VolcanicDegassing

Thermal imaging of volcanic eruption plumes

Timeseries images from thermal imaging camera of two contrasting explosion plumes at Volcan Colima, Mexico. Image by Erica Webb, and published in her paper, Webb et al., 2014.

Timeseries images from thermal imaging camera of two contrasting explosion plumes at Volcán de Colima, Mexico. Image by Erica Webb, and published recently in her paper in the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research.

Thermal imaging using infra-red cameras is now a widely used tool in the monitoring and analysis of volcanic explosions, and this pair of time-series snapshots of two short-lived ‘Vulcanian‘ explosions at Volcán de Colima, Mexico, shows one example of why. In each panel, times (in seconds) are times since the start of the explosion sequence;  and the temperature scales (vertical colour bar) show the raw temperatures, without any atmospheric corrections. Images collected using a Jenoptic VarioCAM, from the Protección Civil de Jalisco observatory located beneath the summit of Nevado de Colima, Mexico. 

Further Reading

A Harris, 2013, Thermal remote sensing of active volcanoes, a users manual. Cambridge University Press, 736pp. ISBN 9780521859455

E Webb et al., 2014, Thermal imaging and analysis of short-lived Vulcanian explosions at Volcán de Colima, Mexico, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 278-279, 132-145.

David Pyle is a volcanologist, and Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford. His first encounter with volcanoes was at the age of 7, when he visited Villarrica, Chile, shortly after an eruption. David studied geological sciences at the University of Cambridge, and later completed a PhD on the 'older' eruptions of Santorini, Greece. After a short post-doc at the California Institute of Technology, David returned to a lectureship in Cambridge. In 2006, he moved to his current post in Oxford. David tweets at @davidmpyle


3 Comments

  1. It might help us to know the conditions inside the volcano and even predict it’s eruption so that we could easily prevent any loss.
    ( http://www.scientificbeast.wordpress.com)

    Reply
  2. This is so very cool! Thanks for this great article, and blog overall! 🙂

    Reply
  3. Nice Information .. Thanks for sharing 🙂

    Reply

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