Symposium 2

Physical Sciences

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S2.1Volcanoes under pressure: monitoring and biotechnology

S2.2Towards innovative models describing the complex mechanics of debris flows and lahars

S2.3 Looking at eruptive style transitions and patterns of cyclicity in volcanic activity

S2.5 Rates and dates: magmatic and volcanic processes from source to surface

S2.6 Uncertainty quantification in volcanic phenomena: an essential component for modeling physical processes and for hazard/risk assessment

S2.8Source to surface magma transport at small-volume intraplate basaltic volcanoes

S2.9Magma fragmentation: primary volcanic deposits, their clasts, experiments and models, and an open discussion

S2.10 Extant and extinct shallow submarine hydrothermal geobiology laboratories and ore-forming systems in volcanic-arcs

S2.12 Pre-eruptive magmatic processes and their timescales: how to utilize them for the mitigation of volcanic risk?

S2.13Interdisciplinary reconstructions of the impact of past volcanic eruptions on climate and society

S2.15The Role of Tectonics on the Emergence and Evolution of Volcanic Features

S2.16 What do volcano seismo-acoustic signals mean?

S2.17 Time after Time

S2.18 Linking remote and local monitoring data through physical volcano models to understand and forecast unrest

S2.19New perspectives on geothermal energy exploration and evaluation ofgeothermal potential in volcanic environments

S2.1 > Volcanoes under pressure: monitoring and biotechnology

Conveners

Core connection between the proposed session and societal risk mitigation: The aim of this session is to bring together scientists who work on microbial genomic monitoring of volcanic sites in order to understand the benefits that can bring the microbial volcanic exploration and exploitation to society.

S2.2 > Towards innovative models describing the complex mechanics of debris flows and lahars

Conveners

Debris flows and lahars are multi-phase mixtures made of variable amounts and types of sediment and water. They can be triggered by a variety of processes, like the interaction of explosive volcanic eruptions with a source of water (e.g. crater lake or a glacier), prolonged and intense rainfall remobilizing loose sediments among others. They flow downslope due to gravity and are characterized by a high bulk density and complex particle interactions which explain their capability of transporting large blocks and debris and exerting significant dynamic impact on building and infrastructures.The intrinsic complexity of the physical processes taking place in these flows has been addressed through different approaches with little or no interaction between them. These include fieldwork, real-time measurements (monitoring), experiments (from laboratory to large scale) and numerical modelling. Bringing them together has the potential to lead to a better understanding of the fluid dynamics and eventually improving the constitutive equations and initial and boundary conditions required for predictive simulations. Simulation tools, in turn, are fundamental for assessing the hazard related to these processes. In this session we welcome contributions presenting results from applications of the different approaches described above. We particularly encourage multidisciplinary contributions, e.g. combination of experiments and modelling or exposure and vulnerability analyses for risk assessment. To integrate and discuss multiple sources of information will summarize the challenges still needed in improving our current knowledge of these phenomena and will extend networks focused on designing new and more accurate models for hazard assessment and mitigation strategies. 

Core connection between the proposed session and societal risk mitigation:Understanding the physics of debris flows and lahars is of paramount importance for improving our capability to predict the impact of these flows on the environment and human society and then mitigate their hazard.

S2.3 > Looking at eruptive style transitions and patterns of cyclicity in volcanic activity

Conveners

S2.5 > Rates and dates: magmatic and volcanic processes from source to surface

Conveners

Timescales of magmatic processes and eruptive histories are fundamental pieces of information required for understanding magmatic systems, and which can contribute to improve short- and long-term eruption forecasting. For example, timescales and rates of crystallisation, degassing and magma ascent are crucial for understanding magma residence, magmatic differentiation, and the driving forces leading to eruption. Knowledge about timing and frequency of past eruptions is essential for accurate hazard assessment, as well as for understanding long-term magmatic evolution at a volcano. Current development of novel methods, and continued advances in existing analytical and imaging techniques mean that elements, isotopes and rock textures can be measured and analysed at ever improving precision and spatial resolution. We encourage contributions which investigate magmatic timescales and volcanic histories, using a range of techniques including but not limited to, geochronology and radioisotopic dating, uranium-series isotopic analysis, field studies, diffusion modelling and quantitative textural studies.

S2.6 > Uncertainty quantification in volcanic phenomena: an essential component for modeling physical processes and for hazard/risk assessment

Conveners

Volcanic phenomena are affected by a high degree of uncertainty, both epistemic (i.e. related to incomplete knowledge of the phenomena themselves)and aleatoric (i.e. linked to the physical variability typical of complex natural systems). Uncertainty quantification (UQ) is a fundamental task in hazard and risk assessment (e.g. for emergency management and long-term planning)and is essential for making advances in modeling physical processes. UQ has a significant effect on the solution to many different problems in volcanology, both the inverse problems aimed at the reconstruction of past events and the forward problems aimed at the forecasts of future events. 

These problems include:

• The calculation of eruptive parameters, such as the mass of different volcanicphenomena (fallout, PDC, etc.), the mass flow rate at the eruptive vent/fissure,and the maximum or average plume height. The uncertainty in this case definesthe probability density function of input parameters to the models of volcanicprocesses.
  
• The definition of the behavior of the volcano, including the spatial location oferuptive vents, the temporal estimates of eruption onset and duration, and theprobability of different eruptive styles and/or hazardous phenomena.
  
