Sulfur volcanism on Io

In February 2003, March 2003 and January 2004 Pele plume transmission spectra were obtained during Jupiter transit with Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), using the 0.1″ wide slit and the G230LB grating. The STIS spectra covered the 2100-3100 Å wavelength regions and extended spatially along Io's limb encompassing the region directly above and northward of the vent of the Pele volcano. The S₂ and SO₂ absorption signatures evident in these data indicate that the gas signature at Pele was temporally variable, and that an S₂ absorption signature was present ∼12° from the Pele vent near 6±5 S and 264±15 W, suggesting the presence of another S₂ bearing plume on Io. Contemporaneous with the spectral data, UV and visible-wavelength images of the plume were obtained in reflected sunlight with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) prior to Jupiter transit. The dust scattering recorded in these data provide an additional qualitative measure of plume activity on Io, indicating that the degree of dust scattering over Pele varied as a function of the date of observation, and that there were several other dust bearing plumes active during the observations. We present constraints on the composition and variability of the gas abundances of the Pele plume as well as the plumes detected by ACS and recorded within the STIS data, as a function of time.     

核废料处置库选址过程中自然灾害风险性评价

自然灾害是给人类及其设施带来严重灾难的危害。本文试图在了解灾害的危害性基础上，以火山作用为例，在核废料处置库选址中，通过圈定灾害高发区、确定风险评价参数、划出高风险区及风险等级三步骤，对灾害风险性进行评价。     

Sedimentological proof and dating of the Early Holocene volcanic eruption of Ulmener Maar (Vulkaneifel,Germany)

A minerogeniclayer occurs in early postglacial organic sediments from five maar lakes (West Eifel Volcanic Field, Germany). The mineralogy and stratigraphic position of this tephra suggests that it is related to the youngest German volcano, Ulmener Maar, nearby. Radiocarbon dating of wood from the base of the Ulmener Maar Tephra at two locations provide ages in agreement with an accelerator mass spectrometer ¹⁴C date for the minerogenic layer from sediments of Lake Holzmaar situated 13 km south-west of Ulmener Maar. The mean radiocarbon age is 9 560 years BP. Dating by varve chronology provides an age of 10017 years VT (varve time in years before 1950) or 10 895 years corrected VT. Based on palynology the Ulmener Maar Tephra was deposited at the end of the Preboreal. High values of natural remnant magnetization intensity, typical of pyroclastic material, confirm that this minerogenic layer differs in composition from other clastic deposits of the sedimentary record. Geochemical analyses reveal increased values of total trace elements for the Laacher See Tephra and Ulmener Maar Tephra. An isopach map based on thickness variations of the Ulmener Maar Tephra at five investigated maar lakes indicates that the tephra was mainly transported to the south west.     

Late Pleistocene to Holocene eruptive activity of Pico de Orizaba,Eastern Mexico

The Late Pleistocene to Holocene eruptive history of Pico de Orizaba can be divided into 11 eurptive episodes. Each eruptive episode lasted several hundred years, the longest recorded being about 1000 years (the Xilomich episode). Intervals of dormancy range from millenia during the late Pleistocene to about 500 years, the shortest interval recorded in the Holocene. This difference could reflect either changes in the volcano's activity or that the older stratigraphic record is less complete than the younger. Eruptive mechanisms during the late Pleistocene were characterized by dome extrusions, lava flows and ash-and-scoria-flow generating eruptive columns. However, in Holocene time plinian activity became increasingly important. The increase in dacitic plinian eruptions over time is related to increased volumes of dacitic magma beneath Pico de Orizaba. We suggest that the magma reservoir under Pico de Orizaba is stratified. The last eruptive episode, which lasted from about 690 years bp until ad 1687, was initiated by a dacitic plinian eruption and was followed by effusive lava-forming eruptions. For the last 5,000 years the activity of the volcano has been gradually evolving towards such a trend, underlining the increasing importance of dacitic magma and stratification of the magma reservoir. Independent observations of Pico de Orizaba's glacier early this century indicate that some increase in volcanic activity occurred between 1906 and 1947, and that it was probably fumarolic.     

