The starting behaviour of volcanic eruption plumes

This project will explore the factors that control the initial height of ‘starting’ volcanic plumes, and test the hypothesis that the height is related to the initial power of the eruption. The novelty of the work will be the focus on starting plumes, and on plumes from short-lived or unsteady eruptions. This work is important, because the rates of plume rise, the three-dimensional form of the plume, and the initial plume height are all parameters that can be determined from satellite data; and these physical parameters that are considered to place important controls on the injection height and injection history of volcanic ash and gases into the atmosphere; and thereby on the subsequent evolution and impact of the volcanic umbrella cloud.

The January 2022 eruption of Hunga Tonga – Hunga Ha’apai challenged our understanding of the dynamics of volcanic plumes. The eruption involved multiple events, with the first injecting material to record-breaking heights (~57 km; Carr et al. 2022; Proud et al. 2022). This raises interesting questions about what caused the column to reach these heights. The scientific literature contains many papers on the equilibrium height of sustained volcanic plumes (e.g. Sparks et al., 1997), much less is known about the initial or transient stages of volcanic plume development; and on plume behaviour during unsteady volcanic eruptions (e.g. Clarke et al., 2002; Chojnicki et al., 2015). 

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