Radiographic imaging of magma dynamics in a volcanic conduit provides detailed information about ascent and descent of magma, the magma flow rate, the conduit diameter and inflation and deflation of magma due to volatile expansion and release. Here we report the first radiographic observation of the ascent and descent of magma along a conduit utilizing atmospheric (cosmic ray) muons (muography)...

In open conduit volcanoes, volatile-rich magma continuously enters into the feeding system nevertheless the eruptive activity occurs intermittently. From a practical perspective, the continuous steady input of magma in the feeding system is not able to produce eruptive events alone, but rather surplus of magma inputs are required to trigger the eruptive activity. The greater the amount of surpl...

The relatively low rates of magma production in island arcs and continental extensional settings require that the volume of silicic magma involved in large catastrophic caldera-forming (CCF) eruptions must accumulate over periods of 105 to 106 years. We address the question of why buoyant and otherwise eruptible highsilica magma should accumulate for long times in shallow chambers rather than e...

Kinetic and fluid dynamic constraints on deepseated magma migration rates suggest ascent velocities in the range 10 to 30 m/s, 10 -1 to 10m/s and 10 -2 to 5m/s for kimberlitic, garnet peridotite-bearing and spinel peridotite-bearing alkalic magmas. These rates virtually demand translithospheric magma transport by a fracture as opposed to diapiric mechanism. The hypothesis that volatile exsoluti...

Volatiles dissolved in silicic magma at depth exsolve as the magma nears the surface and cause an increase in viscosity of the magma. A model of a volcanic conduit within an elastic medium and a viscosity dependent on the volatile content of the magma produces oscillatory magma flow for a critical range of steady input flow rates. Oscillatory flow is recognized as a fundamental mode of behavior...

Mt. Cameroon is one of the most active volcanoes in Africa and poses a possible threat to about half a million people in the area, yet knowledge of the volcano's underlying magma supply system is sparse. To characterize Mt. Cameroon's magma plumbing system, we employed mineral-melt equilibrium thermobarometry on the products of the volcano's two most recent eruptions of 1999 and 2000. Our resul...

Geochemical modeling of magma mixing allows for evaluation of volumes of magma storage reservoirs and magma plumbing configurations. A new analytical expression is derived for a simple two-component box-mixing model describing the proportions of mixing components in erupted lavas as a function of time. Four versions of this model are applied to a mixing trend spanning episodes 3–31 of Kilauea V...

Introduction In the following chapters we will find that nearly all of the varied aspects of volcanism are either directly or indirectly controlled by the chemical composition of magma and the rate at which it cools and solidifies. If you are to understand and appreciate subsequent discussions of volcanoes and related volcanic phenomena, it is essential that you have a good grasp of the basic c...

Over the last several hundred years, Stromboli has been characterized by steady-state Strombolian activity. The volcanic products are dominated by degassed and highly porphyritic (HP-magma) black scoria bombs, lapilli and lava flows of basaltic shoshonitic composition. Periodically (about one to three events per year), more energetic explosive eruptions also eject light coloured volatile-rich p...

Lava dome eruptions commonly display fairly regular alternations between periods of high activity and periods of low or no activity. The time scale for these alternations is typically months to several years. Here we develop a generic model of magma discharge through a conduit from an open-system magma chamber with continuous replenishment. The model takes account of the principal controls on f...