A New Estimate of Gas Emissions from Ebeko Volcano, Kurile Islands

Abstract

Concentrations and emission rates of major gas species were measured in August 2015 at Ebeko volcano, a quiescently degassing andesitic volcano on Paramushir Island, Northern Kuriles. Using mobile and scanning DOAS measurements we estimated SO 2 emission from the active crater of the volcano at 100 +36/-15 t/d. Based on the comparison of plume areas of individual fumaroles, ca. 90% of the total gas emission from Ebeko in 2015 was provided by a single powerful vent (" Active Funnel " fumarole) and the rest was shared among low-temperature fumaroles. At the time of measurements, gases from the main fumarole had temperature from 420 to 490 °C and composition close to the average arc gas [1], as shown in Table. Gas species CO2 SO2 H2S HCl H2O T, °C mmol/mol Main fumarole 27.9 23.5 6.1 5.6 936 420 Low-temp. jets 92.2 2.62 0.68 1.6 902 <120 Low-temperature fumaroles (<120 °C) emitted gas enriched in CO 2 (up to 28 mol%, 9.2 mol% on average). Such CO 2 enrichment together with depletion in HCl and sulfur species can be explained by scrubbing of soluble gas species by a well-developed hydrothermal system which discharges ultra-acid SO 4-Cl waters [2]. A weighted-average estimate of the total gas+vapor emission from the Ebeko summit provided 1470 t/d, which includes ~ 101 t/d SO2, ~ 110 t/d CO2, ~ 14 t/d H2S and HCl, and 1230 t/d of water vapour with > 50% of the magmatic component. The gas fluxes measured in August 2015 using DOAS fall into the range of previous measurements made from 1960 to 2012 that used direct methods [2] and correspond to the moderate degassing rate of the volcano.