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Gas and Trace Element Emissions at the Lava-Moss interface during the Litli-Hrutur eruption, Iceland 2023.

Laura Wainman1 , Evgenia Ilyinskaya1, Melissa Anne Pfeffer2,Celine Mandon2, Enikö Bali3, Brock Edwards4,5, Barbara Kleine-Marshall6, Sylvia Gudjonsdottir3, Adam Cotterill7, Penny Wieser8, Andri Stefánsson3, Emma Nicholson7,9, J. Sepulveda-Araya1, Sam Hammond10, Barbara Kunz10, Frances Jenner10, Jóhann Gunnarsson3, Alessandro Aiuppa11, M. Burton12, T.A Mather13.

  • Affiliations:  1 School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK. 2 Icelandic Meteorological Office, Reykjavík, Iceland. 3 Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland. 4 Centre for Earth Observation Science, Department of Environment and Geography, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. 5 Geological Survey of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, Canada. 6 GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany 7 Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, London, UK. 8 Earth and Planetary Science, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, USA. 9 School of Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand    10 School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK. 11 Università degli Studi di Palermo, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e del Mare, Palermo, Italy. 12 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK 13 Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.

  • Presentation type: Poster

  • Presentation time: Friday 16:30 - 18:00, Room Poster Hall

  • Poster Board Number: 248

  • Programme No: 3.17.26

  • Theme 3 > Session 17

Abstract

During the 2023 Litli-Hrutur eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland, extensive lava flows resulted in the ignition and burning of vegetation surrounding the eruption site. The subsequent moss wildfires were the largest on historical record in Iceland, and generated sufficient air pollution that the eruption site was temporarily closed to members of the public. Whilst the end-member compositions of emissions from lava and vegetation burning have been studied previously, there has been limited investigation into the physicochemical processes and resulting emissions when burning occurs at the interface between them. Volcanic emissions are known to release both gases (such as H2O, SO2, CO2, HCl, and HF) and trace metal and metalloid elements (including environmental contaminants Pb, As, Cu, and Cd) to the atmosphere. Where burning occurs at the interface with vegetation, however, additional elements and ligands may be available for volatilitisation from the organic plant matter. This study investigates the chemical composition of emissions from the lava-moss interface using drone and ground-based sampling approaches (filter packs, SKC Impactors, MultiGAS) as well as using automated SEM Feature analysis to apportion the source of particulate matter (PM) at different locations and altitudes downwind at the eruption site. High resolution SEM images also reveal the physical interactions between lava and vegetation-generated particulate matter whilst in the plume. Lava-generated PM has greater potential for long range transport in the atmosphere, whilst PM derived from vegetation burning contributed to more localised and ground-based pollution. This has implications for human exposure to pollutants during active eruptions.