Numerical Modeling of the 2007-2009 Lava Dome Growth in the Crater of Volcán de Colima, México

Volcán de Colima is active andesitic stratovolcano in México located at the height of about 3860 m above sea level. It belongs to the Colima Volcanic complex within the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. This volcano is characterized by intermittency of explosive and effusive episodes of volcanic eruptions. For 2007-2009 slowly extruded magma led to a lava dome formation and growth in the volcanic crater. In this work, we present two-dimensional numerical models of the lava dome growth, which have been computed on the KIT SCC bwunicluster using the Ansys Fluent software. The aim of the numerical study is to understand the link between the rheological properties of the lava dome and the morphological shapes of the dome. Numerical models of lava dome growth incorporate the crystal growth kinetics and the realistic topography of the crater floor. We consider several scenarios of dome growth with different conduit shape, initial and equilibrium crystal contents to analyze the model parameters controlling the morphology of the growing dome. The extrusion rate, the characteristic time of crystal content growth in lava, and the characteristic lava viscosity have been used as tuning parameters to optimize the difference between the morphological shapes of the observed and modeled domes. The numerical results show a good agreement with observations and allow constraining the viscosity of lava dome.