Equilibrium and disequilibrium degassing of a phonolitic melt (Vesuvius AD 79 “white pumice”) simulated by decompression experiments

Equilibrium and disequilibrium degassing of a volatile phase from a magma of K-phonolitic composition was investigated to assess its behavior upon ascent. Decompression experiments were conducted in Ar-pressurized externally heated pressure vessels at superliquidus temperature (1050 °C), in the pressure range 10–200 MPa using pure water as fluid phase. All experiments were equilibrated at 200 MPa and then decompressed to lower pressures with rates varying from 0.0028 to 4.8 MPa/s. Isobaric saturation experiments were performed at the same temperature and at 900–950 °C to determine the equilibrium water solubility in the pressure range 30–250 MPa. The glasses obtained from decompression experiments were analyzed for their dissolved water content, vesicularity and bubble size distribution. All decompressed samples presented a first event of bubble nucleation at the capsule–melt interface. Homogeneous bubble nucleation in the melt only occurred in fast-decompressed experiments (4.8 and 1.7 MPa/s), for ΔP ≅ 100 MPa. For these decompression rates high water over-saturations were maintained until a rapid exsolution was triggered at ΔP > 150 MPa. For slower rates (0.0028, 0.024, 0.17 MPa/s) the degassing of the melt took place by diffusive growth of the bubbles nucleating at the capsule–melt interface. This process sensibly reduced water over-saturation in the melt, preventing homogeneous nucleation to occur. For decompression rates of 0.024 and 0.17 MPa/s low water over-saturations were attained in the melt, gradually declining toward equilibrium concentrations at low pressures. A near-equilibrium degassing path was observed for a decompression rate of 0.0028 MPa/s. Experimental data combined with natural pumice textures suggest that both homogeneous and heterogeneous bubble nucleations occurred in the phonolitic magma during the AD 79 Vesuvius plinian event. Homogeneous bubble nucleation probably occurred at a depth of ∼ 3 km, in response to a fast decompression of the magma during the ascent.