Presentation and analysis of a worldwide database for lava dome collapse events: the Global Archive of Dome Instabilities (GLADIS)

Abstract

Lava dome collapses generate hazardous pyroclastic flows, rockfalls and debris avalanches. Despite advances in understanding lava dome collapses and their resultant products, the conditions that occur prior to collapse are still poorly understood. Here, we introduce the Global Archive of Dome Instabilities (GLADIS), a database that compiles worldwide historical dome collapses and their reported properties, including original dome volume (at the time of collapse), dome morphology, emplacement conditions, precursory activity, dome geometry and deposit characteristics. We determine the collapse magnitude for events where possible, using both absolute deposit volumes and relative collapse volume ratios (this being deposit volume as a proportion of original dome volume). We use statistical analysis to explore whether relationships exist between collapse magnitude and extrusion rate, dome growth style, original dome volume and causal mechanism of collapse. We find that relative collapse magnitude is independent of both the extrusion rate and the original dome volume. Relative collapse volume ratio is dependent on dome growth style, where endogenous growth is found to precede the largest collapses (~ 75% original volume). Collapses that comprise a higher proportion (> 50%) of original dome volume are particularly attributed to both gravitational loading and the development of gas overpressure, whilst collapses comprising a small proportion (< 10%) of original dome volume are associated with the topography surrounding the dome, and variations in extrusion direction. By providing validation and/or source data, we intend these data on various dome growth and collapse events, and their associated mechanisms, to be the focus of future numerical modelling efforts, whilst the identified relationships with relative collapse volume ratios can inform collapse hazard assessment based on observations of a growing dome.