Diffuse degassing monitoring, summit crater Teide volcano, Tenerife

During repose periods, volcanoes can release large amounts of gas as visible (fumaroles, solfataras, plumes) and non-visible (diffuse degassing) emanations.

The surface dynamics of gas emissions are usually controlled by local volcano-tectonics and hydrology, as permeable tectonic structures are the main pathways for the transport of gases to the surface.

Visible (low temperature fumaroles) and non-visible degassing occurs at the summit crater of Teide volcano and the goal of this research is to evaluate short-term variations of diffuse CO2, H2S, He and H2 emanations.

The selected student for this programme will perform field and lab work related to diffuse volcanic degassing monitoring of the summit crater of Teide volcano, Tenerife, Canary Islands.

The student will perform one or two days of field work and three or four days of lab work per week.

During this programme the student will learn how to:

• perform in-situ soil CO2 and H2S efflux measurements
• collect soil gas samples for chemical and isotopic analysis
• apply statistical-graphical analysis on the diffuse degassing survey data
• estimate the total diffuse CO2 and H2S emission from the summit crater of Teide volcano using Gaussian simulations
• perform chemical analysis of the collected soil gas samples by means of micro-chromatography (microGC) and quadrupole mass spectrometry (QMS)