De Bello Vulcanico: Constraining Rheology, Permeability, and Compressibility of Magmas and Eruption Magnitude of Active Volcanoes

Dr Mattia Pistone, University of Lausanne. Part of the IGT Seminar.

Volcanologists strive to forecast the likelihood, magnitude, and style of eruptions. In this volcanic challenge, one key issue still standing in the way of our ability to forecast eruption magnitude is the “volcanic gas problem”, which is the volume disparity between emitted gas and erupted magma. This disparity jeopardises the assessment of: i) magma ascent (rheology), ii) magma propensity to release gas (permeability), and iii) magma capability to retain gas (compressibility) prior to an eruption. I will showcase how my research on magma rheology, permeability, and compressibility, contributes to unravelling the conditions of magma unrest preceding an eruption and the causes of the volume gap between emitted gas and erupted magma at active volcanoes.