Magmatic degassing at Erta 'Ale volcano, Ethiopia

Here we report measurements of the chemical composition and flux of gas emitted from the central lava lake at Erta 'Ale volcano (Ethiopia) made on 15 October 2005. We determined an average SO2 flux of similar to 0.69 +/- 0.17 kg s(-1) using zenith sky ultraviolet spectroscopy of the plume, and molar proportions of magmatic H2O, CO2, SO2, CO, HCl and HF gases to be 93.58, 3.66, 2.47, 0.06, 0.19 and 0.04%, respectively, by open-path Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry. Together, these data imply fluxes of 73,0.7,0.008,0.03 and 0.004 kg s(-1) for H2O, CO2, CO, HCl and HF, respectively. These are the first FTIR spectroscopic observations at Erta 'Ale, and are also some of the very few gas measurements made at the volcano since the early 1970s (Gerlach, T.M., 1980b. Investigation of volcanic gas analyses and magma outgassing from Erta 'Ale lava lake, Afar, Ethiopia. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 7(3-4): 415-441). We identify significant increases in the proportion of H2O in the plume with respect to both CO2 and SO2 across this 30-year interval, which we attribute to the depletion of volatiles in magma that sourced effusive eruptions during the early 1970s and/or to fractional magma degassing between the two active pit craters located in the summit caldera. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.