Volcanotectonics

Explains and illustrates volcanic structures, products and processes, with worked examples and exercises, for students and professionals.

A volcanic eruption occurs when a magma-filled fracture propagates from its source to the surface. Analysing and understanding the conditions that allow this to happen constitute a major part of the scientific field of volcanotectonics. This new volume introduces this cutting-edge and interdisciplinary topic in volcanological research, which incorporates principles and methods from structural geology, tectonics, volcano-deformation studies, physical volcanology, seismology, and physics. It explains and illustrates the physical processes that operate inside volcanoes and which control the frequencies, locations, durations, and sizes of volcanic eruptions. Featuring a clear theoretical framework and helpful summary descriptions of various volcanic structures and products, as well as many worked examples and exercises, this book is an ideal resource for students, researchers and practitioners seeking an understanding of the processes that give rise to volcanic deformation, earthquakes, and eruptions.

Volcanoes have terrified and, at the same time, fascinated civilizations for thousands of years. Many aspects of volcanoes, most notably the eruptive processes and the compositional variations of magma, have been widely investigated for several decades and today constitute the core of any volcanology textbook. Nevertheless, in the last two decades, boosted by the availability of volcano monitoring data, there has been an increasing interest in the pre-eruptive processes related to the shallow accumulation and to the transfer of magma approaching the surface, as well as in the resulting structure of volcanoes. These are innovative and essential aspects of modern volcanology and, as driving volcanic unrest, their understanding also improves hazard assessment and eruption forecasting. So far, the significant progress made in unravelling these volcano-tectonic processes has not been supported by a comprehensive overview. This monograph aims at filling this gap, describing the pre-eruptive processes related to the structure, deformation and tectonics of volcanoes, at the local and regional scale, in any tectonic setting. The monograph is organized into three sections (“Fundamentals”, “Magma migration towards the surface” and “The regional perspective”), consisting of thirteen chapters that are lavishly illustrated. The reader is accompanied in a journey within the volcano factory, discovering the processes associated with the shallow accumulation of magma and its transfer towards the surface, how these control the structure of volcanoes and their activity and, ultimately, improve our ability to estimate hazard and forecast eruption. The potential readership includes any academic, researcher and upper undergraduate student interested in volcanology, magma intrusions, structural geology, tectonics, geodesy, as well as geology and geophysics in general.

The Colli Albani Volcano contains 21 scientific contributions on stratigraphy, volcanotectonics, geochronology, petrography and geochemistry, hydrogeology, volcanic hazards, geophysics and archaeology, and a new 1:50 000 scale geological map of the volcano. The proximity to Rome and the interconnection between volcanic and human history also make this volcano of interest for both specialists and non-specialists.

The contributions in this book were presented, orally or as posters, at the International Volcanological Congress held in New Zealand from 1 to 9 February 1986, the centenary year of the Tarawera eruption of 10 June 1886. More than 500 people, from 29 countries, attend ed the Congress. Most of these works formed part of Symposium 4, "Volcanic Hazards - Prediction and Assess ment", convened by J.H. Latter, R.R. Dibble, D.A. Swanson and C.G. Newhall. The collection represents over half of the published abstracts of Symposium 4, together with three papers given at the Symposium, which lacked abstracts, and two which were part of Symposium 1 on pyroclastic flow deposits. The contribu tions cover a good proportion of the volcanically active parts of the world, with Italy, Japan, the West Indies and the USA especially well represented. Mount Erebus, Vulcano and Rabaul are individual volcanoes which have been treated in particular detail. Unfor tunately, there are no chapters in the book dealing with Africa, the Atlantic islands (except Iceland), Hawaii, Central America (except Mexico), or South America (in spite of the major disaster at Nevado del Ruiz Volcano in 1985).

The Aeolian Islands form one of the most active geological structures in the Mediterranean area, comprising a number of active (Stromboli and Vulcano) and dormant (Panarea and Lipari) volcanoes. They have attracted the attention of scientists in modern and historical times and are the cradle of the scientific discipline of volcanology. This Memoir provides information on geological features of the Aeolian Islands volcanoes at a regional scale and for each island. The stratigraphy, structural evolution, eruptive and magmatic history of the Islands is presented, along with the geodynamic setting of the Aeolian volcanism and implications for magma origin and evolution processes. Particular focus is given to the active and dormant volcanoes and the related natural hazards. It includes a DVD with new 1:10,000-scale geological maps of the Aeolian Islands and bathymetric maps of sectors of the Aeolian archipelago, together with an extended dataset of rock compositions.

Details information about volcanoes found in the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Canada.

Accompanying CD-ROM, entitled Supplementary materials to Stratigraphy and geology of volcanic areas, includes three geologic maps in Adobe Acrobat PDF files.