ICDP Project SUSTAIN (Scientific Drilling of Surtsey Volcano): Experimental studies on formation and thermal history of Surtsey

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Bernd Zimanowski
• 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
• Subproject of: SPP 1006: International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP)
• International Connection: Iceland, Italy, New Zealand
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Dr. Wolfgang Bach; Professor Dr. Ralf Büttner; Professor Dr. Pierfrancesco Dellino; Dr. Tobias Dürig; Professor Dr. Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson; Professor James D.L. White, Ph.D.