ICDP Project SUSTAIN (Scientific Drilling of Surtsey Volcano):
Experimental studies on formation and thermal history of Surtsey
Subject Area
Palaeontology
Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry
Term
from 2017 to 2020
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 341877907
Experimental studies on formation and thermal history of Surtsey.With the aim to provide constraints for a better understanding of the Surtsey eruptions 50 years ago and to find answers to still open questions about the eruption mechanisms, the energetics, and the production of volcanic ash by subaerial and submarine processes, fragmentation experiments will be conducted using representative basaltic melt at magmatic temperatures. The experiments will cover explosive magmatic and phreatomagmatic fragmentation and thermal granulation by non-explosive interaction of melt and watery coolants. Thermal granulation experiments will be performed in a calorimeter, thus information on the thermal history of the products (i.e. hyaloclastites) will emerge. In cooperation with the working group of PI Bach (Univ. Bremen) hydrothermal calorimetric experiments using fresh, experimentally produced glass particles (later also original samples from Surtsey) are proposed to investigate the early post eruptive thermal history, especially the influence of material properties of the deposits and geothermal fluids on the heat transport. This will have particular relevance to reference heat flow models.
DFG Programme
Infrastructure Priority Programmes
International Connection
Iceland, Italy, New Zealand
