Origin of some bedded welded tuffs

Well defined, laterally continuous welded tuff beds from <1 cm to 2 m thick are more common than has previously been recognized. Examples ranging in composition from rhyolitic to basaltic are described from Ordovician volcanic areas in Britain and Norway, and from the Miocene of the Canary Islands. Bedded welded tuffs are most common in areas of alkaline and peralkaline acidic pyroclastics. They generally occur within successions of massive, welded ash-flow tuff, or within non-welded air-fall tuff successions. Sequences consisting entirely of bedded welded tuff range from <1 m up to 75 m thick. Bedded welded tuffs are thought to originate in three ways. Poorly sorted, thick-bedded welded tuffs are interpreted as the deposits of pyroclastic flows, in which case the beds represent either individual flows units or the layers within flow units. Better sorted, thin-bedded welded tuffs are thought to be of air-fall origin. Thirdly, welding may be produced by the effects of an external heat source on non-welded bedded tuffs.     

Monte guardia sequence: a late-pleistocene eruptive cycle on Lipari (Italy)

This paper documents a complex sequence of interbedded lapilli-fall, base-surge, and pyroclastic-flow deposits, here named the Monte Guardia sequence, that erupted from volcanic centers in the southern part of Lipari (Aeolian Island Arc). Radiocarbon data from ash-flow tuffs above and below this sequence bracket its eruption between 22,600 and 16,800 years ago. Geologic evidence, however, suggests that this single eruptive cycle had a more restricted duration of years to tens-of-years. The basis for our interpretations comes from data measured at 38 detailed sections located throughout the island. The Monte Guardia sequence rests on a series of lower rhyolitic endogenous domes in the southern part of Lipari and it covers the oldest lavas, lahars, and pyroclastic flows in the north. Only in the northeast part of the island is it covered by younger deposits which there consist of lapilli tuffs and lavas of the Monte Pilato rhyolitic cycle. The deposit ranges in thickness from more than 60 m surrounding the vents in the south to less than a few decimeters at 10 km distance in the north. Throughout most of the island the Monte Guardia sequence overlies a thin andesitic lapilli-fall layer which is a key bed for correlation. This lapilli tuff probably erupted from a volcanic center on another island of the Aeolian Arc (possibly Salina). The principal activity of the Monte Guardia sequence started with an explosion that formed a continuous breccia blanket covering most of the island. Some pumiceous blocks within this breccia are composed of alternating bands of acidic and andesitic composition suggesting that the initiation of pyroclastic activity could have been triggered by magma mixing. Typical Monte Guardia sequence consists of explosive products that grade from magmatic (pumice-fall) to phreatomagmatic (base-surge) character. The eruptive cycle is characterized by a number of energy decreasing megarhythms that start with a lapilli-fall bed and end with a base-surge set that progresses through sand-wave, massive, and planar beds. Isopach maps of the fall and surge deposits indicate that both types were directed to the northwest by prevailing winds. Existing topographic relief was an additional factor that affected the emplacement of surge products. At the end of the cycle andesitic pyroclastic flows and rhyolitic endogenous domes were emplaced above the Monte Guardia deposits near the vent.     

Block‐and‐ash flow deposit of the Narcondam Volcano: Product of dacite–andesite dome collapse in the Burma–Java subduction complex

Narcondam Island in the Andaman Sea represents a dacite–andesite dome volcano in the volcanic chain of the Burma–Java subduction complex. The pyroclasts of andesitic composition are restricted to the periphery of the dome predominantly in the form of block‐and‐ash deposits and minor base surge deposits. Besides pyroclastic deposits, andesitic lava occurs dominantly at the basal part of the dome whereas dacitic lava occupies the central part of the dome. The pyroclasts are represented by non‐vesiculated to poorly vesiculated blocks of andesite, lapilli, and ash. The hot debris derived from dome collapse was deposited initially as massive to reversely‐graded beds with the grain support at the lower part and matrix support at the upper part. This sequence is overlain by repetitive beds of lapilli breccia to tuff breccia. These deposits are recognized as a basal avalanche rather than lahar deposit. This basal avalanche was punctuated by an ash‐cloud surge deposit representing a sequence of thinly bedded units of normal graded unit to parallel laminated beds.     

