Samples of extremely small crystal clots, each polished to the thickness of a human hair or thinner, have revealed information about the process triggering the major 2006 eruption of Alaska’s Augustine Volcano.
Samples of extremely small crystal clots, each polished to the thickness of a human hair or thinner, have revealed information about the process triggering the major 2006 eruption of Alaska’s Augustine Volcano.
Graduate student researcher Valerie Wasser at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute determined that the addition of hot new magma into Augustine’s reservoir of cooler, older magma increased the pressure enough to trigger the 2006 eruption.
Wasser’s analysis of Augustine crystal clots was published May 29 in Geology, the journal of The Geological Society of America.
Read More: University of Alaska - Fairbanks
A steam plume with minor ash extends northeast from Augustine Volcano on Jan. 30, 2006. (Photo Credit: R.G. McGimsey/Alaska Volcano Observatory/U.S. Geological Survey)
