The initial giant umbrella cloud of the May 18th, 1980, explosive eruption of Mount St. Helens

The initial eruption column of May 18th, 1980 reached nearly 30 km altitude and released 10¹⁷ joules of thermal energy into the atmosphere in only a few minutes. Ascent of the cloud resulted in forced intrusion of a giant umbrella-shaped cloud between altitudes of 10 and 20 km at radial horizontal velocities initially in excess of 50 m/s. The mushroom cloud expanded 15 km upwind, forming a stagnation point where the radial expansion velocity and wind velocity were equal. The cloud was initiated when the pyroclastic blast flow became buoyant. The flow reduced its density as it moved away from the volcano by decompression, by sedimentation, and by mixing with and heating the surrounding air. Observations indicate that much of the flow, covering an area of 600 km², became buoyant within 1.5 minutes and abruptly ascended to form the giant cloud. Calculations are presented for the amount of air that must have been entrained into the flow to make it buoyant. Assuming an initial temperature of 450°C and a magmatic origin for the explosion, these calculations indicate that the flow became buoyant when its temperature was approximately 150°C and the flow consisted of a mixture of 3.25 × 10¹¹ kg of pyroclasts and 5.0 × 10¹¹ kg of air. If sedimentation is considered, these figures reduce to 1.1 × 10¹¹ kg of pyroclasts and 1.0 × 10¹¹ kg of air.     

Absorption of radio waves during a solar eclipse

In this paper, the results of our observations on Al-method ionospheric absorption of radio waves on 1.8 and 2.2 MHz during the solar eclipse of 16 February 1980 are presented. The absorption decreased by about 41% and 46% of the normal value respectively at the above two frequencies at Ahmedabad following the maximum phase of the eclipse (about 77% of full disc) with a delay of 18 minutes. The quantityA _T (f) which is a measure of εN vdh is now examined for better clarity of the influence of the changes in theE-layer. The results are discussed in relation to the observations of the ionizing radiations from the sun, changes in the electron density, recombination rate and absorption in the underlyingD andE regions.     

Pumice

Cold pumice floating on water slowly absorbs water into the vesicles and eventually sinks. Experiments show that some pumice can remain afloat for over 1 1/2 years. The time taken for enough water to be adsorbed to sink depends on the pumice size, initial density, the size distribution of vesicles and the connectedness of the vesicles. Hot pumice often sinks immediately on immersion in water despite having a lower density than water. Experiments demonstrate that for any pumice there is a critical temperature above which the pumice will sink. Even pumice with a density of 0.2 g/cm³ will sink if the temperature exceeds 700 °C. The critical temperature correlates well with initial pumice density with lower-density pumice requiring higher temperatures to sink. The mechanism at low temperatures (< 150 °C) involves the absorption of water by contraction of hot air within the pumice. However, at higher temperatures conversion of absorbed water to steam in the hot pumice flushes out air, and further cooling results in condensation and absorption of water into the pumice. The experiments on hot and cold pumice suggest that all the vesicles in pumice are interconnected. This was confirmed by vacuum impregnation of pumice with resins. The behaviour of hot and cold pumice indicates that the deposits of hot and cold pyroclastic flow deposits may be distinguishable. Hot deposits will contain a significant proportion of low-density pumice, whereas cold deposits will not. Pumice falling hot onto water could also sink immediately to form subaqueous pumice-fall deposits. The physical properties of pumice were further examined by a nitrogen absorption technique and by mercury porosimetry. The former method shows that pumice has a typical surface area of 0,5 m²/g, corresponding to a sheet of material of 1 m² and 0,87µm Thick. Porosimetry shows that there are often three apparent vesicle-size populations in pumice. However, the porosimetry data gives surface areas which often greatly exceed those measured by the absorption method. The calculation of surface area by porosimetry assumes that vesicles are open cylinders. The large discrepancy with nitrogen absorption data suggests that the surface areas and proportion of small vesicles are overestimated by porosimetry and that pumice vesicles have narrow entrances. The porosimetry size distributions reflect the dimensions of pore entrances rather than the vesicles themselves. A three stage degassing history was proposed by Sparks and Brazier (1982). However, the small size population of sub-micron vesicles they identified probably represent larger ( 1µm) vesicles with narrow entrances. The experimental data indicate that pumice can degas very quickly because of the connectedness of vesicles and high internal surface areas.     

