Jacopo Taddeucci

National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology | INGV · Section of Seismology and Tectonophysics

Plain Language Summary Volcanoes are amongst the most fascinating and mysterious subjects of science, for they allow no direct observation of what is happening within the conduit during eruptive activity. Indirect observations (such as measurements of the sound and vibration accompanying eruptions) are routinely performed for monitoring and researc...

The explosive activity of the 2021 Tajogaite eruption eludes pigeonholing into well‐defined eruption styles, with a variety of pyroclast ejection modes occurring both alternately and simultaneously at multiple vents. Visually, we defined four endmembers of explosive activity, referred to as fountaining, spattering, ash‐poor jets and ash‐rich jets....

Volcanic explosions are inherently dynamic events, modulated by the vent from which they erupt, yet their eruptive activity modulates vent geometry. Constructive and destructive processes may take place simultaneously or alternate on short time scales. Here we show these processes qualitatively and quantitatively by using Uncrewed Aerial Systems (U...

Exposure to fine-grained particulate matter (sub-10 μm, i.e., PM10) is associated with adverse health effects. Compared to explosive eruptions, limited studies have been conducted on the products of low explosivity events (e.g., lava fountains, strombolian eruptions) as they generally generate rather coarsegrained deposits. Yet, reworking of tephra...

Blasting experiments were performed that investigate multiple explosions that occur in quick succession in unconsolidated ground and their effects on host material and atmosphere. Such processes are known to occur during phreatomagmatic eruptions at various depths, lateral locations, and energies. The experiments follow a multi‐instrument approach...

Tajogaite cone in the Cumbre Vieja ridge (La Palma, Canary Islands) erupted between 19 September and 13 December 2021. The tephra and lava sourced from the newly formed fissure rapidly built a pyroclastic cone. During the early days of eruption and after several small-scale landslides, the west flank of the edifice partially collapsed on 25 Septemb...

Identifying accurate topographic variations associated with volcanic eruptions plays a key role in obtaining information on eruptive parameters, volcano structure, input data for volcano processes modelling, and civil protection and recovery actions. The 2021 eruption of Cumbre Vieja volcano is the largest eruptive event in the recorded history for...

Digital surface model of the Cumbre Vieja new volcano edifice and lava flows (La Palma, Spain) as of 27 September 2021, produced from 915 UAS derived aerial photographs using the Structure-from-Motion method. The 2021 eruption of Cumbre Vieja volcano is the largest eruptive event in recorded history for La Palma Island (Canary Island, Spain). Over...

Volcanic lightning is commonly observed in explosive volcanic eruptions of Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) > 2 and can be detected remotely providing real-time volcano monitoring information. However, little is known about the electrical activity accompanying the lower-magnitude spectrum of explosive eruptions, often involving mafic magmas. We nar...

During September-December 2021, the Cumbre Vieja eruption (La Palma, Canary Islands) was characterised by simultaneous explosive and effusive activity (Longpré, 2021; Pankhurst et al., 2021). The eruption produced a ~200 m high complex pyroclastic cone (Romero et al., 2022). A series of syn-eruptive lateral collapses modified the edifice morphology...

Between 19 September and 13 December 2021 (85 days), a flank eruption took place along the Cumbre Vieja ridge (La Palma Island), one of the most active volcanic centers of Canary Islands. The last 7000 years of Cumbre Vieja activity has been characterized by a combination of effusive and explosive eruptions. These generated both cinder cones and la...

In the period February–April 2021, seventeen energetic hours-long episodes of intense lava fountaining occurred at Mt. Etna, producing lava flows and ash plumes followed by heavy fallout. Clinopyroxene mesocrysts from these paroxysms show complex sector and concentric zoning patterns, with juxtaposition of Si-Mg-rich (Al-Ti-poor) and Si-Mg-poor (Al...

Digital surface model of the Cumbre Vieja new volcano edifice and lava flows (La Palma, Spain) produced from 9970 UAS derived aerial photographs using the Structure-from-Motion method. The 2021 eruption of Cumbre Vieja volcano is the largest eruptive event in recorded history for La Palma Island (Canary Island, Spain). Over almost 3 months (Septemb...

On 19 September 2021, a new eruption began at Cumbre Vieja volcano, La Palma (Canary Islands). The ~1.0 km-length erupting fissure progressed into a cone-building phase characterised by lava effusion, strombolian activity, lava fountaining, ash venting and gas jetting. Four field surveys on the tephra fallout deposit were carried out on 22-30 Septe...

