Salt-bearing fumarole deposits in the summit crater of Oldoinyo Lengai, Northern Tanzania: interactions between natrocarbonatite lava and meteoric water

Oldoinyo Lengai in the Northern Tanzania rift is the only active nephelinite–carbonatite stratovolcano. We report the discovery of thermonatrite, aphthitalite, halite and sylvite fumarole deposits on recent natrocarbonatite lava flows erupted in the summit crater during the wet season. These salt deposits occur as delicate, concave fringes or tubes that line the cooling cracks in the lava flows and consist of intergrowths of euhedral crystals. The presence of a dark altered zone, depleted in halides and alkalies, adjacent to cooling cracks and observations of steam fumaroles emanating from the fractures suggest that the salts are formed by sublimation from saturated vapours generated by the extrusion of lavas over meteoric water. The crystallisation sequence recorded in the salts suggests that mixing between meteoric steam and magmatic CO₂ and H₂S occurs at high temperatures resulting in the sublimation of carbonates and sulphates. At lower temperatures the vapours are dominated by meteoric steam and sublimate halides. The high solubility of the fumarole salts within meteoric water and their formation only during the wet season implies that these are ephemeral deposits that are unlikely to be preserved in the geological record.     

In situ formation of welded tuff-like textures in the carapace of a voluminous silicic lava flow,Owyhee County,SW Idaho

 The Badlands rhyolite, on the Owyhee Plateau of southwestern Idaho, can be demonstrated to be a large lava flow on the basis of its geometry of large and small flow lobes, its well-exposed near-vent features, and its response to pre-existing topography. However, samples of the dense upper vitrophyre of the unit reveal a range of annealed fragmental textures, including material which closely resembles the compressed, welded glass shards which are characteristic of ignimbrites. Formation of these tuff-like textures involved processes probably common to emplacement of most silicic lava flow units. Decompression upon extrusion causes inflation of pumice at the surface of the lava flow; some of this pumice is subsequently comminuted, producing loose bubble-wall shards, bits of pumice, chips of dense glass, and fragments of phenocrysts. This debris sifts down around loose blocks and into open fractures deeper in the flow, where it can be reheated, compressed, and annealed to varying degrees. The end result is a dense vitrophyre layer (beneath the true upper, non-welded carapace breccia) which can be extremely texturally heterogeneous, with areas of flow-foliated lava occurring very near lava which in many aspects looks like welded ignimbrite, complete with flattened pumices. Identical textures in other silicic units have been cited by previous workers as evidence that those units erupted as pyroclastic flows which then underwent sufficient rheomorphism to create a flow-foliated rock which otherwise appears to be lava. The textures described herein indicate that lava flows can come to mimic rheomorphic ignimbrites, at least at scales ranging from thin sections to outcrops. Voluminous silicic units with scattered fragmental textures, but with otherwise lava-like features, are probably true effusive lava flows. Received: January 30, 1995 / Accepted: January 22, 1996     

江西相山碎斑熔岩成因和钾长石亚显微结构

相山碎斑熔岩含铁铝榴石(1340g/T)、红柱石等岩浆结晶副矿物,具S型火山岩地球化学和Nd、Sr、O同位素组成的特征。据光学测定和X光粉晶衍射测定,斑晶钾长石主要是高正长石或低透长石,有序参数δ′=-0.32—-0.01。在透射电镜下,出溶的细钠长石页片由共格拐点分解形成,成分波长约50—100nm;出溶的宽钠长石页片由无应力离溶作用形成,页片宽50—200nm。结果表明,碎斑熔岩是在火山环境下形成,而不是在深成环境下形成。     

黑龙江省五大莲池火山群中老黑山熔岩磁组构特征分析

近一二十年,岩石磁学有了飞速发展,并在地质学领域内占有越来越重要的位置。国内外研究的焦点是磁组构与应变相关性以及磁组构在岩浆岩、沉积岩构造分析中的应用。本文着重研究了未变形火山熔岩的磁组构特征,为火山岩的磁组构与有限应变相关性等项研究提供基本对比参照体系,也为室内有关的模拟实验提供依据。     

Analysing Lava Risk for the Etnean Area: Simulation by Cellular Automata Methods

The model SCIARA, based on the Cellular Automata paradigm, is a versatile instrument whose scope is to analyse volcanic risk from lava flows.The possible fields of intervention are:[(a)] Long term forecasting of the flow direction at various eruption rates and points of emission by locating potential risk areas and permitting the creation of detailed maps of risk;[(b)] The possibility to follow the progress of an event and predict its evolution;[(c)] The verification of the possible effects of human intervention on real or simulated flows in stream deviation.A risk scenario has been developed for the Etnean territories of the towns of Nicolosi, Pedara and S. Alfio, simulating possible episodes with different vent locations along the fracture opened in the 1989 eruption and successively activated in the 1991–1993 eruption.The main characteristics of lava flows, that might be dangerous to the inhabited areas, have been analysed on the basis of the carried out Cellular Automata.     

