• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.415-429
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• 2012

The monitoring methods for volcanic gases are divided into remote sensing and direct gas sampling approaches. In the remote sensing approach, COSPEC and Li-COR are used to measure $SO_2$ and $CO_2$, respectively, with FT-IR for detection of a range of volcanic gases. However, the remote sensing approach is not applicable to Mt. Baegdu, where the atmospheric contents of volcanic gases are very low as a result of the strong interaction of volcanic gases with the nearby surface water and groundwater. On the other hand, the direct gas sampling approach involves the collection of volcanic gases from volcanic vents or fumaroles and the subsequent laboratory analysis, thus making it possible to measure even very low levels of volcanic gases. The direct sampling approach can be subdivided into the evacuated bottle method and the flow-through bottle method. In applying both methods, sampling bottles typically contain reaction media to trap specific volcanic gases. For example, NaOH solution(Giggenbach bottle), $NH_4OH$ solution, and acid condensates have been experimented for volcanic gas sampling. Once taken from vents and fumaroles, the samples of volcanic gases are pretreated and subsequently analyzed for volcanic gases using GC, IC, HPLC, titrimetry, TOC-IC, or ICP-MS. Recently, there has been the increasing number of evidences on the potential volcanic activity of Mt. Baegdu. However, little technical development has been made for the sampling and analysis of volcanic gases in Korea. In the present work, we reviewed various volcanic gas monitoring methods, and provided the detailed information on the monitoring methods applied to Mt. Baegdu.