Blasting experiments were performed that investigate multiple explosions that occur in quick succession in the ground and their effects on host material and atmosphere. Such processes are known to occur during volcanic eruptions at various depths, lateral locations, and energies. The experiments follow a multi-instrument approach in order to observ...

Volcanic eruptions often emit high-velocity gas-particle jets. Characterizing these jets in real-time is challenging but important, as their properties may control eruption-related hazards and consequences. The sound produced by sustained explosive eruptions, key to volcano monitoring, have been found spectrally similar to audible sounds produced b...

A14I-05 Intense electrical activity and lightning is a common phenomenon during ash-rich explosive volcanic eruptions of typically ≥VEI-3, as solid silicate particles play an important role in plume electrification. Volcanic lightning can be detected instantaneously and remotely, providing new ways of ash early warning systems. However, little is k...

By injecting a mixture of gas and pyroclasts into the atmosphere, explosive volcanic eruptions frequently generate vortex rings, which are toroidal vortices formed by the jet's initial momentum. Here, we report high-speed imaging and acoustic measurements of vortex rings sourcing from gas-rich eruptive jets at Stromboli volcano (Italy). Volcanic vo...

In July and August 2019, two paroxysmal eruptions dramatically changed the morphology of the crater terrace that hosts the active vents of Stromboli volcano (Italy). Here, we document these morphological changes, by using 2259 UAS-derived photographs from eight surveys and Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetric techniques, resulting in 3D poin...

In 2019, Stromboli volcano experienced one of the most violent eruptive crises in the last hundred years. Two paroxysmal explosions interrupted the ‘normal’ mild explosive activity during the tourist season. Here we integrate visual and field observations, textural and chemical data of eruptive products, and numerical simulations to analyze the eru...

Active volcanoes are typically subject to frequent substantial topographic changes as well as variable eruption intensity, style and/or directionality. Gravitational instabilities and local accumulation of pyroclasts affect conditions at the active vents, through which gas-particle jets are released. In turn, the vent geometry strongly impacts the...

The eruption of basaltic magmas dominates explosive volcanism on Earth and other planets within the Solar System. The mechanism through which continuous magma fragments into volcanic particles is central in governing eruption dynamics and the ensuing hazards. However, the mechanism of fragmentation of basaltic magmas is still disputed, with both vi...

The rise of the Halemaʻumaʻu lava lake in 2013–2018 to depths commonly 40 meters or less below the rim of the vent was an excellent opportunity to study outgassing and the link to associated eruptive activity. We use videography to investigate the rise and bursting of bubbles through the free surface of the lake in 2015. We focus on low-energy expl...

Batu Tara is an active but poorly studied volcano located in the Lesser Sunda Archipelago (Indonesia). Its last known long-lasting eruptive phase, dating 2006–2015, was characterised by frequent, short-lived explosions, similar in style and magnitude to those of the well monitored Stromboli volcano (Italy). On September 2014, we collected high-freq...

Multiparametric observations integrate signals from different techniques into a unified time and space frame, and are key in understanding and monitoring the evolution of volcanic systems and eruptive activity. Mafic explosive eruptions, with a relatively high frequency of occurrence and low intensity, allow for detailed multiparametric observation...

Most basaltic explosive eruptions intensify abruptly, allowing little time to document processes at the start of eruption. One opportunity came with the initiation of activity from fissure 8 (F8) during the 2018 eruption on the lower East Rift Zone of Kīlauea, Hawaii. F8 erupted in four episodes. We recorded 28 min of high‐definition video during a...

The resuspension of volcanic ash by wind is a significant source of hazard during and after volcanic eruptions. Parameterizing and modeling ash resuspension requires direct measurement of the minimum wind shear stress required to move particles, usually expressed as the threshold friction velocity U * th , a parameter that, for volcanic ash, has be...

In a Strombolian volcanic eruption, bursting of a pressurized gas pocket accelerates a mixture of gas and pyroclasts along a conduit and out of a vent. While mixture ejection at the vent is the subject of direct geophysical measurements, and a key to eruption understanding, the dynamics of how the mixture moves in the conduit are not observable and...

Basaltic volcanism is the most widespread volcanic activity on Earth and planetary bodies. On Earth, eruptions can impact global and regional climate, and threaten populations living in their shadow, through a combination of ash, gas and lava. Ash emissions are a very typical manifestation of basaltic activity; however, despite their frequency of o...

