Quantifying gas emissions associated with the 2018 rift eruption of Kīlauea Volcano using ground-based DOAS measurements

Starting on 3 May 2018, a series of eruptive fissures opened in Kīlauea Volcano’s lower East Rift Zone (LERZ). Over the course of the next 3 months, intense degassing accompanied lava effusion from these fissures. Here, we report on ground-based observations of the gas emissions associated with Kīlauea’s 2018 eruption. Visual observations combined with radiative transfer modeling show that ultraviolet light could not efficiently penetrate the gas and aerosol plume in the LERZ, complicating SO₂ measurements by differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS). By applying a statistical method that integrates a radiative transfer model with the DOAS retrievals, we were able to calculate sulfur dioxide (SO₂) emission rates along with estimates of their uncertainty. We find that sustained SO₂ emissions were highest in June and early July, when approximately 200 kt SO₂ were emitted daily. At the 68% confidence interval, we estimate that 7.1–13.6 Mt SO₂ were released from the LERZ during the entire May to September eruptive episode. Scaling our results with in situ measurements of plume composition, we calculate that 11–21 Mt H₂O and 1.5–2.8 Mt CO₂ were also emitted. The gas and aerosol emissions caused hazardous conditions in areas proximal to the active vents, but plume dispersion modeling shows that the eruption also significantly impacted air quality hundreds of kilometers downwind. Combined with petrologic studies of the erupted lavas, our measurements indicate that 1.1–2.3 km³ dense-rock equivalent of lava were erupted from the LERZ, which is approximately twice the concomitant collapse volume of the volcano’s summit.