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Science 6 April 2001:
Vol. 292. no. 5514, pp. 83 - 86
DOI: 10.1126/science.1058450
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Reports

Carbon Dioxide Degassing by Advective Flow from Usu Volcano, Japan

P. A. Hernández,12* K. Notsu,1 J. M. Salazar,2 T. Mori,1 G. Natale,1 H. Okada,3 G. Virgili,4 Y. Shimoike,1 M. Sato,1 N. M. Pérez2

Magmatic carbon dioxide (CO2) degassing has been documented before the 31 March 2000 eruption of Usu volcano, Hokkaido, Japan. Six months before the eruption, an increase in CO2 flux was detected on the summit caldera, from 120 (September 1998) to 340 metric tons per day (September 1999), followed by a sudden decrease to 39 metric tons per day in June 2000, 3 months after the eruption. The change in CO2 flux and seismic observations suggests that before the eruption, advective processes controlled gas migration toward the surface. The decrease in flux after the eruption at the summit caldera could be due to a rapid release of CO2 during the eruption from ascending dacitic dikes spreading away from the magma chamber beneath the caldera.

1 Laboratory for Earthquake Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-Ku 113-0033, Tokyo, Japan.
2 Environmental Research Division, Instituto Tecnológico y de Energías Renovables, 38611 Granadilla de Abona, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain.
3 Usu Volcano Observatory, Hokkaido University, Sohbetsu-cho, Hokkaido 052-0103, Hokkaido, Japan.
4 WEST Systems, Via Molise 3, 56025 Pontedera (PI), Italy.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: phdez{at}iter.rcanaria.es

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Carbon dioxide emissions from fumarolic ice towers, Mount Erebus volcano, Antarctica.
L. J. Wardell, P. R. Kyle, and A. R. Campbell (2003)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 213, 231-246
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