Explosive volcanic eruptions are comparably short-lived events with potentially catastrophic consequences and long-term impact. Volcanic hazard assessment relies on detailed mechanistic understanding of the associated physical processes (magma ascent, priming, and eventually fragmentation), which are not directly observable. A series of acoustic an...

Volcanic jets are frequent among a variety of explosive activity styles, including the Strombolian one. Despite this acknowledged role, jet dynamics and their consequences on volcanic eruptions are still largely unexplored. In 2018 we used high-speed imaging and acoustic recordings to document volcanic jets at Stromboli volcano (Italy), with partic...

The high temporal resolution of the Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI) instrument aboard Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) provides the opportunity to investigate eruptive processes and discriminate different styles of volcanic activity. To this goal, a new detection method based on the wavelet transform of SEVIRI infrared data i...

Transient volcanic plumes are time-dependent features generated by unsteady eruptive sources, having similar eruption duration and plume development timescales. Their morphological evolution reflects both the discharge history at the vent and air entrainment, crucial parameters controlling volcanic ash dispersal and impact on the environment and hu...

Ash deposited during volcanic eruptions can be resuspended by wind and become hazardous for health and infrastructure hours to decades after an eruption. Accurate resuspension forecasting requires accurate modelling of the threshold friction velocity of the volcanic particles (Uth*), which is the key parameter controlling volcanic ash detachment by...

The crater terrace of Stromboli Volcano (Italy) hosts several active vents which have evolved and migrated through time within three main vent areas: south-west (SW), central (C), and north-east (NE). Frequent, jet-like explosions typically take place, episodically interrupted by larger-scale paroxysms, which can substantially modify the morphology...

Transient volcanic plumes, typically generated by Strombolian and Vulcanian eruptions, are time-dependent features characterized by rise and development time scales similar to the eruption duration. Their dynamical and morphological properties are thus strongly related to the source conditions and evolution over time. In this study, the initial dyn...

Stromboli is a persistently active volcano, characterised predominantly by the intermittent ejection of gas and large, incandescent pyroclasts. Multiple active vents occupy a relatively flat area (hereafter called crater terrace) about 100 meters below the Pizzo vantage point at the summit of the volcano. Eruptions from the different summit vents c...

Explosive volcanic eruptions eject a mixture of rock/magma fragments and gases. Ground-based eruption imaging, combining thermal infrared, high-speed visible, and ultraviolet videos, can parameterize ejection dynamics and gas/fragment ratios at the seconds and centimeter

Transient volcanic plumes, having similar eruption duration and rise time scales, characterize many unsteady Strombolian to Vulcanian eruptions. Despite being more common, such plumes are less studied than their steady state counterpart from stronger eruptions. Here, we investigate the initial dynamics of transient volcanic plumes using high-speed...

Processes occurring in volcanic conduits, the pathways through which magma travels from its storage region to the surface, have a fundamental control on the nature of eruptions and associated phenomena. It has been well established that magma flows, crystallizes, degasses, and fragments in conduits, that fluids migrate in and out of conduits, and t...

An unmanned aerial vehicle provided the high-resolution data that allowed scientists to construct their first detailed map of erupting vents at Stromboli, one of the world’s most active volcanoes. Full Article: https://eos.org/project-updates/drone-peers-into-open-volcanic-vents

Transient volcanic plumes, typically generated by Strombolian and Vulcanian eruptions, are time-dependent features characterized by rise and development time scales similar to the eruption duration. Their dynamical properties are thus strongly related to the source conditions and evolution over time. In this study, the initial dynamics of transient...

Pyroclast ejection during explosive volcanic eruptions occurs under highly dynamic conditions involving great variations in flux, particle sizes and velocities. This variability must be a direct consequence of complex interactions between physical and chemical parameters inside the volcanic plumbing system. The boundary conditions of such phenomena...

Centimeter to meter-sized volcanic ballistic projectiles from explosive eruptions jeopardize people and properties kilometers from the volcano, but they also provide information about past eruptions. Traditionally, projectile trajectory is modeled using simplified ballistic theory, accounting for gravity and drag forces only and assuming simply-sha...

On 5 July 2014, an eruptive fissure opened on the eastern flank of Etna volcano (Italy) at ~3.000 m a.s.l. Strombolian activity and lava effusion occurred simultaneously at two neighbouring vents. In the following weeks, eruptive activity led to the build-up of two cones, tens of meters high, here named Crater N and Crater S. To characterize the s...