The dali ash,island of rhodes,greece: a problem in interpreting submarine volcanigenic sediments

In the southern part of Rhodes, Greece, rhyolitic subaqueous pyroclastic deposits are interbedded with Tertiary, deep water, marine sediments. The lowermost and best exposed of these deposits — the Dali Ash — is described here. The deposit has been previously described as a deep water welded subaqueous ignimbrite. This paper shows that there is no evidence of welding, and texture previously reported were misidentified. The Dali Ash consists of a lower massive unit (5 m thick), overlain by a sequence of ash-turbidites (2.5 m thick). The lower unit was deposited by a high concentration turbidity current and the ash-turbidites by dilute turbidity currents. Foraminifera are dispersed throughout the deposit and indicate that all the sedimentary gravity flows were cold water/particulate systems. A palaeomagnetic study also suggests they were deposited cold. The Dali Ash can be interpreted as the lateral equivalent of a subaerial pumiceous pyroclastic flow deposit (ignimbrite). The ash-turbidites then may be redeposited slumps off the submarine slope of the lower massive unit, or, may represent later, smaller pyroclastic flows in the eruption. Other alternatives for the origin of the Dali Ash are fully discussed to show the problems in interpreting submarine volcanigenic sediments. It is possible that the deposits are not even a primary eruptive product and are remobilized pyroclastic debris, slumped, for example, off the sides of a shallow marine rhyolitic tuff ring.     

The Miocene Costa Giardini diatreme,Iblean Mountains,southern Italy: model for maar-diatreme formation on a submerged carbonate platform

In this paper we present a model for the growth of a maar-diatreme complex in a shallow marine environment. The Miocene-age Costa Giardini diatreme near Sortino, in the region of the Iblei Mountains of southern Sicily, has an outer tuff ring formed by the accumulation of debris flows and surge deposits during hydromagmatic eruptions. Vesicular lava clasts, accretionary lapilli and bombs in the older ejecta indicate that initial eruptions were of gas-rich magma. Abundant xenoliths in the upper, late-deposited beds of the ring suggest rapid magma ascent, and deepening of the eruptive vent is shown by the change in slope of the country rock. The interior of the diatreme contains nonbedded breccia composed of both volcanic and country rock clasts of variable size and amount. The occurrence of bedded hyaloclastite breccia in an isolated outcrop in the middle-lower part of the diatreme suggests subaqueous effusion at a low rate following the end of explosive activity. Intrusions of nonvesicular magma, forming plugs and dikes, occur on the western side of the diatreme, and at the margins, close to the contact between breccia deposits and country rock; they indicate involvement of volatile-poor magma, possibly during late stages of activity. We propose that initial hydromagmatic explosive activity occurred in a shallow marine environment and the ejecta created a rampart that isolated for a short time the inner crater from the surrounding marine environment. This allowed explosive activity to draw down the water table in the vicinity of the vent and caused deepening of the explosive center. A subsequent decrease in the effusion rate and cessation of explosive eruptions allowed the crater to refill with water, at which time the hyaloclastite was deposited. Emplacement of dikes and plugs occurred nonexplosively while the breccia sediment was mostly still soft and unconsolidated, locally forming peperites. The sheltered, low-energy lagoon filled with marine limestones mixed with volcaniclastic material eroded from the surrounding ramparts. Ultimately, lagoonal sediments accumulated in the crater until subsidence or erosion of the tuff ring caused a return to normal shallow marine conditions.     

