The isotopic composition of oxygen and carbon in the hyaloclastites from the Mt. Iblei volcanic area,Eastern Sicily: A preliminary study

Oxygen and carbon isotopic analyses were carried out for some typical submarine volcanic products (a lava flow, a pillow fragment and four hyaloclastite breccias) from the northwestern zone of the Mt. Iblei volcanic complex, eastern Sicily. The δ¹⁸O value of the perental basaltic magma (6.0 ± 0.2‰), estimated from the analyses of some fresh unaltered glassy samples of various type, lies in the values range of primary basalts. Appreciably higher δ¹⁸O values, probably due to low-temperature exchanges with sea water, have been found for lava samples and the interior of the pillow fragment. The δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C of the calcites of the groundmass of the hyaloclastite samples, ranging from 30.59 to 33.65 and from ?2.99 to 0.46‰ respectively, are typical of low-temperature marine carbonates. Because calcite is one of the last minerals to form. these results suggest that the hyaloclastites studied formed entirely in a submarine environment. The¹⁸O/¹⁶O ratios recorded in the silicate portions of the matrices of the hyaloclasites (δ¹⁸O=13.99 to 16.61) are interpreted as the result of halmyrolytic processes occurring at temperatures somewhat higher than that of the sea floor.