Volcanic eruptions cannot be predicted with 100 per cent certainty. However, details about an upcoming eruption can be estimated using the hot and smelly gases a volcano produces.

These gases provide clues about the timing, duration or severity of upcoming eruptions which can help local authorities decide if and when the surrounding communities need to be evacuated.

On average, there are up to 50 volcanoes actively erupting on the planet at any given time. Many of these volcanoes are more likely to be spewing hot gases — like steam and carbon dioxide — than lava. Collecting these gases is key to understanding the mysterious ways of volcanoes, but it can be dangerous.

Now, drones are making it safer and easier than ever before.

For the better part of the last decade, I have been visiting such gassy volcanoes regularly to catch them just before, during or after an eruption.

I have worked with other scientists and engineers to measure volcanic gases with a variety of devices attached to drones.

Our latest research uses drones to capture volcanic carbon dioxide at Poás volcano in Costa Rica. We measured the isotopes of carbon in this carbon dioxide and discovered a pattern in the way these chemical fingerprints change during different stages of activity.

Unique carbon makeup

Carbon dioxide is everywhere: in the air we exhale, in vehicle exhaust — and dissolved in magma. At volcanoes, it escapes from magma to the surface through cracks and hydrothermal systems (like the geysers in Yellowstone National Park), by seeping through the soil or by puffing out in a plume of gas.

By obtaining a sample of this volcanic carbon, we can measure the stable carbon isotopic ratio, a unique chemical makeup which reflects the source and pathway the CO2 took to the surface.

Read more: https://theconversation.com/we-can-use-drones-to-get-inside-and-learn-more-about-active-gassy-volcanoes-189524