Search results for "Rhyolite"

The roles of microlites and phenocrysts during degassing of silicic magma

2022

Abstract Silicic magmas span a wide range of eruptive styles between explosive and effusive, and transitions between these styles are commonplace. Yet the triggers of switches in eruptive style remain poorly understood. Eruptions are mostly driven by degassing of magmatic water and their eruption style - effusive or explosive - is likely governed by the efficiency of outgassing as well as magma ascent rate. Microlites and phenocrysts are often purported to promote heterogeneous bubble nucleation and outgassing, both key variables in the degassing dynamics that become crucial in controlling the eruptive style. Here, in order to shed light on the role of nature, size and abundance of crystals…

Element variations in rhyolitic magma resulting from gas transport

2013

Tuffisite veins are glass-filled fractures formed when magma fragments during degassing within the conduit. These veins form transient channels through which exsolved gases can escape from magma. The purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which chemical heterogeneity within the melt results from gas transport, and assess how this can be used to study magma degassing. Two tuffisite veins from contrasting rhyolitic eruptions at Torfajökull (Iceland) and Chaitén (Chile) were studied in detail. The tuffisite vein from Torfajökull is from a shallow dissected conduit (~70. ka) that fed a degassed lava flow, while the sample from Chaitén was a bomb ejected during the waning phases of …

Shallow vent architecture during hybrid explosive-effusive activity at Cordón Caulle (Chile, 2011-12): Evidence from direct observations and pyroclas…

2013

International audience; In June 2011, an eruption of rhyolite magma began at the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcanic complex, southern Chile. By January 2012, explosive activity had declined from sustained pyroclastic (Plinian to sub-Plinian) fountaining to mixed gas and ash jetting punctuated by Vulcanian blasts. This explosive activity was accompanied by synchronous effusion of obsidian lava in a hybrid explosive-effusive eruption. Fortuitous climatic conditions permitted ground-based observation and video recording of transient vent dynamics as well as real-time collection of proximal juvenile ash as it sedimented from the active plume. The main eruptive vent complex and site of lava effusion…

The Permeability Evolution of Tuffisites and Implications for Outgassing Through Dense Rhyolitic Magma

2019

There is growing evidence that outgassing through transient fracture networks exerts an important control on conduit processes and explosive‐effusive activity during silicic eruptions. Indeed, the first modern observations of rhyolitic eruptions have revealed that degassed lava effusion may depend upon outgassing during simultaneous pyroclastic venting. The outgassing is thought to occur as gas and pyroclastic debris are discharged through shallow fracture networks within otherwise low‐permeability, conduit‐plugging lava domes. However, this discharge is only transient, as these fractures become clogged and eventually blocked by the accumulation and sintering of hot, melt‐rich pyroclastic d…

2017

Ranking among the largest volcanic eruptions of the Common Era (CE), the ‘Millennium Eruption’ of Changbaishan produced a widely-dispersed tephra layer (known as the B-Tm ash), which represents an important tie point for palaeoenvironmental studies in East Asia. Hitherto, there has been no consensus on its age, with estimates spanning at least the tenth century CE. Here, we identify the cosmogenic radiocarbon signal of 775 CE in a subfossil larch engulfed and killed by pyroclastic currents emplaced during the initial rhyolitic phase of the explosive eruption. Combined with glaciochemical evidence from Greenland, this enables us to date the eruption to late 946 CE. This secure date rules out…

The origin and evolution of breakouts in a cooling-limited rhyolite lava flow

2018

Understanding lava flow processes is important for interpreting existing lavas and for hazard assessments. Although substantial progress has been made for basaltic lavas our understanding of silicic lava flows has seen limited recent advance. In particular, the formation of lava flow breakouts, which represent a characteristic process in cooling-limited basaltic lavas, but has not been described in established models of rhyolite emplacement. Using data from the 2011–2012 rhyolite eruption of Puyehue-Cordón Caulle, Chile, we develop the first conceptual framework to classify breakout types in silicic lavas, and to describe the processes involved in their progressive growth, inflation, and mo…

The Nevados de Payachata volcanic region (18�S/69�W, N. Chile) II. Evidence for widespread crustal involvement in Andean magmatism

1990

Volcanism extending over 11 Ma is represented in the rocks of the Nevados de Payachata region, culminating in the formation of two large composite stratocones within the last 500 000 years. Chemically distinct mafic magmas are erupted at a number of parasitic centers. These cannot be related to each other by crystal fractionation and do not appear to be direct parents for the differentiated suites of the composite cones. Two distinct trends are defined by the intermediate and evolved rocks; a high LILE (large ion lithophile element), TiO2 and Ce/Yb lineage among the youngest rocks (including the two major stratocones), and a more typical calc-alkaline trend among the older (>1 Ma) rock type…

The Shishkhid ophiolite, northern Mongolia: A key to the reconstruction of a Neoproterozoic island-arc system in central Asia

2005

Abstract The Shishkhid ophiolite is a well-preserved 13 km-thick mafic-ultramafic assemblage which comprises (from bottom to top): mantle tectonites (∼6 km), layered and isotropic gabbro (∼4.5 km), sheeted dykes (up to 0.5 km), a bimodal assemblage of basalt and rhyolite (up to 0.7 km), as well as andesitic pyroclastic rocks (∼2 km). The volcanic rocks are overlain by a 3 km-thick sedimentary sequence showing progressive subsidence of the volcanic edifice after cessation of volcanism. The sedimentary unit is unconformably overlain by Ediacaran-Cambrian platform sediments. SHRIMP U-Pb dating of magmatic zircons from a rhyolite of the lower volcanic unit has yielded a concordant 206 Pb/ 238 U…

Mimicking shear zones: An example from Wadi Filk, Jordan

2017

Abstract Ductile shear zones can develop in at least two ways: (1) a nucleus can grow laterally by free propagation into undeformed host rock, like most faults or joints; (2) the zone may nucleate and grow on or in a planar discontinuity and mimick its orientation. Most small-scale ductile shear zones are mimicking zones, but large-scale ductile shear zones could be free-propagating. The Wadi Filk mylonite zone in Jordan is a two km long, ten meter wide mylonite zone flanked by ultramylonite zones, developed in undeformed Neoproterozoic porphyritic monzogranite. Since mineral and major element composition of mylonite and monzogranite are identical, the structure seems to have formed by free…

Post-fragmentation vesiculation timescales in hydrous rhyolitic bombs from Chaitén volcano

2020

Abstract Bubble nucleation and growth dynamics exert a primary control on the explosivity of volcanic eruptions. Numerous theoretical and experimental studies aim to capture the complex process of melt vesiculation, whereas textural studies use vesicle populations to reconstruct magma behaviour. However, post-fragmentation vesiculation in rhyolitic bombs can create final quenched bubble (vesicle) textures that are not representative of the nature of fragmenting magma within the conduit. To examine bubble growth in hydrous rhyolitic bombs, we have used heated stage microscopy to directly observe vesiculation of a Chaiten rhyolite melt (with an initial dissolved water content of ~0.95 wt %) a…