Volcanoes are commonly imagined as magma chambers represented by the simple “ball and stick” model (Figure 1a). However, magma reservoirs are much more complex and consist of a vertically extensive network of reservoirs that often have different temperatures, chemistries, and other physical properties (Figure 1b). Magma in this network of reservoirs can ascend, cool, and mix with other reservoirs and trigger an eruption (Caricchi et al., 2021).

Volcanic hazards can be constrained through physical and geochemical analysis of minerals and quenched glasses in tephra (i.e., any sort of ejecta deposited from an explosive eruption). Volcanic eruptions can be hazardous and explosive events that are directly influenced by the processes of magma mixing of these complex reservoirs beneath the surface. Understanding the connection between magmatic reservoir evolution and eruption style is key to determining the potential for a hazardous eruption.

My M.S. thesis uses geochemical methods to understand the connection between chemical and physical properties of a magma reservoir system at Augustine Volcano (Alaska, USA, Figure 2). This volcano is an ideal workspace to address the link between reservoir dynamics and volcanic explosivity because it is active and has a history of a variety of eruptive personalities. My work will better constrain magma reservoir evolution beneath Augustine by analyzing the geochemistry of minerals and glasses in Late Holocene pumice clasts and constrain the parameters that potentially made this past eruption more explosive and hazardous than recently observed eruptions.

Check out Dr. Walowski's research page to learn more about what our lab group ERVPT (The Evergreen State's Research in Volcanology and Petrology Team) is up to.