Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Explosive volcanic eruptions ‐ VI. Ejecta dispersal in plinian eruptions
T2 - the control of eruption conditions and atmospheric properties
AU - Wilson, L.
PY - 1987/5
Y1 - 1987/5
N2 - Summary. A simple model is developed to relate the maximum down‐wind and cross‐wind ranges of pyroclasts forming a plinian airfall deposit to the dynamic processes in the eruption cloud from which they fall and the atmospheric wind conditions in the area. The eruption cloud dynamics are in turn related to the eruptive conditions in the vent (vent radius, exsolved magmatic volatile weight fraction, velocity with which material passes through the vent, and mass eruption rate), some or all of which can be deduced if the appropriate field measurements can be made. Some aspects of the stability of convecting volcanic eruption clouds are investigated, and the effects on eruption cloud height of the local atmospheric temperature profile and the value adopted for the entrainment constant (which relates the horizontal flow speed of atmospheric air entering the column to the vertical rise speed of the column material) are explored. It is confirmed that eruption‐cloud rise height and pyroclast dispersal are mainly controlled by the mass eruption rate (per unit length of active fissure in the case of linear vents) and, hence, the heat input rate to the cloud; but a significant subsidiary dependence on the amount of exsolved magma volatiles is also found. The eruption cloud model is validated by application to observed historic eruptions, and its use in the analysis of palaeo‐eruptions is discussed.
AB - Summary. A simple model is developed to relate the maximum down‐wind and cross‐wind ranges of pyroclasts forming a plinian airfall deposit to the dynamic processes in the eruption cloud from which they fall and the atmospheric wind conditions in the area. The eruption cloud dynamics are in turn related to the eruptive conditions in the vent (vent radius, exsolved magmatic volatile weight fraction, velocity with which material passes through the vent, and mass eruption rate), some or all of which can be deduced if the appropriate field measurements can be made. Some aspects of the stability of convecting volcanic eruption clouds are investigated, and the effects on eruption cloud height of the local atmospheric temperature profile and the value adopted for the entrainment constant (which relates the horizontal flow speed of atmospheric air entering the column to the vertical rise speed of the column material) are explored. It is confirmed that eruption‐cloud rise height and pyroclast dispersal are mainly controlled by the mass eruption rate (per unit length of active fissure in the case of linear vents) and, hence, the heat input rate to the cloud; but a significant subsidiary dependence on the amount of exsolved magma volatiles is also found. The eruption cloud model is validated by application to observed historic eruptions, and its use in the analysis of palaeo‐eruptions is discussed.
KW - atmosphere
KW - ejecta dispersal
KW - plinian eruption
U2 - 10.1111/j.1365-246X.1987.tb05186.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1365-246X.1987.tb05186.x
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:0023520821
VL - 89
SP - 657
EP - 679
JO - Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society
JF - Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society
SN - 0016-8009
IS - 2
ER -