Using Drones and Miniaturized Instrumentation to Study Degassing at Turrialba and Masaya Volcanoes, Central America

Gas measurements using unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, were undertaken at Turrialba volcano, Costa Rica, and Masaya volcano, Nicaragua, in 2016 and 2017. These two volcanoes are the largest time-integrated sources of gas in the Central American Volcanic Arc, and both systems are currently extremely active with potential for sudden destabilization. We employed a series of miniaturized drone-mounted instrumentation including a mini-DOAS, two MultiGAS instruments, and an optical particle counter, supplemented by ground-based measurements. Payloads were typically 1–1.5 kg and flight times were 10–15 min. The measurements were both accurate and precise due to the inherent sensitivity of the instrumentation and the high gas concentrations, which the drones were able to sample. The quality of data obtained by our drones was comparable to that obtained by our ground-based measurements. At Turrialba in April 2017, we measured an average SO2 flux of 1,380 ± 280 T/day, CO2/SO2 of 6.5, and H2O/SO2 of 27.8. Using these values, we calculated a CO2 flux of 6,170 T/day and an H2O flux of 10,790 T/day. At Masaya in May 2017, the average SO2 flux was 1,560 ± 180 T/day, with CO2/SO2 of 3.9 and H2O/SO2 of 62.3, giving a mean CO2 flux of 4,150 T/day andmean H2O flux of 27,330 T/day. The elevated carbon and water fluxes and ratios are indicative of underlyingmagmas that are enriched in these components, resulting in the high levels of activity observed.

[1]  U. Platt,et al.  Active alkaline traps to determine acidic‐gas ratios in volcanic plumes: Sampling techniques and analytical methods , 2014 .

[2]  Bruce Christenson,et al.  Variability of passive gas emissions, seismicity, and deformation during crater lake growth at White Island Volcano, New Zealand, 2002–2006 , 2008 .

[3]  C. Oppenheimer,et al.  High-resolution size distributions and emission fluxes of trace elements from Masaya volcano, Nicaragua , 2012 .

[4]  T. Hashimoto,et al.  Volcanic plume measurements using a UAV for the 2014 Mt. Ontake eruption , 2016, Earth, Planets and Space.

[5]  Paolo Papale,et al.  Forecasting Etna eruptions by real-time observation of volcanic gas composition , 2007 .

[6]  W. Giggenbach.  Variations in the carbon, sulfur and chlorine contents of volcanic gas discharges from White Island, New Zealand , 1975 .

[7]  H. Rymer,et al.  Pit crater structure and processes governing persistent activity at Masaya Volcano, Nicaragua , 1998 .

[8]  R. Andres,et al.  A time‐averaged inventory of subaerial volcanic sulfur emissions , 1998 .

[9]  Lindsay Mcclelland.  Report on Masaya (Nicaragua) , 1991 .

[10]  John N. Porter,et al.  Real-time measurement of volcanic SO2 emissions: validation of a new UV correlation spectrometer (FLYSPEC) , 2006 .

[11]  C. Oppenheimer,et al.  A reassessment of current volcanic emissions from the Central American arc with specific examples from Nicaragua , 2006 .

[12]  D. Hilton,et al.  Variable SO2 emission rates for Anatahan volcano, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands: Implications for deriving arc‐wide volatile fluxes from erupting volcanoes , 2007 .

[13]  Michael E. Martinez,et al.  Short-period volcanic gas precursors to phreatic eruptions: Insights from Poás Volcano, Costa Rica , 2016 .

[14]  Christoph Kern,et al.  Radiative transfer corrections for accurate spectroscopic measurements of volcanic gas emissions , 2010 .

[15]  G. Williams-Jones,et al.  Apparent downwind depletion of volcanic SO2 flux—lessons from Masaya Volcano, Nicaragua , 2009 .

[16]  B. Huebert,et al.  Sulfur and halogen gases at Masaya Caldera Complex, Nicaragua: Total flux and variations with time , 1986 .

[17]  Christoph Kern,et al.  Remote measurement of high preeruptive water vapor emissions at Sabancaya volcano by passive differential optical absorption spectroscopy , 2017 .

[18]  G. Avard,et al.  Measurements of volcanic SO2 and CO2 fluxes by combined DOAS, Multi-GAS and FTIR observations: a case study from Turrialba and Telica volcanoes , 2014, International Journal of Earth Sciences.

[19]  Hiroshi Shinohara,et al.  Composition of volcanic gases emitted during repeating Vulcanian eruption stage of Shinmoedake, Kirishima volcano, Japan , 2013, Earth, Planets and Space.

[20]  A. Paonita,et al.  Sulfur isotopic compositions of fumarolic and plume gases at Mount Etna (Italy) and inferences on their magmatic source , 2012 .

[21]  David C. Pieri,et al.  Constraining the sulfur dioxide degassing flux from Turrialba volcano, Costa Rica using unmanned aerial system measurements , 2016 .

[22]  B. Marty,et al.  Trace elements in the gas emissions from the Erta Ale volcano, Afar, Ethiopia , 2013 .

[23]  G. Avard,et al.  Turmoil at Turrialba Volcano (Costa Rica): Degassing and eruptive processes inferred from high‐frequency gas monitoring , 2016, Journal of geophysical research. Solid earth.

[24]  D. Coppola,et al.  Tracking Formation of a Lava Lake From Ground and Space: Masaya Volcano (Nicaragua), 2014–2017 , 2018 .

[25]  P. LaFemina,et al.  A New Sulfur and Carbon Degassing Inventory for the Southern Central American Volcanic Arc: The Importance of Accurate Time‐Series Data Sets and Possible Tectonic Processes Responsible for Temporal Variations in Arc‐Scale Volatile Emissions , 2017 .

[26]  T. Gerlach,et al.  Application of the LI-COR CO2 analyzer to volcanic plumes: A case study, volcán Popocatépetl, Mexico, June 7 and 10, 1995 , 1997 .

[27]  A. McGonigle,et al.  A miniaturised ultraviolet spectrometer for remote sensing of SO2 fluxes: a new tool for volcano surveillance , 2003 .

[28]  A. McGonigle,et al.  Unmanned aerial vehicle measurements of volcanic carbon dioxide fluxes , 2008 .

[29]  Keith A. Horton,et al.  Accurately measuring volcanic plume velocity with multiple UV spectrometers , 2006 .

[30]  D. Martin,et al.  Contribution des Sondes Aérologiques Motorisées à l’Etude de la Physico-Chimie des Panaches Volcaniques , 1980 .

[31]  P. Delmelle,et al.  Trace elements in the particulate phase of the plume of Masaya Volcano, Nicaragua , 2010 .

[32]  Maria Fabrizia Buongiorno,et al.  Unmanned Aerial Mass Spectrometer Systems for In-Situ Volcanic Plume Analysis , 2015, Journal of The American Society for Mass Spectrometry.

[33]  Hiroshi Shinohara,et al.  A new technique to estimate volcanic gas composition: plume measurements with a portable multi-sensor system , 2005 .

[34]  K. Kazahaya,et al.  Variation of CO2/SO2 ratio in volcanic plumes of Miyakejima: Stable degassing deduced from heliborne measurements , 2003 .

[35]  M. Liuzzo,et al.  Rates of carbon dioxide plume degassing from Mount Etna volcano , 2006 .

[36]  Marco Liuzzo,et al.  Implementation of electrochemical, optical and denuder-based sensors and sampling techniques on UAV for volcanic gas measurements: examples from Masaya, Turrialba and Stromboli volcanoes , 2018 .