Is everything we know about the humans wrong ? Was the Black Death distribute by fleas on human being , not rats ? Is human memory a occasion of avirus - like infection400 million year ago ? Is Mount Etna not a proper volcano ?
That last one , by the means , is good manners of a controversial newEarth - Science Reviewspaper , first spotted byNew Scientist . Penned by the University of Catania ’s Carmelo Ferlito , an associate prof of vulcanology , it suggests that Etna is more like a hot spring , perhaps like those you ’d obtain in Yellowstone National Park .
One major caveat at this stage : the paper does n’t appear to seriously advise that Etna is n’t a real vent , despite its title : Mount Etna volcano ( Italy ) . Just a giant spicy spring!It ’s a more or less provocative examination of Etna , one that ’s jolly designed to play up how little we understand about how it works .
So what does it really say ?
Etna has wad of eruption styles , including effusive lava flowing , sudden water - magma blasts , and ash tree column - generating explosion . What Ferlito ’s paper zeroes in on is that it ’s incredibly colicky .
Gas bubblesexsolvefrom the magma as it grow and the confining pressure lessens . This gas is normally hive away as dissolved volatiles – mostly water – in a shallowmagma bedroom , and there are distinctive gas - magma ratios that volcanologists expect to see , ordinarily about 50 - 50 , give or take .
Ferlito argues that Etna ’s proportion is skewed . His calculations on pre - existent data suggest that “ Mount Etna erupts 10 time the maximum H2O that could be dissolve in magma . ” Simply put , he suspect there ’s not enough magma there to contain that much break up gas .
From this , he suggests that the plumbing system beneath Etna is made up of 70 percent supercritical piddle , with some CO2and sulfur compounds – where discrete gas and liquid phases do n’t live – and just 30 percent basaltic magma .
To put it artlessly , Etna is an highly burp - prone volcano , one with an “ excess degassing problem ” .
“ The Etnean volcano work in a exchangeable way to a gigantic live leap , with huge amounts of ‘ hot water ’ and other gasses constantly rise up through the lithosphere of easterly Sicily , ” Ferlito added , explain that this blistering water is what transfer magma up from the depths .
( He also compare Etna to a “ pestiferous exhaust pipe ” , total that he meant no disrespect . )
It ’s a gripping account for Etna ’s overly gassy nature , although a few volcanologists I ’ve spoken to stay unconvinced . They summon a lack of geophysical and geochemical grounds to back up these claims .
Regardless of its validity , it does n’t make Etna a non - volcano , though .
definition in vulcanology can be somewhatdebatable ; even what ’s take to be an extravasation is questionable . you may get a “ phreatic eruption ” – one in which pressurize steam eruption vapor and dust up into the air – but many would argue that ’s not a existent blast .
For it to be real , you need a magmatic component to scarper . In aphreatomagmatic eruption , for example , vapor , debris , andlava blebs are observed .
Each volcano is unique , and no two erupt the same . They all do one thing on affair , though , and that ’s break through some lava or unexampled volcanic production up to the surface . Hot spring – themselves not properly defined – do n’t pass off lava , even if they are ( often ) heated by shallow magma in the first place .
University College London ’s ProfessorBill McGuire , a geophysicist and geological risk expert , harmonise . Although the newspaper provides “ interesting unexampled information , ” he severalise IFLScience that , disregarding , “ if it search like a volcano , and behaves like a vent , it is a volcano ! ”
“ If it erupts liquified stone then it is a vent , ” he added .
Ferlito told IFLScience that “ the provocative effect must have really worked ” for citizenry to be interested in the paper . He say that the objective of the paper was to highlight Etna ’s weird gas - magma ratio , and suggest an account for it .
“ In parliamentary law to account for those turn I had to envisage a totally young concept of magma , ” he explained , but acknowledges that more datum is needed to make a working model of Etna found on this new paradigm .
“ The comparison with the red-hot leap is mostly to point out the larger amount of pee and other flatulency species [ compared to the magma ] . ”
So rest assured : Etna is still a “ right ” volcano , albeit one we do n’t have a proper intellect of just yet .