Porosity, permeability, and fluid flow in the Yellowstone geothermal system, Wyoming

Cores from two of 13 U.S. Geological Survey research holes at Yellowstone National Park (Y-5 and Y-8) were evaluated to characterize lithology, texture, alteration, and the degree and nature of fracturing and veining. Porosity and matrix permeability measurements and petrographic examination of the cores were used to evaluate the effects of lithology and hydrothermal alteration on porosity and permeability. The intervals studied in these two core holes span the conductive zone and the upper portion of the convective geothermal reservoir. Variations in porosity and matrix permeability observed in the Y-5 and Y-8 cores are primarily controlled by lithology. Y-8 intersects three distinct lithologies: volcaniclastic sandstone, perlitic rhyolitic lava, and non-welded pumiceous ash-flow tuff. The sandstone typically has high permeability and porosity, and the tuff has very high porosity and moderate permeability, while the perlitic lava has very low porosity and is essentially impermeable. Hydrothermal self-sealing appears to have generated localized permeability barriers within the reservoir. Changes in pressure and temperature in Y-8 correspond to a zone of silicification in the volcaniclastic sandstone just above the contact with the perlitic rhyolite; this silicification has significantly reduced porosity and permeability. In rocks with inherently low matrix permeability (such as densely welded ash-flow tuff), fluid flow is controlled by the fracture network. The Y-5 core hole penetrates a thick intracaldera section of the 0.6-Ma Lava Creek ash-flow tuff. In this core, the degree of welding appears to be responsible for most of the variations in porosity, matrix permeability, and the frequency of fractures and veins. Fractures are most abundant within the more densely welded sections of the tuff. However, the most prominent zones of fracturing and mineralization are associated with hydrothermal breccias within densely welded portions of the tuff. These breccia zones represent transient conduits of high fluid flow that formed by the explosive release of overpressure in the underlying geothermal reservoir and that were subsequently sealed by supersaturated geothermal fluids. In addition to this fracture sealing, hydrothermal alteration at Yellowstone appears generally to reduce matrix permeability and focus flow along fractures, where multiple pulses of fluid flow and self-sealing have occurred.     

Eruption processes and deposit characteristics at the monogenetic Mt. Gambier Volcanic Complex, SE Australia: implications for alternating magmatic and phreatomagmatic activity

The ～5 ka Mt. Gambier Volcanic Complex in the Newer Volcanics Province, Australia is an extremely complex monogenetic, volcanic system that preserves at least 14 eruption points aligned along a fissure system. The complex stratigraphy can be subdivided into six main facies that record alternations between magmatic and phreatomagmatic eruption styles in a random manner. The facies are (1) coherent to vesicular fragmental alkali basalt (effusive/Hawaiian spatter and lava flows); (2) massive scoriaceous fine lapilli with coarse ash (Strombolian fallout); (3) bedded scoriaceous fine lapilli tuff (violent Strombolian fallout); (4) thin–medium bedded, undulating very fine lapilli in coarse ash (dry phreatomagmatic surge-modified fallout); (5) palagonite-altered, cross-bedded, medium lapilli to fine ash (wet phreatomagmatic base surges); and (6) massive, palagonite-altered, very poorly sorted tuff breccia and lapilli tuff (phreato-Vulcanian pyroclastic flows). Since most deposits are lithified, to quantify the grain size distributions (GSDs), image analysis was performed. The facies are distinct based on their GSDs and the fine ash to coarse+fine ash ratios. These provide insights into the fragmentation intensities and water–magma interaction efficiencies for each facies. The eruption chronology indicates a random spatial and temporal sequence of occurrence of eruption styles, except for a “magmatic horizon” of effusive activity occurring at both ends of the volcanic complex simultaneously. The eruption foci are located along NW–SE trending lineaments, indicating that the complex was fed by multiple dykes following the subsurface structures related to the Tartwaup Fault System. Possible factors causing vent migration along these dykes and changes in eruption styles include differences in magma ascent rates, viscosity, crystallinity, degassing and magma discharge rate, as well as hydrological parameters.     

