USGS scientist Peter Kelly with the support of the National Innovation Center and partnering with Los Gatos Research, Inc. collaborated to adapt a commercially-available, industrial, in situ HCl-HF analyzer for use in airborne and ground-based measurements of volcanic gases.
Primary magmatic halogen-containing gases (HCl, HF, HBr, HI) are of great interest for volcano monitoring and research because, in general, they are more soluble in magma than other commonly-monitored volcanic volatiles (e.g. CO2, SO2, H2S) and thereby can offer unique insights into shallow magmatic processes. Nevertheless, difficulties in obtaining observations of primary volcanic halogens in gas plumes with traditional methods have limited the number of observations reported worldwide, especially from explosive arc volcanoes.
Initial field tests have been conducted at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaii, to benchmark the performance of the instrument and new insights into high-threat arc volcanoes in Alaska from recent airborne volcanic gas measurement missions. Collecting real-time measurements of HCl and HF is a powerful new capability, helping USGS scientists better understand magmatic and hydrothermal systems through research and monitoring of volcanic gas emissions in the U.S. and across the globe. We continue to invest in the development and application of new technologies to implement real-time gas monitoring on volcanoes. Peter Kelly is a member of the USGS Volcano Emissions Project and internationally as a member of the USAID-USGS Volcano Disaster Assistance Program (VDAP).
- Overview
USGS scientist Peter Kelly with the support of the National Innovation Center and partnering with Los Gatos Research, Inc. collaborated to adapt a commercially-available, industrial, in situ HCl-HF analyzer for use in airborne and ground-based measurements of volcanic gases.
Primary magmatic halogen-containing gases (HCl, HF, HBr, HI) are of great interest for volcano monitoring and research because, in general, they are more soluble in magma than other commonly-monitored volcanic volatiles (e.g. CO2, SO2, H2S) and thereby can offer unique insights into shallow magmatic processes. Nevertheless, difficulties in obtaining observations of primary volcanic halogens in gas plumes with traditional methods have limited the number of observations reported worldwide, especially from explosive arc volcanoes.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.State-of-art, cavity-enhanced analyzer to help solve this long-standing technical problem in volcano science, adapted from an industrial instrument. The Off-Axis Integrated Cavity Output Spectroscopy (OA-ICOS) yields a several kilometer path length for absorption. Contains two near-IR tunable diode lasers and is field portable, fast, and precise. The exact trajectory of the laser into the cavity is not critical, making the system immune to small changes in optical alignment from mechanical and thermal perturbations (e.g. vibrations, shock, relative stack motion, etc). Initial field tests have been conducted at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaii, to benchmark the performance of the instrument and new insights into high-threat arc volcanoes in Alaska from recent airborne volcanic gas measurement missions. Collecting real-time measurements of HCl and HF is a powerful new capability, helping USGS scientists better understand magmatic and hydrothermal systems through research and monitoring of volcanic gas emissions in the U.S. and across the globe. We continue to invest in the development and application of new technologies to implement real-time gas monitoring on volcanoes. Peter Kelly is a member of the USGS Volcano Emissions Project and internationally as a member of the USAID-USGS Volcano Disaster Assistance Program (VDAP).
Redoubt volcano with minor ash eruption. Photograph taken during observation and gas data collection flight by AVO staff March 30, 2009. - Partners