Abstract Deception Island (South Shetland Islands) is one of the most active volcanoes in Antarctica, with more than 15 explosive eruptive events registered over the past two centuries. Recent eruptions (1967, 1969 and 1970) and volcanic unrest episodes in 1992, 1999 and 2014–15 demonstrate that the occurrence of future volcanic activity is a valid and pressing concern for scientists, logistic personnel and tourists that are visiting or are working on or near the island. Over the last few decades, intense research activity has been carried out on Deception Island to decipher the origin and evolution of this very complex volcano. To that end, a solid integration of related scientific disciplines, such as tectonics, petrology, geochemistry, geophysics, geomorphology, remote sensing, glaciology, is required. A proper understanding of the island's evolution in the past, and its present state, is essential for improving the efficiency in interpreting monitoring data recorded during volcanic unrest periods and, hence, for future eruption forecasting. In this chapter, we briefly present Deception Island's most relevant tectonic, geomorphological, volcanological and magmatic features, as well as the results obtained from decades of monitoring the island's seismic activity and ground deformation.

Abstract Volcanoes sometimes host a lake at the Earth’s surface. These lakes are the surface expressions of a reservoir, often termed a hydrothermal system, in highly fractured, permeable and porous media where fluids circulate. They can become monitoring targets since they integrate the heat flux discharged by an underlying magma body and condense some volcanic gases. Since they trap volcanic heat and gases, they are excellent tools to provide additional information about the status of a volcano and volcanic lake-related hazards. This Special Publication comes at an exciting time for the volcanic lake community. It brings together scientific papers, which include studies of their structure, hydrogeological modelling, long-term multi-disciplinary monitoring efforts, as well as a number of innovative methods of sampling, data acquisition and in situ and laboratory experiments. Several papers challenge long-established paradigms and introduce new concepts and terminologies. This collection of papers will be a useful reference for researchers dealing with volcanic lakes and more generally with hydrothermal systems, phreatic/hydrothermal eruptions and wet volcanoes.

The Boltysh meteorite impact crater formed in the Ukrainian Shield on the margin of the Tethys Ocean a few thousand years before the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary and was rapidly filled by a freshwater lake. Sediments filling the lake vary from early lacustrine turbidites and silts to ~300 m of fine silts, organic carbon–rich muds, oil shales, and lamenites that record early Danian terrestrial climate signals at high temporal resolution. Combined carbon isotope and palynological data show that the fine-grained organic carbon–rich lacustrine sediments preserve a uniquely complete and detailed negative carbon isotope excursion in an expanded section of several hundred meters. The position of the carbon isotope excursion in the early Danian stage of the Paleogene period, around 200 k.y. above the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, leads us to correlate it to the Dan-C2 carbon isotope excursion recorded in marine sediments of the same age. The more complete Boltysh carbon isotope excursion record indicates a δ 13 C shift of around -3‰, but also a more extended recovery period, strikingly similar in pattern to the highest fidelity carbon isotope excursion records available for the Toarcian and Paleocene-Eocene hyperthermal events. Changes in floral communities through the carbon isotope excursion recorded at Boltysh reflect changing biomes caused by rapidly warming climate, followed by recovery, indicating that this early Danian hyperthermal event had a similar duration to the Toarcian and Paleocene-Eocene events.

We analyzed the plant macro- and mesofossil records deposited in the Paleocene oil shales of the Boltysh crater (Ukraine) in terms of leaf morphology and its implication for reconstruction of the vegetation and paleoecology of the region. During the early Cenozoic, the Boltysh astrobleme formed a geothermal crater lake that accumulated sediments, preserving a record from the Paleocene to the early middle Eocene. These sediments contain fossil leaf fragments of ferns and angiosperms that grew close to the lake. The occurrence of the Mesozoic fern Weichselia reticulata is of importance. This discovery suggests the survival of this Jurassic to Cretaceous fern into the early Paleogene in the refugial geothermal ecosystem of the Boltysh crater area. Our finding is the youngest record of this fern, although it was a widespread and common element of secondary vegetation during the Cretaceous. The local survival of this fern may have been fostered by the unique combination of edaphic environmental factors of the Boltysh hydrothermal area. Other plant fossils include fragments of leaves that represent ferns likely belonging to lineages that diversified in the shadow of angiosperms, as well as remains of the flowering plants Pseudosalix , Sorbus , Comptonia , and ? Myrica leaf morphotypes.

The crater lake at Santa Ana Volcano (El Salvador) was monitored during 1992–1993 and 2002–2007. Crater lake chemistry was generally similar until the 2005 eruption. Acidification of the hydrothermal system by condensing magmatic gases yielded fluids that sustained a cool acid sulfate-chloride lake roughly 200 m in diameter (temperature = 16–28 °C, pH = 0.7–2.0, SO 4 2− = 4500–14,000 mg/L, Cl − = 1100–9200 mg/L, total dissolved solids [TDS] = 7000–25,000 mg/L). The phreatomagmatic eruption Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) 3 of October 2005 modified the summit crater morphology, leading to physical, thermal, and chemical changes in the lake over the next few years. The lake became hotter and more acidic, with variable chemistry and color (temperature = 24–66 °C, pH = 0.4–1.3, SO 4 2− = 2500–9800 mg/L, Cl − = 3200–22,000 mg/L, TDS = 10,000–36,000 mg/L, turquoise-gray-yellow color). The SO 4 2− /Cl − ratio dropped below 1, indicating an increase in the rate of volcanic gas input and coincident S depletion by abundant precipitation of native sulfur and secondary S-bearing minerals (alunite, gypsum, iron sulfides, and anhydrite). An increase in rare earth element (REE) concentrations in lake waters indicated leaching of the newly intruded magma. The eruption likely enhanced permeability in the edifice, further increasing the amount of available fresh wall rock to react with acidic fluids, and the concentration of rock-forming elements in the lake increased fivefold to a maximum of 90 g rock dissolved per kg water. The magma continued to degas through the lake bottom at the drowned eruptive vent, providing a large, direct gas input into the lake. Direct gas discharge into the lake led to sulfur saturation and formation of hollow sulfur spherules by percolation of gas bubbles through the molten sulfur bottom layer. Increased heat input into the lake (8–830 MW, equivalent SO 2 flux of 16–1600 t/d) led to enhanced evaporation and highly variable lake mass. Consequently, on three occasions during 2006 and 2007, the lake area diminished to 70% of its former size.