Brynn O’Donnell, graduate student studying freshwater biogeochemistry at Virginia Tech University, USA, interviewed Dmitri Rouwet on the Lake Nyos gas burst and 30-years aftermath.
Brynn runs ‘Submerge’ podcast to exploit her passion for science communication, dixit: “‘Submerge’ dedicates to exploring the various ways our perceptions and beliefs about water can shape our relationship with it.”
Listen to the interview HERE.
“Killer Lake” Nyos in March 2016 (CVL9-Cameroon, pic. by. D. Rouwet)
International Summer Meeting on Volcanic Lakes
“Different perspectives and approaches to study a volcanic lake”
Laghi di Monticchio (Basilicata, Italia)
25-29 June 2018
by Jacopo Cabassi
The aim of this scientific meeting held at Monticchio Laghi, Rionero in Vulture, Potenza (Basilicata, southern Italy) was to experience a common scientific activity at the shoreline of two volcanic lakes, i.e. Monticchio Grande and Monticchio Piccolo, focusing on peculiar approaches and methods of investigation of volcanic lakes from the geochemical, biological and limnological perspective.
The two Monticchio lakes.
Monticchio lakes are hosted within two maars formed 140 ky ago during the last eruptive activity of Mt. Vulture. The area is characterized by intense CO2 degassing and bubbling gases are present along the lakeshores. Lake rollover, fish-kill events were witnessed on June and August 1810 and in 1820, with the formation of water fountains up to 6 m high. Lake Piccolo is the tributary of Lake Grande through an artificial channel. It has a maximum depth of 38 m, a surface area of 1.6×105 m2, and a volume of 3.98×106 m3. Steep walls, a funnel shape, and a depth-ratio value of 0.64 characterize the lake morphology. Lake Grande has a maximum depth of 35 m, a surface area of 4.1×105 m2, and a volume of 3.25×106 m3. A large portion of this lake has a flat bottom not exceeding 12 m depth. Consequently, its depth ratio is relatively low (0.25). A channel built by monks of the nearby monastery, to prevent water level increases, connects Lake Grande to the Ofanto River. The dissolved gas reservoir shows CO2 and CH4 at relevant and comparable concentrations (bioactivity-type lakes).
Organization, participants and main sponsors
The scientific committee of the International Summer Meeting on Volcanic Lakes 2018 were composed of researchers and professionals from prestigious research institutions and national university institutes:
– Franco Tassi, University of Florence, Italy
– Fatima Viveiros, University of the Azores, Portugal
– Martin Zimmer, GFZ, Germany
– Gladys Melian Rodriguez, ITER, Spain
– Bertram Boehrer, UFZ, Germany
– Cristiana Callieri, CNR-ISE, Italy
– Antonio Caracausi, INGV Palermo, Italy
– Guendalina Pecoraino, INGV Palermo, Italy
– Michele Paternoster, University of Basilicata, Italy
The organizing committee, with the administrative support of :
– Associazione NaturalisticaGEODE (Palermo, Italy), were composed as follow:
– Franco Tassi, University of Florence, Italy
– Michele Paternoster, University of Basilicata, Italy
– Sergio Calabrese, University of Palermo, Italy
– Orlando Vaselli, University of Florence, Italy
– Jacopo Cabassi, CNR-IGG, Italy
– Francesco Capecchiacci, University of Florence, Italy
– Stefania Venturi, University of Florence, Italy
– Francesco Magi, University of Florence, Italy
The 26 participants were young and senior researchers having different scientific backgrounds (geochemists, limnologists, biologists, volcanologists) and coming not only from Italy, but also from European and non-European countries (USA, Romania, Hungary, Germany, Holland, France).
The main sponsors were: Società Geochimica Italiana (SOGEI, official patronage); Springer; Società Italiana di Mineralogia e Petrologia (SIMP); Commission of Volcanic Lakes (CVL-IAVCEI); West Systems; Provincia di Potenza; APT Basilicata; Università degli Studi della Basilicata; Thermo-Fisher Scientific; Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Università della Basilicata.
The meeting: presentations and field activities
The meeting aimed to encourage and promote the exchange of expertise among international scientists in the study of limnic systems of volcanic environments, especially favouring the discussion and the development of new multidisciplinary and methodological research approaches.
Lake Piccolo. Picture by Jacopo Cabassi.
The day after the arrival (i.e. 26 June) was entirely dedicated to oral presentations and discussions, in which each of the participants was able to present case studies or theoretical lessons relevant to the study of volcanic lakes from various methodological and disciplinary perspectives. The presentations were exhibited in the evocative scenery of the Abbey of San Michele Arcangelo, located above Lake Piccolo. During the day, it was also possible to visit the Museum of Natural History of Vulture inside the abbey.
Scientific session. Picture by Jacopo Cabassi.
The days 27 and 28 June were dedicated to practical activities, carried out in both the lakes of Monticchio (Grande and Piccolo), for the measurement of physical-chemical parameters and the collection of samples for laboratory analysis. More specifically, water and dissolved gas sampling was carried out along vertical profiles from the lake surface to the bottom at selected depths, at a site corresponding to the deepest point of the lake. The sampling equipment consisted of Rilsan® tubes (ϕ=6 mm) connected through steel connectors. Water was pumped via the tubes up to the surface by means of a 100 ml syringe equipped with a three-way valve and transferred into plastic bottles and glass vials for analysis of anions, cations, trace species, dissolved gases and microbial populations along the vertical profile. Samples of sediment from the bottom of the lakes were collected by means of depth corers and dredges. Measurements of CO2 and CH4 fluxes from the lake surface were also carried out by means of a floating accumulation chamber, simultaneously with measurements in air of concentration and isotopic composition of methane.
