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International audience; The 2015 reactivation of the Cotopaxi volcano urges us to understand the complex eruptive dynamics of Cotopaxi for better management of a potential major crisis in the near future. Cotopaxi has commonly transitioned from andesitic eruptions of strombolian style (lava flows and scoria ballistics) or nuées ardentes (pyroclastic flows and ash falls) to highly explosive rhyolitic ignimbrites (pumiceous pyroclastic flows), which entail drastically different risks. To better interpret geophysical and geochemical signals, Cotopaxi magma storage conditions were determined via existing phase-equilibrium experiments that used starting materials chemically close to the Cotopaxi andesites and rhyolites. The results suggest that Cotopaxi's most mafic andesites (last erupted products) can be stored over a large range of depth from ~7 km to ≥16 km below the summit (pressure from ~200 to ≥400 MPa), 1000 °C, NNO +2, and contain 4.5–6.0±0.7 wt% H2O dissolved in the melt in equilibrium with ~30–40% phenocrysts of plagioclase, two pyroxenes, and Fe-Ti oxides. These mafic andesites sometimes evolve towards more silicic andesites by cooling to 950 °C. Rhyolitic magmas are stored at 200–300 MPa (i.e. ~7–11 km below the summit), 750 °C, NNO +2, and contain ~6–8 wt% H2O dissolved in a nearly aphyric melt (

This paper presents the results of 7 years (Aug. 1999-Oct. 2006) of SO2 gas measurements during the ongoing eruption of Tungurahua volcano, Ecuador. From 2004 onwards, the operation of scanning spectrometers has furnished high temporal resolution measurements of SO2 flux, enabling this dataset to be correlated with other datasets, including seismicity. The emission rate of SO2 during this period ranges from less than 100 to 35,000 tonnes/day (t d(-1)) with a mean daily emission rate of 1458 t d(-1) and a standard deviation of +/- 2026 t d(-1). Average daily emissions during inferred explosive phases are about 1.75 times greater than during passive degassing intervals. The total amount of sulfur emitted since 1999 is estimated as at least 1.91 Mt, mostly injected into the troposphere and carried westwards from the volcano. Our observations suggest that the rate of passive degassing at Tungurahua requires SO2 exsolution of an andesitic magma volume that is two orders of magnitude larger than expected for the amount of erupted magma. Two possible, and not mutually exclusive, mechanisms are considered here to explain this excess degassing: gas flow through a permeable stagnantmagma-filled conduit and gas escape from convective magma overturning in the conduit. We have found that real-time gas monitoring contributes significantly to better eruption forecasting at Tungurahua, because it has provided improved understanding of underlying physical mechanisms of magma ascent and eruption.

Renewed seismic activity of Cotopaxi, Ecuador, began in January 2001 with the increased number of long-period (LP) events, followed by a swarm of volcano-tectonic (VT) earthquakes in November 2001. In late June 2002, the activity of very-long-period (VLP) (2 s) events accompanying LP (0.5–1 s) signals began beneath the volcano. The VLP waveform was characterized by an impulsive signature, which was accompanied by the LP signal showing non-harmonic oscillations. We observed temporal changes of both the VLP and LP signals from the beginning until September 2003: The VLP signal gradually disappeared and the LP signal characterized by decaying harmonic oscillations became dominant. Assuming possible source geometries, we applied a waveform inversion method to the observed waveforms of the largest VLP event. Our inversion and particle motion analyses point to volumetric changes of a sub-vertical crack as the VLP source, which is located at a depth of 2–3 km beneath the northeastern flank. The spectral analysis of the decaying harmonic oscillations of LP events shows frequencies between 2.0 and 3.5 Hz, with quality factors significantly above 100. The increased VT activity and deformation data suggest an intrusion of magma beneath the volcano. A release of gases with small magma particles may have repetitively occurred due to the pressurization, which was caused by sustained bubble growth at the magma ceiling. The released particle-laden gases opened a crack above the magma system and triggered the resonance of the crack. We interpret the VLP and LP events as the gas-release process and the resonance of the crack, respectively.

Tungurahua Volcano in the Ecuadorian Andes is a large andesitic stratovolcano (5023 m) that has been erupting mildly since 1999. We studied the three-dimensional (3-D) P-wave velocity (Vp) structure beneath the volcano down to 5 km below the summit. We inverted 1708 P-wave first-arrival times from 263 volcano-tectonic (VT) earthquakes recorded by 5 to 10 short-period vertical seismic stations on the volcano from August 1999 to May 2003. A tomographic inversion method was used to image the velocity structure, in which first-arrival times were calculated with a finite-difference method. The Root Mean Square of the arrival time residuals (RMS) was reduced by 43% after running 10 iterations from the initial RMS of 0.15 s. The relocated hypocenters in our model are tightly clustered along a vertical structure at depths between sea level and the summit crater. A high-velocity zone exists above the central base of the volcano under the vertically aligned hypocenters, and may be interpreted as the source zone for recharge of the shallow magmatic system. High-velocity zones are also identified under the lower northeastern and southern flanks of the edifice. The southern high-velocity anomaly lies close to the surface and is connected to the high-velocity zone in the central base of the volcano, a feature suggesting an old lateral dike system. Except for these high-velocity zones in the central, northern, and southern flanks, the volcanic edifice is composed of low-velocity materials down to a depth of 2 km above sea level. These low-velocity zones correlate with young unconsolidated deposits, and older highly fractured and/or altered volcanic materials.