The 1883 eruption of Krakatau volcano in the Sunda Straits of Indonesia, on August 26 to 27th, 1883 was the second largest explosive eruption of historic time. Approximately 13.6 km3 of magma was erupted during this event, mostly in the form of voluminous pyroclastic flows. Fatalities from this eruption from the direct effects of tephra fallout, and the indirect effects of volcanogenic tsunamis totaled over 36,000. Despite the notoriety of the 1883 eruption, few studies of its deposits have been undertaken.
Recent research has documented that over 78% of the erupted material generated during this event was deposited on the seafloor surrounding the volcano. Consequently, an accurate reconstruction of the eruption process and evolution of the event would be incomplete without a thorough study of the submarine pyroclastic deposits and a thorough comparison of these to their land-based counterparts.
Study of submarine samples recovered in SCUBA cores has now documented that lethal tsunamis from this eruption were generated from pyroclastic flows entering the shallow sea around the volcano. More importantly, these deposits from Krakatau volcano demonstrate the potential hazard of volcanogenic tsunamis in areas where explosively erupting volcanoes are surrounded by shallow seas.
Dr. Charles Mandeville, a Senior Research Scientist in the Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences first came to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in July of 1997. Dr. Mandeville is a volcanologist and geochemist, though he has done previous research in tectonics, metamorphic petrology and structural geology. Dr. Mandeville holds a B.S. in geology from the University of Rhode Island and a M.S. in geology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Dr Mandeville obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography.
His dissertation research focused entirely on the catastrophic 1883 eruption of Krakatau volcano in Indonesia in collaboration with Dr. Steve Carey and Dr. Haraldur Sigurdsson. Charlie’s dissertation research was followed by postdoctoral fellowships at Brown University where he investigated the solubility of Cl in andesitic magmas (similar to that erupted at Krakatau) with Dr. Malcolm Rutherford and at the Geological Survey of Japan where he did stable isotopic measurements of sulfur and oxygen and infrared spectroscopy measurements of dissolved water and carbon dioxide in Krakatau 1883 samples.
Following his study of the 1883 eruption, Charlie initiated and completed a study of the sulfur and chlorine degassed during the 7700 year before present climactic eruption of Mt. Mazama, Crater Lake Oregon (an eruption ~ 3.5 times larger than Krakatau 1883, but remarkably similar in other important aspects) in collaboration with Dr. Charles Bacon of USGS, Menlo Park, and Dept. colleague Dr. James Webster, Chair of the Earth and Planetary Sciences Dept. at AMNH. Results indicate that the amount of sulfur degassed during the eruption of Mt. Mazama was comparable to that of the 1815 eruption of Mt. Tambora in Indonesia and it’s impact on global climate may have been just as severe.
Other ongoing research here at AMNH includes measurement of dissolved H2O and CO2 in recently erupted November 2004 and January 2005 dome samples from Mt. St. Helens in collaboration with Dr. John Pallister and Dr. Carl Thornber of the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory. Charlie is also doing collaborative research on recently erupted (January 2006 - March 2006) samples from Mt. St. Augustine, Cook Inlet Alaska.
