Abstract Surtseyan eruptions are shallow to emergent subaqueous explosive eruptions that owe much of their characteristic behavior to the interaction of magma with water. The difference in thermal properties between water and air affects the cooling and postfragmentation vesiculation processes in magma erupted into the water column. Here we study the vesiculation and cooling processes during the 2009 and 2014–2015 Surtseyan eruptions of Hunga Tonga‐Hunga Ha'apai volcano by combining 2‐D and 3‐D vesicle‐scale analyses of lapilli and bombs and numerical thermal modeling. Most of the lapilli and bombs show gradual textural variations from rim to core. The vesicle connectivity in the lapilli and bombs increases with vesicularity from fully isolated to completely connected and also increases from rim to core in transitional clasts. We interpret the gradual textural variations and the connectivity‐vesicularity relationships as the result of postfragmentation bubble growth and coalescence interrupted at different stages by quenching in water. The measured vesicle size distributions are bimodal with a population of small and large vesicles. We interpret this bimodality as the result of two nucleation events, one prefragmentation with the nucleation and growth of large bubbles and one postfragmentation with nucleation of small vesicles. We link the thermal model with the textural variations in the clasts—showing a dependence on particle size, Leidenfrost effect, and initial melt temperature. In particular, the cooling profiles in the bombs are consistent with the gradual textural variations from rim to core in the clasts, likely caused by variations in time available for vesiculation before quenching.
Intraplate basaltic systems, often occurring as fields of small monogenetic volcanoes, are dominated by eruption of alkaline basaltic rocks, ranging from nephelinite/basanite to transitional/subalkaline. Their generally primitive erupted compositions imply limited crustal modification, and hence they provide an important probe into deep, lithospheric mantle and partial melting processes. Partial melting and magmatic ascent processes can be investigated using the composition of crystals, glass, and whole rock, although a combination of these is preferable. The whole-rock chemical variability within single eruptions or over the temporal and spatial extent of a volcanic field is controlled by the characteristics of the primary melting source, as well as near-source percolative/reaction processes. Coupled crystal- and -whole-rock detailed investigations are most promising to constrain the processes that modify primary melts into the primitive magmas that accumulate before ascent. Complex crystal textures and chemistry have so far demonstrated that basaltic magmas are principally processed and modified within the lithospheric mantle with minor modification en route through the crust. Fractional crystallization and magma mixing modify melts throughout ascent, and can imprint secondary chemical intra-eruptive variability. Quantifiable temperature and pressure parameters based on crystal-melt compositions constrain the depth of formation, and hence provide information about the role of different mineral phases in deep versus shallow chemical evolution. Volatile components in the melt (e.g., H2O and CO2) can be quantified on glass and melt inclusions. These analyses, coupled with solubility models, may help to reconstruct initial dissolved volatile content to further constrain the source characteristics and magmatic ascent dynamics. Integrated studies of crystals and melt paint a picture of extended lithospheric mantle to minor crustal processing resulting from the complex deep plumbing of monogenetic basaltic systems. This highlights the need for improved resolution to characterize true primary signatures and hence elucidate the formation of intraplate alkaline basalts.
