Application of tephra volume models to ejecta volumes from subsurface explosion experiments
Deposit volume is a critical factor for reconstructing an explosive eruption. Volume estimate models typically used for large Plinian deposits have been adapted and improved repeatedly over the last few decades. Less work has been done to refine a method for estimating the volume from smaller deposits produced by discrete phreatic and phreatomagmatic explosions. The characterization of the volume and distribution of deposits is required to quantify the physical hazards presented by different explosion types and develop appropriate models of future eruptions. Six classic tephra volume models were assessed using a dataset from subsurface explosion experiments. The models typically did a poor job modelling the volume of proximal deposits as a component of total deposit volume of discrete explosion deposits. Models reproduced medial and distal deposit volumes with greater success, particularly the Exponential model and a more recent Linear Regression model. It is therefore recommended, when possible, to use digital elevation models produced from GPS or laser-based methods to characterize proximal deposits separately and to use tephra volume estimates for medial and distal deposits. Additionally, this dataset enabled the comparison of ejecta volumes with crater diameters and highlighted that this relationship only holds for simple crater scenarios without any lateral vent migration, collapse or erosion of the crater under study. The assessment and improvement of these methods are required to ensure accurate deposit volumes as they serve as one of the most important inputs to hazard assessments and numerical models.
A model for calculating eruptive volumes for monogenetic volcanoes — Implication for the Quaternary Auckland Volcanic Field, New Zealand
Abstract Monogenetic basaltic volcanism is characterised by a complex array of behaviours in the spatial distribution of magma output and also temporal variability in magma flux and eruptive frequency. Investigating this in detail is hindered by the difficulty in evaluating ages of volcanic events as well as volumes erupted in each volcano. Eruptive volumes are an important input parameter for volcanic hazard assessment and may control eruptive scenarios, especially transitions between explosive and effusive behaviour and the length of eruptions. Erosion, superposition and lack of exposure limit the accuracy of volume determination, even for very young volcanoes. In this study, a systematic volume estimation model is developed and applied to the Auckland Volcanic Field in New Zealand. In this model, a basaltic monogenetic volcano is categorised in six parts. Subsurface portions of volcanoes, such as diatremes beneath phreatomagmatic volcanoes, or crater infills, are approximated by geometrical considerations, based on exposed analogue volcanoes. Positive volcanic landforms, such as scoria/spatter cones, tephras rings and lava flow, were defined by using a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) survey-based Digital Surface Model (DSM). Finally, the distal tephra associated with explosive eruptions was approximated using published relationships that relate original crater size to ejecta volumes. Considering only those parts with high reliability, the overall magma output (converted to Dense Rock Equivalent) for the post-250 ka active Auckland Volcanic Field in New Zealand is a minimum of 1.704 km3. This is made up of 1.329 km3 in lava flows, 0.067 km3 in phreatomagmatic crater lava infills, 0.090 km3 within tephra/tuff rings, 0.112 km3 inside crater lava infills, and 0.104 km3 within scoria cones. Using the minimum eruptive volumes, the spatial and temporal magma fluxes are estimated at 0.005 km3/km2 and 0.007 km3/ka. The temporal–volumetric evolution of Auckland is characterised by an increasing magma flux in the last 40 ky, which is inferred to be triggered by plate tectonics processes (e.g. increased asthenospheric shearing and backarc spreading of underneath the Auckland region).
Time and Heritage
As a historian studying what can be considered a form of intellectual history, I have slowly come to adopt Michel de Certeau’s observation made at the end of the 1980s that ‘objectifying the past, for the last three centuries, has undoubtedly left unconsidered time within a discipline that has continued to use it as a taxonomic instrument’. To a certain degree, time has become commonplace for the historian who has preserved or instrumentalized it. It is not considered because it is inconceivable, but because we do not think of it or, more simply, we do not think about it. As a historian attempting to pay attention to the time I’m living in, I have thus, like many others, noticed the swift development of the category of the present until it has become obvious that the present is omnipresent. This is what I refer to here as ‘presentism’.