SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, December 14 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands (Involcan), an entity dependent on the Cabildo of Tenerife, has promoted an investigation into the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) during the eruption of Tajogaite, in La Palma, which records the amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere During the eruption it was between 14 and 42 million tons, an amount greater than the 13.8 million tons emitted into the atmosphere as a result of anthropogenic activity in the Canary Islands during the 365 days of 2020.
The research led by Mike Burton from the University of Manchester has been published in the prestigious international scientific journal ‘Communications Earth & Environment’, an open access journal from the ‘Nature’ group that publishes high-quality research, reviews and commentary on the sciences. terrestrial, environmental and planetary.
This scientific publication provides evidence of emissions of gases highly rich in CO2 during the 86 days of the Tajogaite eruption, the Cabildo reports in a note.
The corporation details that alkaline mafic magmas that form intraplate oceanic islands, such as the Canary Islands, are believed to be strongly enriched in CO2 due to a low degree of partial melting from enriched mantle sources.
However, until now, such CO2 richness had not been verified by measuring CO2 outgassing during a subaerial eruption.
The work highlights the uniqueness of these CO2 emissions during subaerial eruptions, providing crucial evidence on CO2 degassing in alkaline mafic magmas.
Thus, it reveals unusually high CO2/sulfur dioxide (SO2) ratios in the volcanic plume, suggesting a magmatic CO2 content of 4.5 * 1.5 wt%.
These findings represent a milestone, verifying the richness of CO2 in these types of magmas and their impact on volcanic emissions, highlights the Cabildo.
The study highlights the importance of understanding outgassing during subaerial eruptions and its implications for monitoring and understanding volcanic emissions.
Researchers from different entities have participated: University of Manchester (United Kingdom), Center for the Observation and Modeling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics, COMET (United Kingdom), Università degli Studi di Palermo (Italy), Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (France), Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands, INVOLCAN (Spain), Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, INGV (Italy), University College London (United Kingdom), Universidade dos Açores (Portugal), Institute of Technology and Renewable Energies, ITER (Spain), University of O’Higgins (Chile), University of Glasgow (United Kingdom), Institut des Sciences de la Terre d’Orléans, ISTO (France) and Université Clermont-Auvergne (France).