Procida volcanic history: new insights into the evolution of the Phlegraean Volcanic District (Campania region,Italy)

New stratigraphic, major- and trace-element, and Sr-, Nd- and Pb- isotopic data on volcanic deposits older than 14 ka from the island of Procida, Italy, are presented and compared with published analyses from the rest of the Phlegraean Volcanic District (PVD). Procida rocks range in composition from basalt to shoshonite and trachyte and show ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd, ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb, ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb and ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb ratios varying within the ranges 0.70523–0.70678, 0.512539–0.512630, 18.99–19.29, 15.67–15.69 and 39.10–39.39, respectively. The presence of a compositional gap in the range SiO₂=54–59 wt % is evidence of magma bimodality, and suggests that the feeding magmatic system was formed by at least two different reservoirs located at different depths. Geochemical and isotopic variations with increasing differentiation can be explained by fractional crystallization mechanisms, that in some cases were associated with crustal contamination that occurred in both deeper and shallower reservoirs; the most evolved magmas formed in the shallower one. Mixing/mingling processes also occurred. The variation of isotopic composition through time observed both for Procida and for Campi Flegrei and Ischia rocks is evidence of strong affinity between magmas that erupted on the entire PVD until about 40 ka. This indicates that they share a common origin and a common plumbing system. Most of the PVD eruptive centers active until about 40 ka lie within a NE-SW-oriented volcano-tectonic belt extending from the southeastern part of Ischia, through Procida and Torregaveta volcano to the northeastern sector of the present Campi Flegrei caldera. This not only indicates the existence of a link between regional structures and volcanism in the area, but also suggests that PVD magma genesis and evolution were strongly regulated by extensional tectonics. In the last 40 ka the mafic rocks erupted along this extensional structure – from Torregaveta and the islands of Ischia and Procida – indicate that it still represents an important crustal discontinuity that focuses mantle-derived magmas. Procida trachybasalts are enriched in large ion lithophile elements (LILE) and light and middle rare earth elements (LREE and MREE), and show slight negative anomalies in the high field strength elements (HFSE) relative to average MORB. A slight depletion in HREE is present. Trace element and isotope systematics can be referred to a lithospheric mantle source. The lithospheric mantle source carries intra-plate and slab-derived components, the latter probably inherited from a previous subduction event.     

Middle Miocene peralkaline ignimbrites in the Hermosillo region (Sonora, Mexico): Geodynamic implications

Scattered ignimbritic mesas crop out in the Hermosillo region (Sonora, Mexico). These rocks that have been dated at 12.5 Ma (Middle Miocene) have the petrography and chemical characteristics of comendites. Such a flare-up of peralkaline acidic volcanism, after a long period of subduction-related arc volcanism, emphasises an important change in the source of volcanism. It corresponds to the latest stage of continental extension prior to the marine invasion and the development of spreading centres in the Gulf of California. To cite this article: J. Vidal Solano et al., C. R. Geoscience 337 (2005).     

Biotic effects of late Maastrichtian mantle plume volcanism: implications for impacts and mass extinctions

During the late Maastrichtian, DSDP Site 216 on Ninetyeast Ridge, Indian Ocean, passed over a mantle plume leading to volcanic eruptions, islands built to sea level, and catastrophic environmental conditions for planktic and benthic foraminifera. The biotic effects were severe, including dwarfing of all benthic and planktic species, a 90% reduction in species diversity, exclusion of all ecological specialists, near-absence of ecological generalists, and dominance of the disaster opportunist Guembelitria alternating with low O₂-tolerant species. These faunal characteristics are identical to those of the K–T boundary mass extinction, except that the fauna recovered after Site 216 passed beyond the influence of mantle plume volcanism about 500 kyr before the K–T boundary. Similar biotic effects have been observed in Madagascar, Israel, and Egypt. The direct correlation between mantle plume volcanism and biotic effects on Ninetyeast Ridge and the similarity to the K–T mass extinction, which is generally attributed to a large impact, reveal that impacts and volcanism can cause similar environmental catastrophes. This raises the inevitable question: Are mass extinctions caused by impacts or mantle plume volcanism? The unequivocal correlation between intense volcanism and high-stress assemblages necessitates a review of current impact and mass extinction theories.     

