Volcanic eruption: a new chronometer based on the diffusion of titanium in quartz

The process by which volcanic eruptions are triggered is still unpredictable. In order to assess the residence time of the magma in the chamber until the eruption, the international team, including scientists from CNRS-INSU, has used a clever method to establish the speed of diffusion of titanium (Ti) in natural quartz. The method involves dating the zircon micro-inclusions with very high precision and measuring the Ti micro-profiles in the quartz using cathodoluminescence imaging. This revolutionary new chronometer is based on analyses of the quartz in the volcanic pumice from Mount Pinatubo, Philippines, which erupted in 1991.

Read more on the INSU website.

GET contact: Anastassia Borisova

Sources :

Audétat, A., Schmitt, A.K., Njul, R. Saalfeld M., Borisova A. & Lu Y. New constraints on Ti diffusion in quartz and the priming of silicic volcanic eruptions. Nature Communications 14, 4277 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39912-5

More news

What ontological plurality does to scientists scientific result?

Discover the new article in which Laure Laffont participated in L’université face au désastre écologique, Ecologie & Politique, N°67. This article illustrates the various ways in which researchers have appropriated […]

The nature and evolution of West Africa’s surface deciphered by laterites

An unprecedented cartographic synthesis on the scale of North-West Africa reveals the diversity and history of the laterites that form the film of ‘red earth’ covering tropical landscapes. The surface […]

Within a reef – When a cave shows the internal structure of an old reef

Since 2021, as part of a Franco-German cooperation between the University of Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier and the Ruhr-Universität of Bochum, doctoral students from the Geosciences Environment laboratories of […]

Search