Deep magma storage during the 2021 La Palma eruption

Abstract

The 2021 La Palma eruption provided an unpreceded opportunity to test the relationship between earthquake hypocenters and the location of magma reservoirs. We performed density measurements on CO2-rich fluid inclusions (FIs) hosted in olivine crystals that are highly sensitive to pressure via calibrated Raman spectroscopy. This technique can revolutionize our knowledge of magma storage and transport during an ongoing eruption, given that it can produce precise magma storage depth constraints in near real time with minimal sample preparation. Our FIs have CO2 recorded densities from 0.73 to 0.98 g/cm3, translating into depths of 15 to 27 km, which falls within the reported deep seismic zone recording the main melt storage reservoir.