatory variables that characterize land use within a 1000-foot radius of each well were used to develop predictive equations for nitrate concentration at 69 wells. The results demonstrate that historic nitrate concentrations downgradient from agricultural land are significantly higher than nitrate concentrations elsewhere. Tobit regression results demonstrate that the number of septic tanks and the percentages of forest, undeveloped, and high-density residential land within a 1000-foot radius of a well are reliable predictors of nitrate concentration in ground water. Similarly, logistic regression revealed that the percentages of forest, undeveloped, and low-density residential land are good indicators of ground water nitrate concentration > 2 mg/L. The methodology and results outlined here provide a useful tool for land managers in communities with shallow water tables overlain with highly permeable materials to evaluate potential effects of development on ground water quality.     

Experimental constraints on degassing and permeability in volcanic conduit flow

This study assesses the effect of decompression rate on two processes that directly influence the behavior of volcanic eruptions: degassing and permeability in magmas. We studied the degassing of magma with experiments on hydrated natural rhyolitic glass at high pressure and temperature. From the data collected, we defined and characterized one degassing regime in equilibrium and two regimes in disequilibrium. Equilibrium bubble growth occurs when the decompression rate is slower than 0.1 MPa s^–1, while higher rates cause porosity to deviate rapidly from equilibrium, defining the first disequilibrium regime of degassing. If the deviation is large enough, a critical threshold of super-saturation is reached and bubble growth accelerates, defining the second disequilibrium regime. We studied permeability and bubble coalescence in magma with experiments using the same rhyolitic melt in open degassing conditions. Under these open conditions, we observed that bubbles start to coalesce at ~43 vol% porosity, regardless of decompression rate. Coalescence profoundly affects bubble texture and size distributions, and induces the melt to become permeable. We determined coalescence to occur on a time scale (~180 s) independent of decompression rate. We parameterized and incorporated our experimental results into a 1D conduit flow model to explore the implications of our findings on eruptive behavior of rhyolitic melts with low crystal contents stored in the upper crust. Compared to previous models that assume equilibrium degassing of the melt during ascent, the introduction of disequilibrium degassing reduces the deviation from lithostatic pressure by ~25%, the acceleration at high porosities (>50 vol%) by a factor 5, and the associated decompression rate by an order of magnitude. The integration of the time scale of coalescence to the model shows that the transition between explosive and effusive eruptive regimes is sensitive to small variations of the initial magma ascent speed, and that flow conditions near fragmentation may significantly be affected by bubble coalescence and gas escape.Editorial responsibility: D. Dingwell     

DIET AWSUM: a fluctuation-based deconvolution technique forenhancing signal-to-noise ratio and resolution

A technique for simultaneously improving resolution and signal-to-noise ratio gain, the directivity improved estimation technique (DIET) combined with the advanced WISPR summation (AWSUM), or DIET AWSUM, is introduced. The DIET AWSUM method combines a straightforward deconvolution technique with the highly fluctuation-sensitive AWSUM filter. DIET AWSUM results generated for ocean acoustic data are compared with estimates produced using the maximum entropy method (MEM), a well-tested standard. The DIET AWSUM method achieved superior results in both increased resolution and improved gain for stable signal identification chiefly because of its greater ability to discriminate between stable signals and fluctuating signals and noise