Ascent and decompressional boiling of geothermal liquids tracked by solute mass balances: a key to understand the hydrothermal explosions of Milos (Greece)

Hydrothermal explosions occur through the sudden expansion of fluids at or near boiling condition with little or no precursors, making any kind of forecast difficult. Here, we investigate the processes occurring within hydrothermal systems in a potential critical state for explosions through a new methodology based on mass balances of thermal water solutes. The usage of this method reveals that the pore water samples of the Paleochori Bay (Milos, Greece;