Sampling of lake water and dissolved gases. Picture by Sergio Calabrese.
On 29 June, a round table was held, with an open discussion about present and future research of volcanic lakes. The participants were able to describe and report their work experience on the two lakes in the previous days, so that everyone could have an all-encompassing idea of the measurements and samplings carried out on the lakes. The result of the discussion was to propose a joint publication of all the scientific data produced during the meeting and after the analysis of the collected samples, reflecting the performed multi-disciplinary and multi-methodological approaches and able to provide a complete characterization of the two lake environments. The creation of an internet space will encourage data and measures sharing. In the afternoon, the excursion to the nearby city of Matera (UNESCO site) took place.
Group picture in Matera. Picture by Jacopo Cabassi.
Thanks to the meticulous preservation and digitization of the first 10 Newsletters of the International Working Group on Crater Lakes (IWGCL) and the early IAVCEI-CVL by CVL “Founding Father” Prof. Em. Minoru Kusakabe , we are glad to now share these first notes on historical and scientific contents of our commission as a 371 pages PDF document, here:
This original, multi-author, and posteriorly unedited document is arguably the real first book on Volcanic Lakes, covering the activities of our community during the first 10 years, from post-Nyos (1987) to March 1997.
Enjoy and respect…
IN NAME OF THE IAVCEI-CVL STEERING COMMITTEE AND THE CVL10 ORGANIZING COMMITEE (GNS-NEW ZEALAND) WE ARE EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE YOU THE FIRST CIRCULAR OF OUR NEXT CVL10 WORKSHOP, TO BE HELD IN NEW ZEALAND FROM 17 TO 26 MARCH 2019.
Needless to say that New Zealand is CRATER LAKE PARADISE, host of the famous “wet volcanoes” Ruapehu and White Island, and the enigmatic Lakes Taupo and Rotomahana, besides the many geothermal manifestations.
As a teaser on the full program, please check out (PDF)…
… CVL10 NEW ZEALAND 1st circular
For any further questions, don’t hesitate to contact b.christenson@gns.cri.nz or dmitrirouwet@gmail.com
We hope to meet many of you on the shores of Lake Taupo in March 2019.
OVSICORI-UNA reports the return of Laguna Caliente, the hyper-acidic crater lake of Poás volcano, Costa Rica, as shown in the web-cam view below (top picture, http://www.ovsicori.una.ac.cr/index.php/vulcanologia/camaras-volcanes/crater-v-poas).
The crater lake had disappeared after culmination of the 2006-2016 phreatic eruption cycle into phreatomagmatic and magmatic eruptions, activity that started in April 2017. The southern part of the basin of Laguna Caliente (front of the top picture below) was newly formed after the 2017 magmatic eruptions that destroyed the dome, emplaced during the last major magmatic eruption cycle of 1953-1955 (lower picture).
It is no surprise that Laguna Caliente reformed, as the large volume magmatic-hydrothermal system underlying the lake was probably only temporarily and partially disturbed by the magmatic eruptions in 2017.
A recent paper by Terada and Hashimoto (2017) (Variety and sustainability of volcanic lakes: Response to subaqueous thermal activity predicted by a numerical model, J Geophys Res Solid Earth 122.doi:10.1002/2017JB14387) explains that neither a high rate of precipitation nor an impermeable layer at the lake bottom are necessary constraints to sustain/reform an active crater lake; a sufficiently high ratio between input rate at the lake bottom of a high enthalpy fluid and the lake surface can cause the re-appearance of a crater lake.
The adequate lake basin, abundant rain fall, and high fluid input from below are all factors favoring lake formation. As such, the Poás crater has returned to its most characteristic “wet” nature, hosting Laguna Caliente. The new peanut-shaped “window” into the magmatic-hydrothermal will be a useful tool for future monitoring efforts. OVSICORI and RSN-UCR will follow up the monitoring of Laguna Caliente with remote sensing techniques, direct measurements and lake and fumarole sampling, following internal safety protocols.
20 January 2018 (OVSICORI web-cam: http://www.ovsicori.una.ac.cr/index.php/vulcanologia/camaras-volcanes/crater-v-poas)
April 2007 (D. Rouwet)
The state of activity during the past year can be tracked on http://www.ovsicori.una.ac.cr/index.php/vulcanologia/grafica-de-los-volcanes, or http://www.rsn.ucr.ac.cr/actividad-volcanica/reportes-volcanicos#
FURTHER READING on arguably the most studied crater lake on Earth:
Recent publications on the 2006-2016 phreatic eruption cycle are:
Poás’ Laguna Caliente on 22 January 2018 (picture by Carlos Cordero).
Lake Monticchio Piccolo (Vulture Volcano, Basilicata, Southern Italy), the smaller green lake in the foreground, turned over again this winter, arguably on 27 December 2017 (Pic. by Diego Sabbatini).
On the how and why of this yearly feature we recall last year’s post.
The Monticchio Lakes will be the natural laboratory during the upcoming Summer Meeting, recently announced here.
!!!ATTENTION!!!
SUMMER MEETING MONTICCHIO, ITALY, 25-29 June 2018
Volcanologist | Geophysicist | Lecturer | et al...
Gli articoli pubblicati da © Barbara Lomonaco - E' vietata la riproduzione anche parziale del materiale contenuto in questo sito.
C'è un solo tipo di successo: quello di fare della propria vita ciò che si desidera. (Henry David Thoreau)