Vitriclastic lithofacies from Macquarie Island (Southern Ocean): compositional influence on abyssal eruption explosivity in a dying Miocene spreading ridge

Macquarie Island is composed of a complete section of oceanic crust that formed in a slow-spreading mid-ocean ridge 2.0 to 3.5 km below sea level. Vitriclastic facies preserved on the island have both pyroclastic and hyaloclastic characteristics. Monomict hyaloclastic breccia facies are widespread across the island and are predominantly composed of near-primitive (~7.9 wt% MgO) subalkaline/transitional (~0.7 wt% K₂O) sideromelane shards and crystalline basalt clasts with low vesicularity (LV, < 15% vesicles). Breccias are thick bedded and structureless with matrix-supported angular pillow fragments, bomb-sized fluidal mini-pillows, and globular glass lapilli. Clasts are lithologically similar to interbedded pillow basalts and laterally grade into fine-grained sandstone facies. These sandstones are normal-graded, well-laminated, thin bedded, and interstratified with red pelagic mudstone. Lithofacies associations indicate that the hyaloclastic breccias were formed proximal to a source vent via quench-fragmentation, and subsequently reworked by ocean-bottom currents into distal epiclastic sandstone facies. During eruption, co-genetic pillow lava and hypabyssal intrusions mingled with the breccia, forming fluidal peperite. Rare polymict pyroclastic facies only occur in the highest stratigraphic levels and are mostly composed of highly vesicular (HV, 15–50% vesicles) sideromelane shards and crystalline basalt clasts with alkaline (~1.0 wt% K₂O) fractionated (~6.8% MgO) compositions. Minor lithic grains are composed of subalkaline (~0.7 wt% K₂O) to very highly alkaline (~1.7 wt% K₂O) LV sideromelane shards, and amphibole-bearing diabase. The pyroclastic facies contains medium to thick beds of lapilli-tuff that exhibit both reverse and normal grading, diffuse lamination, and planar-grain fabric. These beds are locally overlain by thin fine-grained tuff beds entirely composed of cuspate to very thin elongate bubble-wall shards. These characteristics indicate that explosive deep-marine eruptions produced high-density coarse-grained gravity flows that were covered by slower suspension settle-out of delicate bubble-wall shards. Stratigraphic relationships suggest that explosive eruptions started during the waning stages of more alkaline volcanism along the proto-Macquarie spreading center.     

The formation of various ash flows in Indonesia

A thorough analysis of the mode of occurrence of various ash flows deposits in Indonesia confirms the present author’s belief in an important difference in mechanism of formation between ash-flow tuff sheets abundantly found in the island of Sumatra and those minor ash flows of nuée ardentes type produced by orogenic volcanic activity such as displayed by Mt Merapi and Mt Agung in Java and Bali. The present author is more inclined to think that the enormous ash-flow sheets in Sumatra, usually called « welded tuffs » are nothing more than collapsed froth flows emitted from fissures and closely related to the emplacement of granite batholiths in the core of the geanticlines during the third impulse of orogenic uplift in Plio-Pleistocene time, whereas they have nothing to do whatsoever with nuée ardentes in the sense of Lacroix. These nuée ardentes on the other hand are believed to be the result of a delayed action in the formation of crystal nuclei during the magmatic gas phase of a volcanic eruption.     

A Miocene coarse volcaniclastic mass-flow deposit in the Shimane Peninsula,SW Japan: product of a deep submarine eruption?

 A subaqueous volcaniclastic mass-flow deposit in the Miocene Josoji Formation, Shimane Peninsula, is 15–16 m thick, and comprises mainly blocks and lapilli of rhyolite and andesite pumices and non- to poorly vesiculated rhyolite. It can be divided into four layers in ascending order. Layer 1 is an inversely to normally graded and poorly sorted lithic breccia 0.3–6 m thick. Layer 2 is an inversely to normally graded tuff breccia to lapilli tuff 6–11 m thick. This layer bifurcates laterally into minor depositional units individually composed of a massive, lithic-rich lower part and a diffusely stratified, pumice-rich upper part with inverse to normal grading of both lithic and pumice clasts. Layer 3 is 2.5–3 m thick, and consists of interbedded fines-depleted pumice-rich and pumice-poor layers a few centimeters thick. Layer 4 is a well-stratified and well-sorted coarse ash bed 1.5–2 m thick. The volcaniclastic deposit shows internal features of high-density turbidites and contains no evidence for emplacement at a high temperature. The mass-flow deposit is extremely coarse-grained, dominated by traction structures, and is interpreted as the product of a deep submarine, explosive eruption of vesicular magma or explosive collapse of lava. Received: 10 January 1996 / Accepted: 23 February 1996     

