Direct Observation of Spallation Bombs During The 2021 La Palma Eruption, Canary Islands, Spain [post]

James M.D, Harri Geiger, Valentin R. Troll, Francisco J. Perez-Torrado, Meritxell Aulinas, Guillem Gisbert, Juan Carlos Carracedo
2022 unpublished
Expulsion of incandescent pyroclasts of >64 mm from active volcanoes are known as 'volcanic bombs'1-3, which can pose significant hazards to life and manmade structures. Most volcanic bombs are considered to fall ballistically, enabling the prediction of a volcanic hazard radius4,5. Here we describe a bomb type that was ejected ballistically, but subsequently travelled downslope a steep volcanic flank, posing an important but hitherto unrecognized impact and fire hazard. The volcanic bombs were
more » ... observed to fall from the summit of the newly formed La Palma cone in late October 2021 and fell on a soft tephra substrate, travelling downhill for over a kilometer in some instances. The bombs spalled incandescent lava fragments en route, creating a significant fire hazard far beyond the range of ballistic transport. Spallation bomb hazards ought to be considered in volcanic risk assessment, necessitating an increase of hazard radius exceeding a factor of two on steep-sided volcanoes with ballistic bomb activity.
doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-1297697/v1 fatcat:qbxan2646nfs3ns2l6au2b2eza