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As a non geologist, what's the significance of the gases starting to come from near-surface fluids rather than deep magma? Naively, I would be more worried about the magma as that's what comes up in an eruption. But they seem to be worried that the gas source has changed to subsurface fluids?

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Also non-geologist, but my understanding is that the gassing is a sign of "frothing", active magma. It's the difference between boiling just water in a saucepan, and boiling water and pasta - the latter will result in the saucepan overflowing.

I believe that the switch in out-gassing behaviour suggests that the magma viscosity and gas levels have hit a critical point that means that the field is more likely to erupt.

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