Early Proterozoic,basaltic andesite tuff-breaccia: downslope,subaqueous mass transport of phreatomagmatically-generated tephra

At Bear Lake, in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake greenstone belt of Manitoba, 400⁺ m of thick-to very thick-bedded, generally ungraded, basaltic andesite tuff-breccia, breccia, and lapilli-tuff are intercalated with pillowed lava flows in the upper part of an early Proterozoic submarine basaltic andesite shield volcano. The fragmental rocks comprise angular, amygdaloidal blocks and lapilli, many with partial chilled selvages, in a matrix of blocky, non-amygdaloidal to highly amygdaloidal vitric basaltic andesite ash and small lapilli. Minor thin-to medium-bedded, commonly normally graded tuff occurs in the upper part of the sequence. Clasts in fragmental beds consistently have higher amygdule contents than intercalated lava flows. Although similar to pillow-fragment breccias, the Bear Lake fragmental rocks were produced by extended surtseyan-type, phreatomagmatic eruptions, with associated fire fountain activity, at a progressively subsiding, shallow water vent. Periodic tephra slumping generated debris flows that transported particles down the uppe, gentle slope of the volcano to a depositional site at a water depth of less than 1 km. Turbidity currents probably carried much fine tephra to deeper water; tuff was deposited in the preserved section only after explosive volcanism ceased.     

Averno tuff ring in Campi Flegrei (south Italy)

The tuff ring of Averno (3700 years BP) is a wide maar-type, lake-filled volcano which formed during one of the most recent explosive eruptions inside the Campi Flegrei caldera.The eruptive products consist of (a) a basal coarse unit, intercalated ballistic fallout breccia, subplinian pumice deposits and pyroclastic surge bedsets and (b) an upper fine-grained, stratified, pyroclastic surge sequence.During the deposition of the lower unit both purely magmatic (lapilli breccia) and hydromagmatic episodes (wavy and planar bedded, fine ash pyroclastic surge bedsets) coexisted. The hydromagmatic deposits exhibit both erosive and depositional features. The upper unit mostly comprises fine grained, wet pyroclastic surge deposits. The pyroclastic surges were controlled by a highly irregular pre-existing topography, produced by volcano-tectonic dislocation of older tuff rings and cones.Both the upper and lower units show decreasing depletion of fines with increasing distance from the vent. The ballistic fallout layers, however, exhibit only a weak increase in fines with distance from the vent, in spite of marked fining of the lapilli and blocks. The deposits consist dominantly of moderately to highly vesicular juvenile material, generated by primary magmatic volatile driven fragmentation followed by episodes of near-surface magma-water interaction.The evolution of the eruption toward increased fragmentation and a more hydromagmatic character may reflect that the progressive depletion in magmatic volatiles and a decrease in conduit pressure during the last stage of the eruption, possibly associated with a widening of the vent at sea level.     

Large phreatomagmatic vent complex at Coombs Hills, Antarctica: Wet, explosive initiation of flood basalt volcanism in the Ferrar-Karoo LIP

