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Global time-size distribution of volcanic eruptions on Earth
Volcanic eruptions differ enormously in their size and impacts, ranging from quiet lava flow effusions along the volcano flanks to colossal events with the potential to affect our entire civilization. Knowledge of the time and size distribution of volcanic eruptions is of obvious relevance for under...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Nature Publishing Group UK
2018
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5931572/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29717232 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-25286-y |
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author | Papale, Paolo |
author_facet | Papale, Paolo |
author_sort | Papale, Paolo |
collection | PubMed |
description | Volcanic eruptions differ enormously in their size and impacts, ranging from quiet lava flow effusions along the volcano flanks to colossal events with the potential to affect our entire civilization. Knowledge of the time and size distribution of volcanic eruptions is of obvious relevance for understanding the dynamics and behavior of the Earth system, as well as for defining global volcanic risk. From the analysis of recent global databases of volcanic eruptions extending back to more than 2 million years, I show here that the return times of eruptions with similar magnitude follow an exponential distribution. The associated relative frequency of eruptions with different magnitude displays a power law, scale-invariant distribution over at least six orders of magnitude. These results suggest that similar mechanisms subtend to explosive eruptions from small to colossal, raising concerns on the theoretical possibility to predict the magnitude and impact of impending volcanic eruptions. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5931572 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-59315722018-08-29 Global time-size distribution of volcanic eruptions on Earth Papale, Paolo Sci Rep Article Volcanic eruptions differ enormously in their size and impacts, ranging from quiet lava flow effusions along the volcano flanks to colossal events with the potential to affect our entire civilization. Knowledge of the time and size distribution of volcanic eruptions is of obvious relevance for understanding the dynamics and behavior of the Earth system, as well as for defining global volcanic risk. From the analysis of recent global databases of volcanic eruptions extending back to more than 2 million years, I show here that the return times of eruptions with similar magnitude follow an exponential distribution. The associated relative frequency of eruptions with different magnitude displays a power law, scale-invariant distribution over at least six orders of magnitude. These results suggest that similar mechanisms subtend to explosive eruptions from small to colossal, raising concerns on the theoretical possibility to predict the magnitude and impact of impending volcanic eruptions. Nature Publishing Group UK 2018-05-01 /pmc/articles/PMC5931572/ /pubmed/29717232 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-25286-y Text en © The Author(s) 2018 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Article Papale, Paolo Global time-size distribution of volcanic eruptions on Earth |
title | Global time-size distribution of volcanic eruptions on Earth |
title_full | Global time-size distribution of volcanic eruptions on Earth |
title_fullStr | Global time-size distribution of volcanic eruptions on Earth |
title_full_unstemmed | Global time-size distribution of volcanic eruptions on Earth |
title_short | Global time-size distribution of volcanic eruptions on Earth |
title_sort | global time-size distribution of volcanic eruptions on earth |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5931572/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29717232 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-25286-y |
work_keys_str_mv | AT papalepaolo globaltimesizedistributionofvolcaniceruptionsonearth |