The emplacement of pahoehoe lavas on Kilauea and in the Deccan Traps

There is a growing interest in deciphering the emplacement and environmental impact of flood basalt provinces such as the Deccan, India. Observations of active volcanism lead to meaningful interpretations of now-extinct volcanic systems. Here, I illustrate and discuss the morphology and emplacement of the modern and active lava flows of Kilauea volcano in Hawaii, and based on them, interpret the compound pahoehoe lavas of the Deccan Traps. The latter are vastly larger (areally extensive and voluminous) than Kilauea flows, and yet, their internal architecture is the same as that of Kilauea flows, and even the sizes of individual flow units often identical. Many or most compound flows of the Deccan Traps were emplaced in a gentle, effusive, Kilauea-like fashion. Bulk eruption rates for the Deccan province are unknown, and were probably high, but the local eruption rates of the compound flows were no larger than Kilauea’s. Large (≥ 1000 km³) individual compound pahoehoe flows in the Deccan could have been emplaced at Kilauea-like local eruption rates (1 m³/sec per metre length of fissure) in a decade or less, given fissures of sufficient length (tens of kilometres), now exposed as dyke swarms in the province.     

广东梅县嵩溪早侏罗世火山活动及其地质构造与成矿意义

从熔岩——玄武岩的岩石学、岩石化学、微量元素、稀土元素和锶同位素组成，以及火山旋回中玻璃碎屑岩诸方面特征，详细地研究了下侏罗统含矿层位内海底基性火山活动，阐述矿区玄武岩形成环境为夭折的大陆裂谷前期地壳槽形裂陷地堑系——裂陷槽。并讨论该裂陷槽环境中基性火山活动的银锑成矿意义     

Geology and K-Ar dating of the Tuxtla Volcanic Field,Veracruz, Mexico

The Tuxtla Volcanic Field (TVF) is located on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in the southern part of the state of Veracruz, Mexico. Volcanism began about 7 my ago, in the Late Miocene, and continued to recent times with historical eruptions in ad 1664 and 1793. The oldest rocks occur as highly eroded remnants of lava flows in the area surrounding the historically active cone of San Martín Tuxtla. Between about 3 and 1 my ago, four large composite volcanoes were built in the eastern part of the area. Rocks from these structures are hydrothermally altered and covered with lateritic soils, and their northern slopes show extensive erosional dissection that has widened preexisting craters to form erosional calderas. The eastern volcanoes are composed of alkali basalts, hawaiites, mugearites, and benmoreites, with less common calc-alkaline basaltic andesites and andesites. In the western part of the area, San Martín Tuxtla Volcano and its over 250 satellite cinder cones and maars produced about 120 km³ of lava over the last 0.8 my. A ridge of flank cinder cones blocked drainage to the north to form Laguna Catemaco. Lavas erupted from San Martín and its flank vents are restricted to compositions between basanite and alkali basalt. The alignment of major volcanoes and flank vents along a N55°W trend suggests an extensional stress field in the crust with a minimum compressional stress orientation of N35° E. In total, about 800 km³ of lava has been erupted in the TVF in the last 7 my. This gives a magma output rate of about 0.1 km³/1000 year, a value smaller than most composite cones, but similar to cinder cone fields that occur in central Mexico. Individual eruptions over the last 5000 years had volumes on the order of 0.1km³, with average recurrence intervals of 600 years. The alkaline compositions of the TVF lavas contrast markedly with the calc-alkaline compositions erupted in the subduction-related Mexican Volcanic Belt to the west, leading previous workers to suggest that the TVF is not related to subduction. Trace-element signatures of TVF lavas indicate, however, that they are probably related to subduction. We suggest that the alkaline character of the TVF lavas is the result of low degrees of melting of a mantle source coupled with a stress regime that allows these small-volume melts to reach the surface in the TVF.