Beneficiation of a phosphoriferous iron ore by agglomeration methods

The Snake River iron ore deposit, in the northern Yukon, Canada, is an enormous, potentially valuable natural resource. Conservative estimates indicate that the deposit contains some thirty thousand million tons of ore. Unfortunately the chemical quality of the mine-run ore falls significantly below established industrial specifications, in particular the phosphorus content is not acceptable. Previous mineralogical examination of the deposit has indicated that the gangue constituents are finely disseminated throughout the ore.An outline is given for the selective agglomeration of the ore to concentrate the phosphorus minerals during grinding. The ground ore is then further treated to agglomerate selectively the iron fraction, which can then be separated from the remaining gangue constituents by differential settling. Successful beneficiation has been achieved on both the crude Snake River ore and a jig concentrate, with some concentrates assaying 69.0% Fe and <0.03% P (iron-ore specification is 0.07% P max.). The effects of various parameters on efficiency of separation are discussed.     

Causes and consequences of pressurisation in lava dome eruptions

High total and fluid pressures develop in the interior of high-viscosity lava domes and in the uppermost parts of the feeding conduit system as a consequence of degassing. Two effects are recognised and are modelled quantitatively. First, large increases in magma viscosity result from degassing during magma ascent. Strong vertical gradients in viscosity result and large excess pressures and pressure gradients develop at the top of the conduit and in the dome. Calculations of conduit flow show that almost all the excess pressure drop from the chamber in an andesitic dome eruption occurs during the last several hundred metres of ascent. Second, microlites grow in the melt phase as a consequence of undercooling caused by gas loss. Rapid microlite growth can cause large excess fluid pressures to develop at shallow levels. Theoretically closed-system microlite crystallization can increase local pressure by a few tens of MPa, although build up of pressure will be countered by gas loss through permeable flow and expansion by viscous flow. Microlite crystallization is most effective in causing excess gas pressures at depths of a few hundred metres in the uppermost parts of the conduit and dome interior. Some of the major phenomena of lava dome eruptions can be attributed to these pressurisation effects, including spurts of growth, cycles of dome growth and subsidence, sudden onset of violent explosive activity and disintegration of lava during formation of pyroclastic flows. The characteristic shallow-level, long-period and hybrid seismicity, characteristic of dome eruptions, is attributed to the excess fluid pressures, which are maintained close to the fracture strength of the dome and wallrock, resulting in fluid movement during formation of tensile and shear fractures within the dome and upper conduit.     

Erosion by pyroclastic flows on Lascar Volcano, Chile

 Pyroclastic flows generated in the 19–20 April 1993 eruption of Lascar Volcano, Chile, produced spectacular erosion features. Scree and talus were stripped from the channels and steep slopes on the flanks of the volcano. Exposed bedrock and boulders suffered severe abrasion, producing smoothed surfaces on coarse breccias and striations and percussion marks on bedrock and large boulders. Erosional furrows developed with wavelengths of 0.5–2 m and depths of 0.1–0.3 m. Furrows commonly nucleated downstream of large boulders or blocks, which are striated on the upstream side, and thereby produced crag-and-tail structures. Erosive features were produced where flows accelerated through topographic restrictions or where they moved over steep slopes. The pyroclastic flows are inferred to have segregated during movement into lithic-rich and pumice-rich parts. Lithic-rich deposits occur on slopes up to 14°, whereas pumice-rich deposits occur only on slopes less than 4°, and mainly at the margins and distal parts of the 1993 fan. The lithic-rich deposits contain large (up to 1 m) lithic clasts eroded from the substrate and transported from the vent, whereas pumice-rich deposits contain only small (typically <2 cm) lithic clasts. These observations suggest that lithic clasts segregated to the base of the flows and were responsible for much of the erosive phenomena. The erosive features, distribution of lithic clasts and deposit morphology indicate that the 1993 flows were highly concentrated avalanches dominated by particle interactions. In some places the flows slid over the bedrock causing abrasion and long striations which imply that large blocks were locked in fixed positions for periods of about 1 s. However, shorter striae at different angles, impact marks, segregation of the deposits into pumice- and lithic-rich parts, and mixing of bedrock-derived lithic clasts throughout the deposits indicate that clasts often had some freedom of movement and that jostling of particles allowed internal mixing and density segregation to occur within the flows. Received: 15 July 1996 / Accepted: 15 January 1997     

