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Geochemical evidences of seismo-volcanic unrests at the NW rift zone of Tenerife, Canary Islands, inferred from diffuse CO2 emission

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Abstract

We report the results of 49 soil CO2 efflux surveys by the accumulation chamber method at the North West Rift (NWR) Zone of Tenerife Island, Canary Islands. The surveys were carried out from 2000 to 2016 to evaluate the temporal and spatial variations of CO2 efflux and their relationships with the volcanic and seismic activity at Tenerife. Soil CO2 efflux values ranged from non-detectable (<0.5 g m−2 day−1) up to 141 g m−2 day−1, with the highest values measured in May 2005, whereas total CO2 emission rates ranged between 52 and 867 t day−1 (metric tons per day). Isotopic analyses of soil gas in carbon dioxide (δ13C–CO2) suggest a mixing between organic and atmospheric CO2 with a small contribution of deep-seated CO2. The main temporal variation in the total CO2 output does not seem to be driven by external factors; it shows a clear temporal correlation with the onsets of seismic activity. Subsurface magma degassing affecting the central part of the island is proposed as a cause for the observed changes in the total output of diffuse CO2 emission, as well as for the spatial distribution of soil CO2 efflux.

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by (i) project MAKAVOL from MAC 2007–2013 Transnational Cooperation Program of the European Union, (ii) projects ALERTA and ALERTA II from INTERREG IIIB Azores-Canaries-Madeira, (iii) project CGL2005-07509 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, (iv) Canary Islands Government Research Agency, ACIISI (SolSubC200801000385), and (v) the Cabildo Insular de Tenerife (Spain). We thank a significant number of undergraduate students from The University of La Laguna for their enthusiastic collaboration during fieldworks. We also want to thank to Civil Protection of Santa Cruz de Tenerife for providing two vehicles during the soil gas surveys performed in 2004 as well as municipal governments of the northwestern side of Tenerife Island (La Guancha, Garachico, El Tanque, Santiago del Teide and Guía de Isora) for their logistic collaboration. The comments and critical reviews provided by two anonymous reviewers as well as by Luca D’Auria and James D.L. White have significantly improved the quality of this paper.

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Hernández, P.A., Padilla, G., Barrancos, J. et al. Geochemical evidences of seismo-volcanic unrests at the NW rift zone of Tenerife, Canary Islands, inferred from diffuse CO2 emission. Bull Volcanol 79, 30 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-017-1109-9

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