The April to May 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull (Iceland) volcano was characterized by a large compositional variability of erupted products. To contribute to the understanding of the plumbing system dynamics of this volcano, we present new EMPA and LA-ICP-MS data on groundmass glasses of ash particles and minerals erupted between April 15 and 2...

Pyroclast ejection dynamics during explosive volcanic eruptions are highly variable. This variability is due to complex interaction among different parameters, which define the boundary conditions for a certain eruption. Scaled and controlled laboratory experiments come in hand to characterize the effect of specific physical parameters on the eject...

Transient volcanic plumes are time-dependent features generated by unstable eruptive sources. They represent a threat to human health and infrastructures, and a challenge to characterize due to their intrinsic instability. Plumes have been investigated through physical (e.g. visible, thermal, UV, radar imagery), experimental and numerical studies i...

Interactions with volcanic gases in eruption plumes produce soluble salt deposits on the surface of volcanic ash. While it has been postulated that saturation-driven precipitation of salts following the dissolution of ash surfaces by condensed acidic liquids is a primary mechanism of salt formation during an eruption, it is only recently that this...

Puffing, i.e., the frequent (1 s ca.) release of small (0.1–10 m³), over-pressurized pockets of magmatic gases, is a typical feature of open-conduit basaltic volcanoes worldwide. Despite its non-trivial contribution to the degassing budget of these volcanoes and its recognized role in volcano monitoring, detection and metering tools for puffing are...

Strombolian eruptions are amongst the most common subaerial explosive volcanism worldwide. Distinctive features of each volcano lead to a correspondingly wide range of variations of magnitude and erupted products, but most papers focus on a single type of event at a single volcano. Here, in order to emphasize the common features underlying this div...

Most of the current ash transport and dispersion models neglect particle-fluid (two-way) and particle-fluid plus particle-particle (four-way) reciprocal interactions during particle fallout from volcanic plumes. These interactions, a function of particle concentration in the plume, could play an important role, explaining, for example, discrepancie...

The April-May 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull (Iceland) volcano was characterized by a large compositional variability of erupted products. In order to contribute to the understanding of the plumbing system dynamics of this volcano, we present new EMPA and LA-ICP-MS data on groundmass glasses of ash particles erupted between April 15th and 22nd....

Volcanic processes occur in a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. However, a key step of magma ascent is recognizable in the dynamics of gas and magma in the shallow plumbing system, where volatiles play a fundamental role in controlling the eruptive style. With the aim of investigating shallow degassing processes, an experimental setup was...

Imaging, in general, and high speed imaging in particular are important emerging tools for the study of explosive volcanic eruptions. However, traditional 2-D video observations cannot measure volcanic ejecta motion toward and away from the camera, strongly hindering our capability to fully determine crucial hazard-related parameters such as explos...

Volcanic processes occur in a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. However, a key step of magma ascent is recognizable in the dynamics of gas and magma in the shallow plumbing system, where volatiles play a fundamental role in controlling the eruptive style. With the aim of investigating shallow degassing processes, an experimental setup was...

We present new ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar data which allow us to refine the recurrence time for the most recent eruptive activity occurred at Colli Albani Volcanic District (CAVD) and constrain its geographic area. Time elapsed since the last eruption (36 kyr) overruns the recurrence time (31 kyr) in the last 100 kyr. New interferometric synthetic aperture radar da...

On 5th July 2014 an eruptive fissure (hereafter referred to as EF) opened at the base of NorthEast Crater (NEC) of Mt. Etna. EF produced both Strombolian explosions and lava effusion. Thanks to the multiparametric experiment planned in the framework of MEDSUV project, we had the chance to acquire geophysical and volcanological data, in order to inv...

Two main end-members of eruptive regimes are identified from analyses of high-speed videos collected at Stromboli volcano (Italy), based on vent conditions: one where the vent is completely clogged by debris, and a second where the vent is open, without any cover. By detailing the vent processes for each regime, we provide the first account of how...

The weakest explosive volcanic eruptions globally, Strombolian explosions and Hawaiian fountaining, are also the most common. Yet, despite over a hundred years of observations, no classifications have offered a convincing, quantitative way of demarcating these two styles. New observations show that the two styles are distinct in their eruptive time...

Hawaiian and Strombolian eruption styles are characteristic of silica-poor, low viscosity magmas and represent the most frequent manifestations of explosive volcanism on Earth. In these eruption styles, the violent release of relatively large volumes of magma decoupled from the melt ejects coarse, still molten pyroclasts. Strombolian eruptions invo...