Spatial modelling of rice yield losses in Tanzania due to bacterial leaf blight and leaf blast in a changing climate

Rice is the most rapidly growing staple food in Africa and although rice production is steadily increasing, the consumption is still out-pacing the production. In Tanzania, two important diseases in rice production are leaf blast caused by Magnaporthe oryzae and bacterial leaf blight caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. The objective of this study was to quantify rice yield losses due to these two important diseases under a changing climate. We found that bacterial leaf blight is predicted to increase causing greater losses than leaf blast in the future, with losses due to leaf blast declining. The results of this study indicate that the effects of climate change on plant disease can not only be expected to be uneven across diseases but also across geographies, as in some geographic areas losses increase but decrease in others for the same disease.     

Changes in the ionospheric F2-layer at a place near the Sq-current focus during geomagnetic storms

In this paper hourly data of maximum electron density and total electron content in a unit column up to the level of peak electron density of the F2-layer at Puerto Rico (magnetic dip 52.5°N) in the American sector are studied to find their DS and D_st variations and to compare them with those of the horizontal component of the Earth's magnetic field for 93SC type geomagnetic storms which occurred during the period September 1957–March 1962. These variations are obtained separately for positive and negative F2-storms and then averaged for all the types. It is found that the positive F2-storms are in a way connected with the equatorial type of DS variation of the H-field and the negative F2-storms with the high-latitude type DS variation of the H-field. The D_st variation of the H-field is practically of the same character for both positive and negative F2-storms. These findings combined with those of others indicate that it is the DS current in the ionosphere that cause the observed changes in the F2-layer through electromagnetic movements; diffusion along the field lines and changes in the loss-rates of electrons may also contribute to the nett effects. A statistical survey shows that while there are equal chances for positive F2-storms in Summer and Winter at Puerto Rico, there is a much larger number of negative F2-storms in Summer than in Winter. At a southern conjugate place, there is a much larger number of positive F2-storms in Winter, but equal number of negative F2-storms in Summer and Winter. More than half the total number of the F2-storms are found to be similar types (33 per cent positive, 23 per cent negative) from the consideration of the F2-changes during individual magnetic storms at the conjugate places. These are discussed in the concluding section of the paper.     

Influence of Grasshopper Herbivory on Nitrogen Cycling in Northern Gulf of Mexico Black Needlerush Salt Marshes

Herbivory is a common process in salt marshes. However, the direct impact of marsh herbivory on nutrient cycling in this ecosystem is poorly understood. Using a ¹⁵N enrichment mesocosm study, we quantified nitrogen (N) cycling in sediment and plants of black needlerush (Juncus roemerianus) salt marshes, facilitated by litter decomposition and litter plus grasshopper feces decomposition. We found 15 times more ¹⁵N recovery in sediment with grasshopper herbivory compared to sediment with no grasshopper herbivory. In plants, even though we found three times and a half larger ¹⁵N recovery with grasshopper herbivory, we did not find significant differences. Thus, herbivory can enhance N cycling in black needlerush salt marshes sediments and elevate the role of these salt marshes as nutrient sinks.     

Determination of physical and radiant meteor properties using PFISR interferometry measurements of head echoes

Over the past decade, High Power and Large Aperture (HPLA) radars have been widely utilized for the study of sub-millimeter extraterrestrial particles via the detection of the meteor head-echo. These observations have been a successful tool in the study of the sporadic meteor background, however, they have been limited by the lack of precise knowledge of the particle's location within the radar beam and its absolute trajectory and velocity. This limitation prevents for example the accurate determination of the meteors radiant and orbit. Interferometry measurements of the head-echo has been proven to be a detection technique that satisfies this need. Unfortunately very few radars are capable of performing them. We have developed a methodology which takes advantage of the multi-receiving capabilities of the 450 MHz Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar (PFISR) enabling us to utilize the phased array of crossed-dipoles as an interferometer. This new PFISR capability allows us to determine the instantaneous position of meteors within the radar beam. This enables us to determine absolute velocities and ultimately meteor radiant and orbit around the Sun. In this work, we present initial results from 9 h of observations during which 142 particles were individually detected by the three different receiving channels simultaneously. For these meteors absolute velocities were obtained and meteor dynamical, physical and radiant properties were derived.