Understanding Masaya Volcano – The Science Behind Its Basaltic Plinian Eruptions
1Description
Its the start of Season 2!! Time for Basaltic plinian eruptions, melt inclusions, viscosity and more. Today we going to head into one of my papers!
Because it’s one of my papers that means heading back to volcanology. Like other historical scientists covered here on Whimsical wavelengths I will follow where the data is pointing. Follow the path.
When I was planning my PhD, yes I was in the envious position of basically picking my projects, I knew I wanted to do more at Masaya Volcano. Masaya is however complicated. It is a unique volcano in many ways.
Here I'll focus on two things:
- Masaya is persistently active. It has been in a perpetual state of unrest for 100’s of years. The last eruption of any significant amount was 1772 where it produced a lava flow from the central cone. Since that time there have been degassing, occasional lava lakes, and small vent clearing explosions. There is not many volcanoes on earth able to claim constant activity for 100’s of years.
- It can have basaltic Plinian eruptions……
Basaltic plinian eruptions. For those who know a bit about volcanoes this may seem like an oxymoron.
Join the pod to find out all this apparent oxymoron!
Paper at the center of the episode:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0377027318303470
example Basaltic plinian eruptions at Masaya (there are lots but here is one):
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