Toward a Better Understanding of Magmatic Processes and Volcanic Hazards at Nyiragongo Volcano, DR Congo

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项目编号	1447750
	Toward a Better Understanding of Magmatic Processes and Volcanic Hazards at Nyiragongo Volcano, DR Congo
	Kenneth W. Sims
主持机构	University of Wyoming
项目开始年	2015
	2015-06-01
项目结束日期	2017-05-31
资助机构	US-NSF
项目类别	Continuing grant
项目经费	167883(USD)
国家	美国
语种	英语
英文摘要	Nyiragongo is a spectacular, active stratovolcano in the Virunga Volcanic Province that towers over the city of Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), and hosts the world's largest lava lake in its summit crater. Its unusual lavas are some of the least viscous on the planet and are capable of moving at velocities of up to tens of kilometers per hour. Nyiragongo is also a dangerous volcano. It looms within 20 km of the major population centers of Goma and neighboring Gisenyi Rwanda, with a combined population of at least 1 million. Destructive eruptions in 1977 and 2002 claimed many lives and devastated infrastructure in this war torn region. The next eruption could prove disastrous in this politically volatile and economically challenged area and there is consequently an urgent need to provide a concrete scientific framework for hazard assessment and risk mitigation at Nyiragongo. There is a dearth of scientific contributions that address magmatic cyclicity at this volcano and thus the primary goal of this research is to provide a temporal structure of past eruptions by age dating lava samples from Nyiragongo's main cone and from peripheral volcanic cones, which are especially dangerous because of their proximity to the population of Goma, with many cones residing within the city limits. Findings will be disseminated to the end-users, the residents of Goma and surroundings. Collaborator Dario Tedesco, who for many years has worked closely with the Goma Volcano Observatory and the United Nations addressing the volcanic hazards in the DR Congo, will facilitate this goal. In addition to this hazard assessment component, this research will focus on basic science queries about the highly unusual lavas that erupt at Nyiragongo. Not only will this study contribute to the understanding of the sources and evolution of lava flows at Nyiragongo, but it will also provide an important end-member in global studies of similar volcanic processes. For all of these reasons, this work will be supported in part by NSF's International Science and Engineering Section. The two explicit goals of this research involve 1) hazard assessment and 2) basic science questions. The primary way in which the first goal will be accomplished is through precise age dating of lava flows and parasitic cones from Nyiragongo using 40Ar/39Ar, 14C, and U decay series isotopes. A more complete temporal framework of past eruptions at Nyiragongo will be gained from these age dates from lavas collected in 2010 and critical new samples from Nyiragongo's lava flows and parasitic cones that will be collected in an ensuing field campaign. The second goal is to enhance basic scientific understanding of the sources, processes and timescales associated with the petrogenesis of the alkaline, silica-undersaturated magmatism at Nyiragongo. These results will then be compared with a separate and parallel study of Nyiragongo's highly active sister volcano Nyamulagira, as well as data from other alkaline volcanic suites around the globe. This goal will be accomplished through the measurement of major- and trace- elements, radiogenic Nd, Sr, Hf and Pb isotopes and both long- and short-lived U and Th decay series isotopes in young, known age lavas collected from Nyiragongo's lava lake in 2010.
来源学科分类	Geosciences - Earth Sciences
文献类型	项目
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.173/C666/handle/2XK7JSWQ/68000
专题	环境与发展全球科技态势
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Kenneth W. Sims.Toward a Better Understanding of Magmatic Processes and Volcanic Hazards at Nyiragongo Volcano, DR Congo.2015.