[Rockhounds] Long dormant volcanoes can erupt rapidly and explosively, says Ciomadul study

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Can a volcano erupt after tens of thousands of years of dormancy? If so,
how can this be explained and what makes volcanic eruptions more dangerous?

These are key questions in volcanic hazard assessment and can also draw
attention to volcanoes that appear to be inactive. Even in a quiet, dormant
phase, a volcano <https://phys.org/tags/volcano/> can rapidly become
active, and its eruption <https://phys.org/tags/eruption/> can pose a
previously unknown threat to the surrounding area. New research by
Hungarian scientists is helping to reveal the signs before such a volcano
erupts.

A team from the ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Institute of Geography and
Earth Sciences, and the HUN-REN-ELTE Volcanology Research Group, in
cooperation with other scientists from Europe, studied Ciomadul, the
youngest volcano in the Carpathian-Pannonian region.

Using high-resolution integrated mineral texture and chemical composition
<https://phys.org/tags/chemical+composition/> data, they quantified the
conditions of magma <https://phys.org/tags/magma/> evolution, reconstructed
the architecture of the subvolcanic magma reservoir, identified the
characteristics of the resident crystal mush and the recharge magmas, which
triggered the eruptions, and explained why volcanic activity in the last
active period became predominantly explosive.

https://phys.org/news/2023-12-dormant-volcanoes-erupt-rapidly-explosively.html