Volcanic ash particulate matter from the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption in dust deposition at Prague, central Europe

Particles originating from the last major Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption in April 2010 were subsequently found in settled dust samples collected in a suburban area of Prague, Czech Republic. These dust samples contained predominantly non-volcanic particulate matter of super-regional but mainly local origin. The highest proportion of the Eyjafjallajökull material recorded in the Prague daily dust samples reached 12% of the total lithic component mass. Volcanogenic particles, mostly glasses, were concentrated in particle size classes from 2.5 to 25 μm, but rare fragments of volcanic glasses up to 50 μm in diameter were also found. The most effective method for detection and identification of the volcanic ash particles were morpho-textural observations combined with energy dispersive and wavelength dispersive analysis of individual grains and X-ray powder diffraction. Because of the low percentage of volcanic ash particles in the total samples, the geochemical signal was rather weak although detectable in terms of selected trace elements and REE distributions. The mineralogy, particle size distributions, and geochemical compositions of the Prague samples were compared with reference materials sampled near the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

► Sediment dust collected April 2010 contained ∼10% of volcanic particulate material.
► Volcanogenic particles concentrated in particle size from 2.5 to 25 μm.
► Morpho-textural properties are the most effective for particles identification.