A Drop in Gas Emissions can be a Bad Sign at a Volcano (Patreon)

For those of you who have seen the fictional movie "Dante's Peak", you might recall the infamous hot spring scene, where a previously fairly harmless body of water was turned into a highly acidic lethal temperature hot spring. In the film, this occurred due to an intrusion of magma which heated the overlying groundwater. 

While this can actually occur in real life, sometimes, a dramatic drop in gas emissions and temperatures can be equally problematic. Today's video will discuss a full example of this, via Indonesia's active Inielika volcano. As, since July of 2023, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide gas emissions have dropped to essentially zero, while sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide emissions have dropped by double digit percentages. The fear is that an unstable caprock has formed above its underlying magma chamber, as a result of groundwater simply boiling rather than becoming unusually warm water. Such an occurrence is possible if a fast rather than slow magmatic intrusion occurs (fast heating vs slow heating). The steam can then combine with volcanic gasses and overlying rock to alter them, forming a caprock. This caprock then subsequently cause gasses to build up, possibly leading to a catastrophic break of the overlying caprock, generating a phreatic or phreatomagmatic eruption. While there is no certainty that this is what is occurring at Inielika, in my opinion, these events are probably occurring. However, as to if this will cause a volcanic eruption? It statistically is more likely to not erupt than to erupt, but it is impossible to predict what will happen next at this stage.