The Mawson Formation and correlatives in the Transantarctic Mountains and South Africa record an early eruption episode related to the onset of Ferrar-Karoo flood basalt volcanism. Mawson Formation rocks at Coombs Hills comprise mainly (≥80% vol) structureless tuff breccia and coarse lapilli tuff cut by irregular dikes and sills, within a large vent complex (>30 km²). Quenched juvenile fragments of generally low but variable vesicularity, accretionary lapilli and country rock clasts within vent-fill, and pyroclastic density current deposits point to explosive interaction of basalt with groundwater in porous country rock and wet vent filling debris. Metre-scale dikes and pods of coherent basalt in places merge imperceptibly into peperite and then into surrounding breccia. Steeply dipping to sub-vertical depositional contacts juxtapose volcaniclastic rocks of contrasting componentry and grainsize. These sub-vertical tuff breccia zones are inferred to have formed when jets of debris + steam + water passed through unconsolidated vent-filling deposits. These jets of debris may have sometimes breached the surface to form subaerial tephra jets which fed subaerial pyroclastic density currents and fall deposits. Others, however, probably died out within vent fill before reaching the surface, allowing mixing and recycling of clasts which never reached the atmosphere. Most of the ejecta that did escape the debris-filled vents was rapidly recycled as vents broadened via lateral quarrying of country rock and bedded pyroclastic vent-rim deposits, which collapsed along the margins into individual vents. The unstratified, poorly sorted deposits comprising most of the complex are capped by tuff, lapilli tuff and tuff breccia beds inferred to have been deposited on the floor of the vent complex by pyroclastic density currents. Development of the extensive Coombs Hills vent-complex involved interaction of large volumes of magma and water. We infer that recycling of water, as well as recycling of pyroclasts, was important in maintaining water supply for phreatomagmatic interactions even when aquifer rock in the vent walls lay far from eruption sites as a consequence of vent-complex widening. The proportion of recycled water increased with vent-complex size in the same way that the proportion of recycled tephra did. Though water recycling leaves no direct rock record, the volcaniclastic deposits within the vent complex show through their lithofacies/structural architecture, lithofacies characteristics, and particle properties clear evidence for extensive and varied recycling of material as the complex evolved. Editorial responsibility: J. Donnelly-Nolan     

‘Snake River (SR)-type’ volcanism at the Yellowstone hotspot track: distinctive products from unusual,high-temperature silicic super-eruptions

A new category of large-scale volcanism, here termed Snake River (SR)-type volcanism, is defined with reference to a distinctive volcanic facies association displayed by Miocene rocks in the central Snake River Plain area of southern Idaho and northern Nevada, USA. The facies association contrasts with those typical of silicic volcanism elsewhere and records unusual, voluminous and particularly environmentally devastating styles of eruption that remain poorly understood. It includes: (1) large-volume, lithic-poor rhyolitic ignimbrites with scarce pumice lapilli; (2) extensive, parallel-laminated, medium to coarse-grained ashfall deposits with large cuspate shards, crystals and a paucity of pumice lapilli; many are fused to black vitrophyre; (3) unusually extensive, large-volume rhyolite lavas; (4) unusually intense welding, rheomorphism, and widespread development of lava-like facies in the ignimbrites; (5) extensive, fines-rich ash deposits with abundant ash aggregates (pellets and accretionary lapilli); (6) the ashfall layers and ignimbrites contain abundant clasts of dense obsidian and vitrophyre; (7) a bimodal association between the rhyolitic rocks and numerous, coalescing low-profile basalt lava shields; and (8) widespread evidence of emplacement in lacustrine-alluvial environments, as revealed by intercalated lake sediments, ignimbrite peperites, rhyolitic and basaltic hyaloclastites, basalt pillow-lava deltas, rhyolitic and basaltic phreatomagmatic tuffs, alluvial sands and palaeosols. Many rhyolitic eruptions were high mass-flux, large volume and explosive (VEI 6–8), and involved H₂O-poor, low-δ¹⁸O, metaluminous rhyolite magmas with unusually low viscosities, partly due to high magmatic temperatures (900–1,050°C). SR-type volcanism contrasts with silicic volcanism at many other volcanic fields, where the fall deposits are typically Plinian with pumice lapilli, the ignimbrites are low to medium grade (non-welded to eutaxitic) with abundant pumice lapilli or fiamme, and the rhyolite extrusions are small volume silicic domes and coulées. SR-type volcanism seems to have occurred at numerous times in Earth history, because elements of the facies association occur within some other volcanic fields, including Trans-Pecos Texas, Etendeka-Paraná, Lebombo, the English Lake District, the Proterozoic Keewanawan volcanics of Minnesota and the Yardea Dacite of Australia. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. This paper constitutes part of a special issue dedicated to Bill Bonnichsen on the petrogenesis and volcanology of anorogenic rhyolites.     

