New perspectives on volcano monitoring in a tropical environment: Continuous measurements of soil CO 2 flux at Piton de la Fournaise (La Réunion Island, France)

A major deep magmatic event at Piton de la Fournaise volcano, La Réunion Island, was detected three months before the eruption through continuous soil CO₂ flux measurements (2013–2016). Despite tropical challenges like heavy rainfall, corrected and filtered data revealed magma transfer dynamics, validated by geophysical correlations. This study demonstrates that soil CO₂ monitoring in tropical environments is a robust tool for tracking volcanic unrest down to the lithospheric mantle, offering new perspectives for early eruption detection.

Boudoire, G., Di Muro, A., Liuzzo, M., Ferrazzini, V., Peltier, A., Gurrieri, S., Michon, L., Giudice, G., Kowalski, P., & Boissier, P. (2017). New perspectives on volcano monitoring in a tropical environment: Continuous measurements of soil CO ₂ flux at Piton de la Fournaise (La Réunion Island, France). Geophysical Research Letters, 44(16), 8244–8253. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017gl074237