Characterizing Volcanic Ash Density and Its Implications on Settling Dynamics

Volcanic ash clouds are carefully monitored as they present a significant hazard to humans and aircraft. The primary tool for forecasting the transport of ash from a volcano is dispersion modeling. These models make a number of assumptions about the size, sphericity and density of the ash particles. Few studies have measured the density of ash particles or explored the impact that the assumption of ash density might have on the settling dynamics of ash particles. In this paper, the raw apparent density of 23 samples taken from 15 volcanoes are measured with gas pycnometry, and a negative linear relationship is found between the density and the silica content. For the basaltic ash samples, densities were measured for different particle sizes, showing that the density is approximately constant for particles smaller than 100 mu m, beyond which it decreases with size. While this supports the current dispersion model used by the London Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC), where the density is held at a constant (2.3 g cm-3), inputting the measured densities into a numerical simulation of settling velocity reveals a primary effect from the silica content changing this constant. The VAAC density overestimates ash removal times by up to 18%. These density variations, including those varying with size beyond 100 mu m, also impact short-range particle-size distribution measurements and satellite retrievals of ash. Volcanic ash clouds are carefully monitored as they present a significant hazard to humans and aircraft. Dispersion modeling is a primary tool used to forecast ash flows from volcanoes. These models make a number of assumptions about the size, sphericity (roundness) and density of the ash particles. Few studies have measured the density of ash particles or explored the impact that the assumption of ash density might have on the dispersion forecasts. In this paper, the density of 23 samples taken from 15 volcanoes are measured, and a negative linear relationship is found between the density and the silica content. For the basaltic ash samples (the most common type of ash), densities were measured for different particle sizes, showing that the density is approximately constant for particles smaller than 100 mu m, beyond which it decreases with size. This supports the London Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre keeping density constant in their current model, but in fact this constant changes with silica content, leading to an overestimation of ash removal times by up to 18%. These density deviations also impact short-range particle-size distribution measurements and satellite retrievals of ash. The density of volcanic ash is measured as a function of particle size for a range of eruptionsSilica content and particle size negatively correlate with densityThe density of particles smaller than 100 mu m is approximately constant but is dependent on silica content