Silicic phreatomagmatism in the Snake River Plain: the Deadeye Member

Non-welded rhyolitic pyroclastic units in the central Snake River Plain are interbedded with the much better exposed, large-volume ‘Snake-River type’ rheomorphic welded rhyolitic ignimbrites and rhyolite lavas. We document one such unit to investigate why it is so different from the interbedded welded ignimbrites. The newly recognised Deadeye Member of southern Idaho is a soil-bounded eruption-unit that comprises ashfall layers and a 4-m-thick ignimbrite that extends for >35 km. The ignimbrite is non-welded, lithic-clast poor and varies from massive to diffuse low-angle cross-bedded. It contains abundant angular clasts of non-vesicular black glass, and upper parts contain accretionary lapilli. The ashfall layers above it contain coated ash pellets and ash clumps, which record moist aggregation of fine ash. The magmas of the Deadeye eruption were closely similar in composition and temperature to those that generated the intensely welded rheomorphic ignimbrites of the central Snake River Plain. We infer that the marked contrast in physical appearance of the Deadeye ignimbrite compared to the other, more typical Snake-River-type welded ignimbrites was the result of emplacement at relatively low temperatures during an eruption in a lacustrine environment. Magmatic volatile-driven fragmentation of the rhyolitic magma was influenced by interaction with lake water that also led to cooling. The Deadeye Member is the first-recorded example of explosive silicic phreatomagmatism in the central Snake River Plain.     

Volcanological aspects of peralkaline silicic welded ash-flow tuffs

Peralkaline silicic welded ash-flow tuffs differ characteristically in a number of properties from most calc-alkaline welded tuffs, due to their generally lower viscosity and higher temperatures. For example, individual cooling units are relatively small (less than 30 m thick, less than 5 km³ in volume); rocks can be thoroughly welded and crystallized to feldspar, quartz, and mafic minerals; several primary deformational structures (e.g. lineations, stretching of pumice, folds, ramp structures) indicate late stage laminar creep, resulting from the low yield strength of the nearly homogeneous glass of very low viscosity. Theoretical considerations also suggest that peralkaline melts are of low viscosity and high temperature, as inferred from,e.g., their chemical composition (high iron- and alkali-, and low alumina-concentrations). The low viscosity may also be due to trapping of volatiles. Absence or paucity of OH-bearing phenocryst phases, paucity of pyroclastic rocks, other than ash flow tuffs, formed from highly explosive eruptions, and apparently high crystallization temperatures, indicate that peralkaline silicic magmas are comparatively dry. The common occurrence of peralkaline ash-flow tuffs may be due to an increased water content of the magmas, resulting also in amphibole phenocrysts in some welded tuffs, or to specific volcanotectonic conditions. Ash flows of peralkaline composition move as particularly dense particulate flows. This type of flowage and the very rapid welding of the low viscosity glass lead to a high degree of homogenization of the fine glass shards. This in turn inhibits complete degassing of the collapsing ash flow. Semiclosed systems result where gas overpressures can develop and where volatiles play an important role by fluxing crystallization and transporting dissolved matter. Several types of vesicles can form under these conditions: (a) Spherical vesicles within collapsed ash and pumice particles formed after deposition of the ash flow. (b) Round or irregular vesicles transsecting pyroclastic particles, vesicle sheets, and large cavities, several m in diameter, may form in a largely homogenized ash-flow tuff beneath tightly welded layers. (c) Lensoid cavities formed during granophyric crystallization of large pumice particles. Small ash particles of peralkaline composition may assume spherical shapes due to their low viscosity and in some cases, expansion of bubbles. They form during transport and are preserved under low load pressure in the top part of cooling units. Globule lavas and most froth flows are interpreted as welded ash-flow tuffs, some of their unusual features being due to their peralkaline composition.     

