Aaron Curtis

NASA

The ice giant planets, Uranus and Neptune, are fundamentally different from the gas giant and terrestrial planets. Though ice giants represent the most common size of exoplanet and possess characteristics that challenge our understanding of the way our solar system formed and evolved, they remain the only class of planetary object without a dedicat...

The chemistry of gases measured in ice caves and from warm geothermal ground at Erebus volcano, Antarctica, shows that gas emissions are dominated by air, with varying amounts of added volcanic CO2. This suggests widespread circulation of air through the volcanic edifice, as well as spatially or temporally varying contributions from magmatic degass...

Resuming erupting activity at volcanoes that have been long quiescent poses a significant challenge to hazard assessment, as it require assessment of whether the change in activity is an isolated event or the beginning of a new eruptive sequence. Such inception is often poorly characterised as quiescent volcanoes tend to be poorly equipped and not...

Enceladus Vent Explorer (EVE) is a robotic mission to enter Enceladus vents. It would send two types of modules: Surface Module (SM) and Descent Module (DM). SM is a lander that lands within a few hundred meters from the entrance of an erupting vent. After a successful landing, it deploys a single or multiple DMs. First, a DM moves to a vent and de...

Emission of volcanic gas is thought to be the dominant process by which volatiles transit from the deep earth to the atmosphere. Volcanic gas emissions, remain poorly constrained, and volcanoes of Peru are entirely absent from the current global dataset. In Peru, Sabancaya and Ubinas volcanoes are by far the largest sources of volcanic gas. Here, w...

Stable isotopes of carbon and oxygen in volcanic gases are key tracers of volatile transfer between Earth’s interior and atmosphere. Although important, these data are available for few volcanoes because they have traditionally been difficult to obtain and are usually measured on gas samples collected from fumaroles. We present new field measuremen...

Emission of volcanic gas is thought to be the dominant process by which volatiles transit from the deep earth to the atmosphere. Volcanic gas emissions, remain poorly constrained, and volcanoes of Peru are entirely absent from the current global dataset. In Peru, Sabancaya and Ubinas volcanoes are by far the largest sources of volcanic gas. Here, w...

We present here the first volcanic gas compositional time-series taken prior to a paroxysmal eruption of Villarrica volcano (Chile). Our gas plume observations were obtained using a fully autonomous Multi-component Gas Analyser System (Multi-GAS) in the 3 month-long phase of escalating volcanic activity that culminated into the 3 March 2015 paroxys...

The proximity of the major city of Arequipa to El Misti has focused attention on the hazards posed by the active volcano. Since its last major eruption in the fifteenth century, El Misti has experienced a series of modest phreatic eruptions and fluctuating fumarolic activity. Here, we present the first measurements of the compositions of gas emitte...

The proximity of the major city of Arequipa to El Misti has focused attention on the hazards posed by the active volcano. Since its last major eruption in the fifteenth century, El Misti has experienced a series of modest phreatic eruptions and fluctuating fumarolic activity. Here, we present the first measurements of the compositions of gas emitte...

We present here the first volcanic gas compositional time-series taken prior to a paroxysmal eruption of Villarrica volcano (Chile). Our gas plume observations were obtained using a fully autonomous Multi-component Gas Analyser System (Multi-GAS) in the 3 month-long phase of escalating volcanic activity that culminated into the 3 March 2015 paroxys...

The most deadly (Nevado del Ruiz, 1985) and the most costly (Eyjafjallajökull, 2010) eruptions of the last 100 years were both glaciovolcanic. Considering its great importance to studies of volcanic hazards, global climate, and even astrobiology, the global distribution of glaciovolcanism is insufficiently understood. We present and assess three al...

Stable isotopes of carbon and oxygen in volcanic gases are key tracers of volatile transfer between Earth's interior and atmosphere. Although important, these data are available for few volcanoes because they have traditionally been difficult to obtain and are usually measured on gas samples collected from fumaroles. We present new field measuremen...

The goal of this work is to develop a new autonomous capability for remotely deploying precisely located sensor nodes without damaging the sensor nodes in the process. Over the course of the last decade there has been significant interest in research to deploy sensor networks. This research is driven by the fact that the costs associated with insta...

The goal of this work is to develop a new autonomous capability for remotely deploying precisely located sensor nodes without damaging the sensor nodes in the process. Over the course of the last decade there has been significant interest in research to deploy sensor networks. This research is driven by the fact that the costs associated with insta...

Degassing of CO2 on the flanks of the active Erebus volcano is thought to occur mainly through fumarolic ice caves (FIC) and associated fumarolic ice towers. There is also minor CO2 degassing from isolated areas of warm ground. The mechanism supplying heat and CO2 gas into the FIC is poorly understood. To investigate this system, a fiber optic dist...