Examining shear processes during magma ascent

Lava dome eruptions are prone to rapid shifts from effusive to explosive behaviour which reflects the rheology of magma. Magma rheology is governed by composition, porosity and crystal content, which during ascent evolves to yield a rock-like, viscous suspension in the upper conduit. Geophysical monitoring, laboratory experiments and detailed field studies offer the opportunity to explore the complexities associated with the ascent and eruption of such magmas, which rest at a pivotal position with regard to the glass transition, allowing them to either flow or fracture. Crystal interaction during flow results in strain-partitioning and shear-thinning behaviour of the suspension. In a conduit, such characteristics favour the formation of localised shear zones as strain is concentrated along conduit margins, where magma can rupture and heal in repetitive cycles. Sheared magmas often record a history of deformation in the form of: grain size reduction; anisotropic permeable fluid pathways; mineral reactions; injection features; recrystallisation; and magnetic anomalies, providing a signature of the repetitive earthquakes often observed during lava dome eruptions. The repetitive fracture of magma at ( fixed) depth in the conduit and the fault-like products exhumed at spine surfaces indicate that the last hundreds of meters of ascent may be controlled by frictional slip. Experiments on a low-to-high velocity rotary shear apparatus indicate that shear stress on a slip plane is highly velocity dependent, and here we examine how this influences magma ascent and its characteristic geophysical signals.