Preliminary Results on the 2015 Eruption of Wolf Volcano, Isabela Island, Galápagos: Chronology, Dispersion of the Volcanic Products, and Insight into the Eruptive Dynamics

Abstract:

After 33 years of quiescence, Wolf volcano, located in the northernmost tip of Isabela Island (Galápagos Islands, Ecuador), started a new eruption on May 25, 2015. The first signs of activity were recorded at 5:50 UTC (23:50 on May 24, Local Time in Galápagos) by a seismic station installed on Fernandina island. The first visual observation was reported at 7:38 UTC (1:38 LT). Based on amateur film footage, the vent was a >800 m-long circumferential fissure that produced a >100 m-high lava curtain. The eruption also released a 15 km-high gas plume with a large amount of SO₂ and minimal ash content. Lightning was observed in the plume but not near the vent. Due to complex wind directions at high altitude, the gas cloud drifted in all directions eventually coming toward the continent and producing an extremely small ashfall in Quito that was detected only through the use of homemade ashmeters. The ash sample included lava droplets, scoria, and one small fragment of reticulite, indicating high lava fountaining during the first days of the eruption. The active vents on the circumferential fissure, initially located on the SE side of the caldera outer rim, moved progressively northward, eventually extending for a total of 2 km. One week later on June 02, satellite imagery (OMI, GOME, MODIS) documented decreased volcanic activity, leaving two new lava fields covering over 17 km² on the SE (10 km-long and up to 2 km-wide) and E (7 km-long and up to 1 km-wide, reaching the sea) flanks of the volcano. Volcanic activity resumed on June 11, and on June 13 it shifted into the caldera, apparently emerging from a fissure close to the vent from the 1982 eruption, about 4 km W of the circumferential fissure. This new lava flow covered approximately 3.5 km² of the caldera floor. Finally, volcanic activity waned at the end of June and appeared to have ended by July 11, accounting for one of the largest eruptions in the Galápagos since 1968 based on remote sensing.