Aleutian Volcanic Volatiles Team 2005
Funded by the National Science Foundation Earth Sciences Division,
Petrology & Geochemistry Program with support from PBO/EarthScope
Go to Makushin Volcano
Akutan Volcano:Terry Plank and Kathryn Grover, Boston University
Pete Stelling, University of Alaska, Anchorage
The Akutan Team: Kathryn Grover, Pete Stelling and Terry Plank getting ready
to board the helicopter for Lava Point
Sampling Flow Tops: Pete and Kathryn take samples of therubbly lava flow top at Lava Point.
Collecting Tephra: Kathryn and Pete sample the Akutan tephra, a prominent scoria deposit
produced from the caldera-forming eruption ~ 1600 ybp.
Geologic Map of Akutan with sampling targets. The goal was to collect mafic lapilli tephra (volcanic ash and cinders) to study melt inclusions trapped in olivine and clinopyroxene crystals, in order to measure for the first time the gas content of pre-erupted Akutan magma. Microbeam analysis will permit determination of H2O, CO2, S, Cl and F concentrations, as well as an estimate of the depth of vapor saturation of the magma. These parameters are essential to predicting the eruptive style, the magma dynamics within the volcanic edifice, the melting process in the mantle, and the source of the volatiles in the subduction zone.
Geologic map from Richter et al. (1998), and downloadable from AVO web site
http://www.avo.alaska.edu/volcanoes/volcmap.php?volcname=Akutan
Richter, D. H., Waythomas, C. F., McGimsey, R. G., and Stelling, P. L., 1998, Geologic map of Akutan Island, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report OF 98-0135, 22 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:48,000.