Globally Significant CO2 Emissions From Katla, a Subglacial Volcano in Iceland

Evgenia Ilyinskaya; Stephen Mobbs; Ralph Burton; Mike Burton; Federica Pardini; Melissa Anne Pfeffer; Ruth Purvis; James Lee; Stéphane Bauguitte; Barbara Brooks; Ioana Colfescu; Gudrun Nina Petersen; Axel Wellpott; Baldur Bergsson

doi:10.1029/2018GL079096

Globally Significant CO₂ Emissions From Katla, a Subglacial Volcano in Iceland

Evgenia Ilyinskaya^*, Stephen Mobbs, Ralph Burton, Mike Burton, Federica Pardini, Melissa Anne Pfeffer, Ruth Purvis, James Lee, Stéphane Bauguitte, Barbara Brooks, Ioana Colfescu, Gudrun Nina Petersen, Axel Wellpott, Baldur Bergsson

^*Corresponding author for this work

Chemistry

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Volcanoes are a key natural source of CO₂, but global estimates of volcanic CO₂ flux are predominantly based on measurements from a fraction of world's actively degassing volcanoes. We combine high-precision airborne measurements from 2016 and 2017 with atmospheric dispersion modeling to quantify CO₂ emissions from Katla, a major subglacial volcanic caldera in Iceland that last erupted 100 years ago but has been undergoing significant unrest in recent decades. Katla's sustained CO₂ flux, 12–24 kt/d, is up to an order of magnitude greater than previous estimates of total CO₂ release from Iceland's natural sources. Katla is one of the largest volcanic sources of CO₂ on the planet, contributing up to 4% of global emissions from nonerupting volcanoes. Further measurements on subglacial volcanoes worldwide are urgently required to establish if Katla is exceptional, or if there is a significant previously unrecognized contribution to global CO₂ emissions from natural sources.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	10,332-10,341
Number of pages	10
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
Volume	45
Issue number	19
Early online date	17 Sept 2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL079096
Publication status	Published - 16 Oct 2018

Bibliographical note

©2018. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.

Keywords

carbon dioxide
global CO budget
Icelandic volcano
Katla
subglacial volcanism
volcanic gas

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10.1029/2018GL079096

Ilyinskaya_et_al-2018-Geophysical_Research_Letters
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Cite this

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abstract = "Volcanoes are a key natural source of CO2, but global estimates of volcanic CO2 flux are predominantly based on measurements from a fraction of world's actively degassing volcanoes. We combine high-precision airborne measurements from 2016 and 2017 with atmospheric dispersion modeling to quantify CO2 emissions from Katla, a major subglacial volcanic caldera in Iceland that last erupted 100 years ago but has been undergoing significant unrest in recent decades. Katla's sustained CO2 flux, 12–24 kt/d, is up to an order of magnitude greater than previous estimates of total CO2 release from Iceland's natural sources. Katla is one of the largest volcanic sources of CO2 on the planet, contributing up to 4% of global emissions from nonerupting volcanoes. Further measurements on subglacial volcanoes worldwide are urgently required to establish if Katla is exceptional, or if there is a significant previously unrecognized contribution to global CO2 emissions from natural sources.",

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AU - Lee, James

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AU - Brooks, Barbara

AU - Colfescu, Ioana

AU - Petersen, Gudrun Nina

AU - Wellpott, Axel

AU - Bergsson, Baldur

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Globally Significant CO₂ Emissions From Katla, a Subglacial Volcano in Iceland

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James D Lee

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Globally Significant CO2 Emissions From Katla, a Subglacial Volcano in Iceland

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James D Lee

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Globally Significant CO₂ Emissions From Katla, a Subglacial Volcano in Iceland