Abstract

Volatile elements, whilst only making up a few weight per cent of magma, have a dominant effect on the evolution of magma chemistry, buoyancy and the fluid dynamics of mixing processes and eruption. Volcanoes are a critical part of the global geochemical cycling of volatiles from the interior of the Earth to the atmosphere and back again into the mantle. Volcanic emissions have shaped the composition of our atmosphere and over geological time have controlled climate and constrained the evolution of life on Earth. Today, volcanoes cause short term radiative forcing after large explosive eruptions. Persistent outgassing volcanoes create regional tropospheric plumes that are sites of dynamic reactive chemistry. The flux and composition of gases, whilst seemingly simple observations to make, are challenging to quantify in volcanic environments. In this talk I will review the advances we have made in quantifying volcanic emissions, the insights that these measurements and observations have led to with respect to both volcanic and atmospheric chemical processes, and the challenges that remain for the future.