0000000000379845
AUTHOR
Hans A. Bechtel
3D spectral imaging with synchrotron Fourier transform infrared spectro-microtomography
We report Fourier transform infrared spectro-microtomography, a nondestructive three-dimensional imaging approach that reveals the distribution of distinctive chemical compositions throughout an intact biological or materials sample. The method combines mid-infrared absorption contrast with computed tomographic data acquisition and reconstruction to enhance chemical and morphological localization by determining a complete infrared spectrum for every voxel (millions of spectra determined per sample).
The role of melt-fracture degassing in defusing explosive rhyolite eruptions at volcán Chaitén
Explosive volcanic eruptions of silicic magma often evolve towards non-explosive emissions of lava. The mechanisms underlying this transition remain unclear, however, a widely cited idea holds that shear-induced magma fragmentation plays a critical role by fostering volatile loss from fragmentary magma and through ash-filled cracks termed tuffisite. We test this hypothesis by measuring H2O concentrations within glassy tuffisite from the 2008–2011 rhyolitic eruption at volcan Chaiten, Chile. We show that while H2O concentrations decrease next to tuffisite veins and at the margins of obsidian fragments, the depletions cannot account for the disparity in H2O between explosively and effusively …