Miocene rhyolitic welded tuff infilling a funnel-shaped eruption conduit Shiotani, southeast of Matsue, SW Japan

 At Shiotani, SW Japan, rhyolitic welded tuff forms a steep-sided funnel-shaped body, confined by Paleogene granitic rocks to an elliptical area 1–1.5 km across. The Shiotani welded tuff is pervasively welded and foliated concordantly with the contact that dips inward at angles of 70–90°. In contrast, nearby contemporary volcaniclastic deposits are non-welded and gently inclined. Near the contact with the granite, the tuff is plastically deformed and shows lineations that plunge inward at angles of 40–65°. Lithic and crystal clasts in the rheomorphic outer part are rotated in a plane normal to the foliations and parallel to the lineations indicating downward flow of the welded tuff. The geometry and internal structures suggest that the Shiotani welded tuff was emplaced and welded in a funnel-shaped eruption conduit. Upon collapse of a plinian or phreatoplinian eruption column, the majority of the conduit-filling pyroclasts probably fell back en masse into the conduit. Heat and steam from underlying magma and diffusion of interstitial volatiles into the glass perhaps reduced the viscosity of juvenile pyroclasts and facilitated welding in the conduit, especially at deep levels. The hot welded pyroclasts then flowed down the conduit wall during welding compaction and retreat of the magma. These processes resulted in increased welding toward the contacts and welding foliations concordant with the steep wall. Emplacement of nearby correlative volcaniclastic mass-flow deposits in a shelf to upper bathyal environment suggests a possibility that, when active, the Shiotani conduit was under the sea. Welding compaction would occur even under the sea provided that the steam generated in the upper part of the conduit fill prevented water access. Received: 28 February 1996 / Accepted: 5 May 1997     

Felsic fire-fountaining beneath Archean seas: pyroclastic deposits of the 2730 Ma Hunter Mine Group, Quebec, Canada

The lapilli tuff breccias (LTB-1 and LTB-2) of the Archean Hunter Mine Group in the south-central part of the Abitibi greenstone belt are inferred to be the product of subaqueous lava fountaining. Intercalated sub-wave base iron-formations, interstratified turbiditic tuffs, the absence of wave-induced sedimentary structures, and the stratigraphic position of lapilli tuff breccias beneath basaltic komatiites, support this contention. A complete eruptive sequence shows a tripartite division into (a) massive breccia, (b) stratified lapilli tuff, and (c) turbiditic tuff-lapilli tuff division. The massive breccia division is characterized by clusters of isolated and compressed irregular-shaped clasts inferred to be deposited directly from the hot magmatic lava fountain. Abundant vesicular pyroclasts with a vesicle content of up to 60% exhibit locally coalescing vesicles indicating bubble nucleation prior to eruption. The prevalence of irregular to amoeboid clast shapes suggests transport from the vent in a steamy-rich, high-density current to the site under a self-generated steam cupola. Ubiquitous subequant lapilli-size pyroclasts of the stratified lapilli tuff division suggest that significant ingress of water into the fountain changed the prevalent fragmentation process from magmatic to hydrovolcanic. The turbiditic tuff-lapilli tuff division composed of pumice, lithic fragments and vitric ash is envisaged to have formed by gravitational collapse of a subaqueous turbulent eruptive plume. This type of eruptive mechanism constituted a minor but important process of volcanic construction on the ocean floor during the Archean, and possibly during incipient arc and backarc formation in modern day settings.     

A model for the formation of vesiculated tuff by the coalescence of accretionary lapilli

Observations on phreatomagmatic ash deposits of Phlegraean Fields and Vesuvius supply evidence for the origin of vesiculated tuff in a cool environment. Early deposition by fallout of a matrix-free bed of damp accretionary lapilli is followed by deposition of cohesive mud or a mud rain. The lapilli bed becomes partly or completely transformed into a vesiculated tuff by mud percolation and eventual coalescence of accretionary lapilli with consequent trapping of air originally contained in the interstices. The proposed mechanism accounts for vesiculated tuff formation in distal deposits beyond limits commonly attained by pyroclastic surges. This same mechanism may, nevertheless, also operate in proximal tuff-ring and cone deposits during fallout of phreatomagmatic ash separating bed sets in surge-dominated successions. The sequence of events in the proposed model fits well with the evolution of a cooling phreatomagmatic ash cloud in which early ash aggregation (accretionary lapilli fallout) is followed closely by steam condensation (mud or muddy rainfall). This new model invoking a cool-temperature origin is intended to be complementary to previously proposed theories. Although difficult to assess because of the often complete obliteration of original lapilli, the process is believed to be relatively common in the generasion of vesiculated tuffs within phreatomagmatic deposits.