Ulleung Island is the top of a 3000 m (from sea floor) intraplate alkalic volcanic edifice in the East Sea/Sea of Japan. The emergent 950 m consist of a basaltic lava and agglomerate succession (Stage 1, 1·37–0·97 Ma), intruded and overlain by a sequence of trachytic lavas and domes, which erupted in two episodes (Stage 2, 0·83–0·77 Ma; Stage 3, 0·73–0·24 Ma). The youngest eruptions, post 20 ka bp, were explosive, generating thick tephra sequences of phonolitic composition (Stage 4), which also entrained phaneritic, porphyritic and cumulate accidental lithics. Major element chemistry of the evolved products shows a continuous spectrum of trachyte to phonolite compositions, but these have discordant trace element trends and distinct isotopic characteristics, excluding a direct genetic relationship between the two end-members. Despite this, the Stage 3 trachytes and some porphyritic accidental lithics have chemical characteristics transitional between Stage 2 trachytes and Stage 4 phonolites. Within the phonolitic Stage 4 tephras three subgroups can be distinguished. The oldest, Tephra 5, is considerably enriched in incompatible elements and chondrite-normalized rare earth element (REE) patterns display negative Eu anomalies. The later tephras, Tephras 4–2, have compositions intermediate between the early units and the trachyte samples, and their REE patterns do not have significant Eu anomalies. The last erupted, Tephra 1, from a small intra-caldera structure, has a distinct tephriphonolite composition. Trace element and isotopic chemistry as well as textural characteristics suggest a genetic relationship between the phaneritic lithics and their host phonolitic pumices. The Stage 4 tephras are not related to earlier phases of basaltic to trachytic magmatism (Stages 1–3). They have distinct isotopic compositions and cannot be reliably modelled by fractional crystallization processes. The differences between the explosive phonolitic (Stage 4) and effusive trachytic (Stage 2–3) eruptions are mainly due to different pre-eruptive pressures and temperatures, causing closed- versus open-system degassing. Based on thermodynamic and thermobarometric modelling, the phonolites were derived from deeper (subcrustal) magma storage and rose quickly, with volatiles trapped until eruption. By contrast, the trachytes were stored at shallower crustal levels for longer periods, allowing open-system volatile exsolution and degassing before eruption.
Abstract The generation of silica undersaturated phonolite from silica saturated trachytes is uncommon, as it implies the crossing of the thermal barrier and critical plane of silica undersaturation. Nevertheless, a co-genetic suite displaying compositional transition from benmoreite-trachyte to phonolite has been observed within the Al Shaatha pyroclastic sequence in the Harrat Rahat Volcanic Field (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). We performed crystallization experiments on benmoreite and trachyte starting compositions to simulate the pressure-temperature-volatile conditions that generated the observed liquid line of descent. The experimental conditions were 200–500 MPa, 850–1150 °C, 0–10 wt% H2O, 0.0–0.5 wt% CO2, and NNO+2 oxygen buffer. The experimental mineral assemblage consists of clinopyroxene, feldspar, and titanomagnetite, as well as glass in variable proportions. The degree of crystallinity of hydrous runs is lower than that of anhydrous ones at analogous pressure and temperature conditions. Clinopyroxene crystallizes with compositions diopside-augite and augite-hedenbergite, respectively, at 500 and 200 MPa. The saturation of feldspar is primarily controlled by temperature and volatile content, with the more potassic composition equilibrating at low temperature (850–900 °C) and anhydrous (for benmoreite) or hydrous (for trachyte) conditions. At low pressure (200 MPa), temperatures below 850 °C, and anhydrous conditions, the degree of crystallization is extremely high (>90%), and the residual glass obtained from trachyte experiments is characterized by peralkaline and sodic affinity. This finding is consistent with natural eruptive products containing interstitial phonolitic glass within an anorthoclase framework. The shift from trachyte to phonolite is therefore interpreted as the result of open system interaction between trachytic magma and intercumulus phonolitic melt, as well as of dissolution of anorthoclase from a crystal mush.
Terra Nova, 23, 70–75, 2011 Abstract Continuous pyroclastic successions from monogenetic volcanoes in the Jeju Island Volcanic Field (Korea) were targeted for detailed geochemical investigations of juvenile ejecta to show that multiple distinct magma pulses may be erupted during a single monogenetic eruption. Deeply derived, and possibly multiply sourced, evolving magma pulses may erupt sequentially from the same vent and form generally uninterrupted depositional sequences with continuous chemical trends. Alternatively, pulses can rise independently, resulting in breccia horizons and truncation surfaces in depositional sequences and in stepped and mixed chemical trends. We infer that uninterrupted eruptions result from clear plumbing systems in which a single large dyke system feeds an eruption and where differently sourced magmas are erupted independently. Congested plumbing systems consisting of dyke complexes give rise to vent shifts, asymmetrical eruptive centres and composite depositional sequences. Integration of chemical variation and eruptive dynamics provides a powerful means of understanding monogenetic volcanoes.