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Article Published: 27 May 2024 Explosive 2018 eruptions at Kīlauea driven by a collapse-induced stomp-rocket mechanism Josh Crozier, Josef Dufek, Leif Karlstrom, Kyle R. Anderson, Ryan Cahalan, Weston Thelen, Mary Benage & Chao Liang Nature Geoscience volume 17, pages572–578 (2024)Cite this article 1357 Accesses 430 Altmetric Metricsdetails Abstract Explosive volcanic eruptions produce hazardous atmospheric plumes composed of tephra particles, hot gas and entrained air. Such eruptions are generally driven by magmatic fragmentation or steam expansion. However, an eruption mechanism outside this phreatic–magmatic spectrum was suggested by a sequence of 12 explosive eruptions in May 2018 at Kīlauea, Hawaii, that occurred during the early stages of caldera collapse and produced atmospheric plumes reaching 8 km above the vent. Here we use seismic inversions for reservoir pressure as a source condition for three-dimensional simulations of transient multiphase eruptive plume ascent through a conduit and stratified atmosphere. We compare the simulations with conduit ascent times inferred from seismic and infrasound data, and with plume heights from radar data. We find that the plumes are consistent with eruptions caused by a stomp-rocket mechanism involving the abrupt subsidence of reservoir roof rock that increased pressure in the underlying magma reservoir. In our model, the reservoir was overlain by a pocket of accumulated high-temperature magmatic gas and lithic debris, which were driven through a conduit approximately 600 m long to erupt particles at rates of around 3,000 m3 s−1. Our results reveal a distinct collapse-driven type of eruption and provide a framework for integrating diverse geophysical and atmospheric data with simulations to gain a better understanding of unsteady explosive eruptions. 

Combining visual and sonic representations of data can make science more accessible and help reveal subtle details. The recent decade-long eruption of Hawaii’s Kīlauea Volcano offers a prime example. 

Resonant magma oscillations reveal evolving magma properties over a decade-long eruption at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i, USA. 

Abstract Very‐long‐period (VLP) volcano seismicity often encodes subsurface magma movement, and thus provides insight into subsurface magma transport processes. We develop a fully automated signal processing workflow using wavelet transforms to detect and assess period, decay rate, and ground motions of resonant VLP signals. We then generate a VLP catalog over the 2008–2018 open‐vent summit eruption of Kīlauea Volcano containing thousands of events. Two types of magma resonance dominate our catalog: vertical sloshing of the open magma column in and out of the shallow magma reservoir, and lateral sloshing of magma in the lava lake. These events were triggered mainly from the surface and less commonly from depth. The VLP catalog is then combined with other geophysical datasets to characterize evolution of the shallow magma system. VLP ground motion patterns show both abrupt and gradual changes in shallow magma reservoir geometry. Variation in resonant periods and decay rates of both resonance types occurred on timescales from hours to years, indicating variation in magma density and viscosity that likely reflect unsteady shallow outgassing and convection. A lack of correlation between decay rates of the two dominant resonant modes suggests a decoupling between magma in the conduit and lava lake. Known intrusions and rift zone eruptions often represented change points for resonance characteristics and their relations with other datasets. This data synthesis over a 10‐year eruptive episode at Klauea Volcano demonstrates how VLP seismicity can sharpen insights into magma system evolution for use in monitoring and understanding eruptive processes.