The first second of volcanic eruptions from the Erebus volcano lava lake, Antarctica--Energies, pressures, seismology, and infrasound

The model has no ad hoc free parameters, and geometrical calculations predict zenith height, velocity, and acceleration during shell expansion. During explosions, the energy contained in hot overpressured gas bubbles is freed and partitioned into other energy types, where by far the greatest nonthermal energy component is the kinetic and gravitational potential energy of the accelerated magma shell (> 10^9 J). Seismic source energy created by explosions is estimated from radar measurements and is consistent with source energy determined from seismic observations.

For the generation of the infrasonic signal, a dual mechanism incorporating a terminally disrupted slug is proposed, which clarifies previous models and provides good fits to observed infrasonic pressures. A new and straightforward method is presented for determining gas volumes from slug explosions at volcanoes from remote infrasound recordings.