Subglacial Silicic Eruptions: Wet Cavities and Moist Cavities.
Abstract
Comparing the deposits of subglacial eruptions with those of subaerial and subaqueous eruptions enables the influence of magma-water-ice interactions to be explored. In this presentation, the Icelandic subglacial rhyolite tuyas of Kerlingarfjöll and Prestahnúkur are compared with subaerial and subaqueous rhyolite formations at Sierra La Primavera, México. Prestahnúkur formed by the subglacial lava effusion and thick lava flows with steep termini are products of confinement by ice walls. Basal deposits of perlitised obsidian lobes suggest a water-saturated environment, and the extremely abundant microvesicular lava blocks surrounding these lobes and throughout the edifice are broadly similar to the carapaces of silicic lava domes at La Primavera known to have a subaqueous origin. Although bedded and sorted deposits are present at Prestahnúkur, they are trivial compared to the thick and extensive caldera-lake deposits of La Primavera, which even contain a "giant pumice" marker bed formed by the lake-wide deposition of once-bouyant blocks. The Kerlingarfjöll rhyolite tuyas formed during explosive subglacial eruptions. The first-erupted material forms structureless beds of phreatomagmatically-fragmented ash; ash from subaqueous eruptions at La Primavera is similarly fine grained, but in contrast is well-bedded (due to lacustrine deposition). Later-erupted material at Kerlingarfjöll typically consists of massive unconsolidated lapilli-tuffs. The lapilli themselves are similar to those within the well-sorted subaerially-formed pumice cones La Primavera, however Kerlingarfjöll's lapilli- tuffs have grain-size characteristics of proximal pyroclastic flows. These observations suggest that although similar fragmentation mechanisms operated in both locations, transport and consequent sorting was limited at Kerlingarfjöll. The different products of the two Icelandic subglacial tuyas are related to their different eruption rates and magma volatile contents. Melting of ice produces water, however in the Kerlingarfjöll eruption (which is thought to have been relatively brief and the vesicular magma is likely to have contained less heat per unit volume) the volumes were small and the subglacial cavity could be appropriately described as 'moist'. The Prestahnúkur eruption occurred in a 'wet' cavity but 'lacustrine' conditions were never developed and the ice was always close to the edifice. Poor sorting and structure in the subglacial deposits are due to a lack of time and space for sorting to occur. In contrast to more mafic eruptions, which are characterised by very strong meltwater-ice interactions, the main influence of the ice during subglacial rhyolite eruptions is reflected in the confinement of eruptive products.
- Publication:
-
AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2007
- Bibcode:
- 2007AGUSM.V33B..04S
- Keywords:
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- 8408 Volcano/climate interactions (1605;
- 3309);
- 8427 Subaqueous volcanism;
- 8428 Explosive volcanism;
- 8486 Field relationships (1090;
- 3690)