Decompression wave caused eruption chain reaction
Monday, October 29, 2012 - 11:32
in Earth & Climate
The 2010 eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull proceeded through fits and starts. A new analysis by Tarasewicz et al.suggests that a downward propagating decompression wave triggered a cascade of explosive eruptions from sequentially deeper magma reservoirs. Drawing on detailed seismic measurements, the authors find that earthquake activity under the volcano propagated deeper into the subsurface as the eruption progressed.