喀喇沁玻基橄辉岩中的磷酸盐质熔体及磷灰石

磷酸盐在本文讨论的坡基橄辉岩中以多种形式产生,有早期结晶的磷灰石斑晶;有熔离的磷酸盐质熔浆液滴;也有晚期穿入橄榄石斑晶的磷酸盐质细脉,表明元素磷活跃在岩浆演化的每一个阶段。磷酸盐质熔浆液滴的存在,说明磷酸盐质熔体可能是由于岩浆的熔离作用而形成的。沿着橄榄石晶格生长石出现的磷酸盐质玻璃细脉则进一步证实地幔中含磷流体不但存在,而且具有很强的活动性。     

新疆西天山艾肯达坂组火山岩的地球化学特征

新疆西天山艾肯达坂组火山岩的岩石学和稀土元素的地球化学等研究证明，本区火山岩由基性火山岩和中性火山岩组成，火山岩均属于钙碱性系列，二者均具有低钾、富钠的特点。这些火山岩的稀土元素配分曲线均属于轻稀土富集型，明显地表现为轻稀土元素配分曲线陡倾，而重稀土元素配分曲线相对平坦的特征。这些岩石学和地球化学的特征证明本区火山岩形成于裂谷环境。     

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     

长白山区二道白河流域早更新世玄武质熔岩的成因

采用岩石化学和同位素分析方法,研究了二道白河流域早更新世玄武质熔岩的成因。玄武质熔岩由钠质拉斑玄武岩和钾质粗面玄武岩、玄武质粗面安山岩组成。它们的REE分配形式比较相近,表明它们来自共同的源区。Sr、Nd、Pb同位素示踪表明,二道白河流域早更新世玄武质熔岩岩浆源区接近于似原始地幔。它们的Mg#=100Mg O/(Mg O+Fe O)低于中国东部新生代玄武岩原始岩浆的Mg#(60~68),Ni(27.76×10-6~200.6×10-6)低于原始地幔,Rb/Sr(0.05~0.09)、Ba/Rb(15.64~264)高于原始地幔,说明这些岩石不是源自原始地幔。玄武质熔岩的DI变化于42~67,具有高Ca、高Sr、Eu正异常,微量元素图解显示玄武岩保留部分熔融趋势,粗面玄武岩、玄武质粗安岩具有结晶分异趋势,岩浆上升过程中发生了不同程度的地壳混染作用。玄武质熔岩的Nb/Ta之比为14.8~15.8,与勘察加半岛深俯冲带火山类似。Nb/Ta-(Na2O-K2O)关系图解显示研究区玄武质岩浆的形成与俯冲板片的部分熔融有关。     

Domal structures and high-grade metamorphism in the Higher Himalayan Crystalline, Zanskar Region, north-west Himalaya, India

ABSTRACT In the main Himalayan range in the Ladakh-Zanskar area, domal structures have been observed at structurally deeper levels in the tectonic unit of the Higher Himalayan Crystalline. Their formation occurred during a second, temperature-dominated phase (M₂) of high-grade regional metamorphism, characterized by the semipelitic paragenesis of sillimanite-K-feldspar and incipient anatexis. The doming event reveals a local system of synmetamorphic uplift superimposed on a regional system of northeast-southwest trending compression. In the main Himalayan range the development of the dominant S₂ foliation is related to deformation during the doming phase, which started early in the M₂ event. The deformation propagated continuously north-east and south-west with time. In the north-east, on the northern slopes of the main Himalayan range, this deformation is expressed by extensional shear movements of the upper tectonic levels finally leading to the late- to postmetamorphic normal fault system of the Zanskar shear zone. Towards the south-west, deformation is expressed by compressional movements, e.g. at the Main Central Thrust (MCT) in the Kishtwar window area. The observed compression and extension is inferred to relate to an increased uplift of the domal bulges of the tectonic Kishtwar window and of the whole main Himalayan range.