• The modeling of volcanic phenomena, especially in those approaches wheregreat simplifications have been introduced to allow the reduction of computationaltimes (e.g. 1-D integral plume models; Gaussian Tephra transport and dispersalmodels; kinetic, integral, or depth-averaged mass flow models). UQ is inthis case crucial to define the limits and the advantages of each model, throughthe comparison with past data.
  

UQ can be performed with different approaches, including the application of expert judgement techniques, the comparison of different sampling/integration techniques for measuring field data, the employment of different multi-model procedures and modeling benchmarks for numerical simulations, stochastic processes, event trees,and Bayesian networks. In this session we welcome contributions that cover this wide spectrum of UQ of volcanic phenomena, with a specific focus on those studies focused on modeling of physical processes and/or those which provide a direct application of the results to hazard/risk assessments (e.g. hazard or risk maps obtained through approaches that consider all the above mentioned problems).

S2.8 > Source to surface magma transport at small-volume intraplate basaltic volcanoes

Conveners

S2.9 > Magma fragmentation: primary volcanic deposits, their clasts, experiments and models, and an open discussion

Conveners

Magma fragmentation is a fundamental process of volcanism, and its mechanisms have important hazards implications for active volcanoes and monogenetic volcanic fields, since some eruptive styles are more dangerous than others to humans and infrastructure. Learning about magma fragmentation mechanisms for unwitnessed eruptions (and even witnessed ones) builds understanding of eruptive energy partitioning, and helps build a picture of “what this volcano (or volcanic field) can do”, supporting risk mitigation.This special session aims to bring together scientists working on magma fragmentation processes – and the state of the magma before fragmentation in all environments and from all different perspectives. This includes the study of primary volcaniclastic deposits on land or in water, with particular focus on juvenile clasts (particle density, shapes, surface features and internal textures),all relevant laboratory experiments, and physical models for fragmentation.

S2.10 > Extant and extinct shallow submarine hydrothermal geobiology laboratories and ore-forming systems in volcanic-arcs

Conveners

Modern and fossil geothermal systems associated with shallow submarine and emergent arc-volcanoes constitute sources of seawater acidity, energy donors for marine microbial communities and, analogues for ore-forming systems that have produced minable metal deposits; these attributes result from a complex and dynamic interplay between geothermal, metallogenic, biological and volcanotectonic processes. The Aegean is a world renown type locality for interdisciplinary data derived from such systems associated with shallow submarine (<500m) (Kolumbo, Santorini) and submarine-to-subaerial (Milos) components of the Aegean Volcanic Arc (HVA), S. Aegean Sea, Greece. Actively forming polymetallic seafloor massive sulfide mineralization at Kolumbo, is enrichedin critical metals/metalloids (Sb, Tl, Hg, As, Au, Ag, Zn) and exemplifies mineralization across the submarine-subaerial transition, whereas at Milosthis style of mineralization has been uplifted and preserved intact providing on-land analogue of hybrid epithermal-to-VMS mineralization. Milos hosts the first identified <1 Ma biogenic fossiliferous sedimentary iron formation comparable to Precambrian banded iron formations (BIFs); Santorini caldera,may constitute potential analogue for geobiological formation mechanisms of Fe-rich chemical sediments in the Precambrian rock record. Ore-grade Mn-Ba beds, associated with the Milos IF, typify Microbially Induced Sedimentary Structures formed due to interaction of littoral sedimentation, white smokers and active photosynthetic and/or chemotrophic microbial activity. We welcome contributions from the Aegean or elsewhere, related to the implications of such systems for understanding ocean acidification and CO₂< leakage and benthic accumulations from subsea carbon capture and storage sites, Fe-Mn biomineralization, submarine metallogenesis, volcanic hazard preparedness, and submerged metal and critical raw material resource potential.

S2.12 > Pre-eruptive magmatic processes and their timescales: how to utilize them for the mitigation of volcanic risk?

Conveners

Volcanoes are among the most important natural hazards able to produce serious consequences to human habitats and large-scale economies. A global understanding of how magmatic processes work prior to eruption plays a fundamental role in the assessment of volcanic hazard and the mitigation of potential risk. During the last two decades, the advancement in volcanic monitoring networks,together with the development of more precise and accessible analytical techniques, have led to better constraints on the physical and chemical processes affecting magmas en route to the surface (i.e., storage/crystallization conditions, contamination, mixing, degassing). Great advances in the calculation of timescales of pre- and syn-eruptive processes have brought new insight into the mechanisms and durations of magma residence and ascent throughout the lithosphere. Nonetheless, a great point of discussion is still related to how this knowledge can contribute to the definition of plans of mitigation of volcanic risk,also in terms of highlighting of eruptive precursors.We invite submissions related to field and experimental volcanology, petrology,and geochemistry, that contribute to improve our current knowledge on magma dynamics and pre-eruptive timescales, and explore how these results can be linked with other disciplines and/or technologies, in terms of mitigation of volcanic risk.

S2.13 > Interdisciplinary reconstructions of the impact of past volcanic eruptions on climate and society

Conveners

S2.15 > The Role of Tectonics on the Emergence and Evolution of Volcanic Features

Conveners

S2.16 > What do volcano seismo-acoustic signals mean?

Conveners

S2.17 > Time after Time

Conveners

S2.18 > Linking remote and local monitoring data through physical volcano models to understand and forecast unrest

Conveners

S2.19 > New perspectives on geothermal energy exploration and evaluation ofgeothermal potential in volcanic environments

Conveners