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- Peltier, Aline, et al.
(author)
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Volcano Crisis Management at Piton de la Fournaise (La Reunion) during the COVID-19 Lockdown
- 2021
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In: Seismological Research Letters. - : Seismological Society of America (SSA). - 1938-2057 .- 0895-0695. ; 92:1, s. 38-52
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In March 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization and became a global health crisis. Authorities worldwide implemented lockdowns to restrict travel and social exchanges in a global effort to counter the pandemic. In France, and in French overseas departments, the lockdown was effective from 17 March to 11 May 2020. It was in this context that the 2-6 April 2020 eruption of Piton de la Fournaise (La Reunion Island, Indian Ocean) took place. Upon the announcement of the lockdown in France, a reduced activity plan was set up by the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, which manages the Observatoire Volcanologique du Piton de la Fournaise (OVPF). The aim was to (1) maintain remote monitoring operations by teleworking and (2) authorize fieldwork only for critical reasons, such as serious breakdowns of stations or transmission relays. This eruption provided an opportunity for the observatory to validate its capacity to manage a volcanic crisis with 100% remotely operated monitoring networks. We thus present the longand short-term precursors to the eruption, and the evolution of the eruption recorded using the real-time monitoring data as communicated to the stakeholders. The data were from both continuously recording and transmitting field instruments as well as satellites. The volcano observatory staff remotely managed the volcano crisis with the various stakeholders based only on these remotely functioning networks. Monitoring duties were also assured in the absence of ad hoc field investigation of the eruption by observatory staff or face-to-face communications. The density and reliability of the OVPF networks, combined with satellite observations, allowed for trustworthy instrument-based monitoring of the eruption and continuity of the OVPF duties in issuing regular updates of volcanic activity in the context of a double crisis: volcanic and health.
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2. |
- Thivet, Simon, et al.
(author)
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Evidences of Plug Pressurization Enhancing Magma Fragmentation During the September 2016 Basaltic Eruption at Piton de la Fournaise (La Réunion Island, France)
- 2020
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In: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. - 1525-2027. ; 21:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In September 2016, Piton de la Fournaise volcano, well known for its effusive and Hawaiian fountaining activity, produced, at the end of the eruption, an unusual phase of pulsating ash and bomb emission. Integration of geophysical data, with textural and petrological analysis of the samples, allowed us to constrain the main factors that controlled this sudden shift in activity, potentially dangerous for the tourist population that usually approach these “gentle” eruptive sites. Volcanic tremor, lava discharge rates, fountain heights, and SO2 emission changed rapidly during the eruption. Grain size and componentry of the tephra beds evolved from unimodal all along the sequence to bimodal on the last day of the activity, reflecting the contribution of both Hawaiian fountaining at the main vent (Vent A) and transient explosive activity at the second vent (Vent B). Hawaiian fountaining produced highly vesicular and almost microlite-free tephra (golden pumice and fluidal scoria) while transient explosive activity emitted denser and crystal-rich tephra (sideromelane and tachylite scoria) sometimes mingled with vesicular fragments. Permeability measurements on lapilli and bomb-sized samples reveal that golden pumice and fluidal scoria were more gas-permeable than the sideromelane and tachylite ones, while textural and chemical analyses of the ash support the hypothesis that these sideromelane and tachylite components were inherited from the subsurface crystallization of the initial golden pumice and fluidal scoria components. We thus suggest that Vent B accumulated a plug of degassed, cooled, and low-permeable magma, which modulated overpressure pulses under the late input of ascending magma.
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