X-ray tomography and acoustic emissions of in situ, time-resolved magma fracturing: insights into the causes of explosive volcanic eruptions

We propose to use the KORE rig installed at the beamline ID19 at ESRF, coupled with X-ray tomography and acoustic emissions to simulate conditions relevant to magma fracturing prior to and at the onset of explosive volcanic eruptions. We specifically plan to record the in situ, time-resolved evolution of the synthetic magma microstructures and the sound waves produced by sample fracturing at conditions of temperature and stress of magma fragmentation leading to explosive eruptions relevant to shallow (< 4 km depth) magma reservoirs feeding active volcanoes. These results offer the opportunity to better illuminate the causes of explosive eruptions and, with appropriate upscaling, how to apply seismic imaging for detecting the proximity of gas-rich magma to the surface.