Bubbled lava from the floor of the Sea of Okhotsk

A sample of bubbled lava raised from a submarine volcano in the Sea of Okhotsk was analyzed by means of electron microscopy and the ICP-MS technique. The outside of the sample is flecked with rounded micro- and macrocavities, and the inner part is characterized by a liquation structure. Along with this, the unstructured mass of the rock contains globular particles of nearly the same diameters as the cavities. The lava is close to andesites and volcanic ashes of Kamchatka Peninsula in the macro- and microelemental composition but different in the somewhat increased content of barium, strontium, lithium, niobium, tungsten, uranium, and thorium. It is suggested that the cavities were formed during the eruption of the submarine volcano owing to contact of the boiling gas-saturated lava with seawater accompanied by the ejection of ash, which was spread by marine currents over long distances.