Impact vesiculation – a new trigger for volcanic bubble growth and degassing

We highlight a potentially important trigger for bubble growth and degassing in volcanic bombs. We have successfully triggered bubble growth in previously unvesiculated samples of silicate melt during experiments to simulate volcanic bomb impact, by firing pellets at, and dropping weights onto, melt samples. We call this phenomenon "impact vesiculation". Further work is required on real volcanic bombs to establish the extent to which impact vesiculation occurs in nature. However, our experiments are sufficient to demonstrate that impact vesiculation is a viable processes and should be borne in mind in analysis of bubble populations and degassing histories of bombs and spatter-fed lava flows. Degassing caused by impact vesiculation can occur only at ground-level, so any attempt to calculate the amount of erupted gas available for transport high into the atmosphere by convection above the source of a fountain-fed lava flow that is based on subtracting the volatile content of fluid inclusions from the volatile content of the resulting lava flow would be an overestimate if significant impact vesiculation has occurred

"Explosive Energy" during volcanic eruptions from fractal analysis of pyroclasts

Despite recent advances by means of experiments and high-resolution surveys and the growing understanding of the physical processes before and during volcanic eruptions, duration and type of eruptive activity still remain highly unpredictable. This uncertainty hinders appropriate hazard and associated risk assessment tremendously. In an effort to counter this problem, experimentally generated pyroclasts have been studied by fractal statistics with the aim of evaluating possible relationships between eruption energy and fragmentation efficiency. Rapid decompression experiments have been performed on three differently porous sample sets of the 1990–1995 eruption of Unzen volcano (Japan) at 850 °C and at initial pressure values above the respective fragmentation threshold [U. Kueppers, B. Scheu, O. Spieler, D. B. Dingwell, Fragmentation efficiency of explosive volcanic eruptions: a study of experimentally generated pyroclasts. J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res. 153 (2006) 125–135.,O. Spieler, B. Kennedy, U. Kueppers, D.B. Dingwell, B. Scheu, J. Taddeucci, The fragmentation threshold of pyroclastic rocks. EPSL 226 (2004) 139–148.]. The size distribution of generated pyroclasts has been studied by fractal fragmentation theory and the fractal dimension of fragmentation (Df), a value quantifying the intensity of fragmentation, has been measured for each sample. Results showthat size distribution of pyroclastic fragments follows a fractal law(i.e. power-law) in the investigated range of fragment sizes, indicating that fragmentation of experimental samples reflects a scale-invariant mechanism. In addition, Df is correlated positively with the potential energy for fragmentation (PEF) while showing a strong influence of the open porosity of the samples. Results obtained in this work indicate that fractal fragmentation theory may allow for quantifying fragmentation processes during explosive volcanic eruptions by calculating the fractal dimension of the size distribution of pyroclasts. It emerges fromthis study that fractal dimension may be utilised as a proxy for estimating the explosivity of volcanic eruptions by analysing their natural pyroclastic deposits

Frequency Dependent Rheology of Vesicular Rhyolite

Frequency dependent rheology of magmas may result from the presence of inclusions (bubbles, crystals) in the melt and/or from viscoelastic behavior of the melt itself. With the addition of deformable inclusions to a melt possessing viscoelastic properties one might expect changes in the relaxation spectrum of the shear stresses of the material (e.g., broadening of the relaxation spectrum) resulting from the viscously deformable geometry of the second phase. We have begun to investigate the effect of bubbles on the frequency dependent rheology of rhyolite melt. The present study deals with the rheology of bubble-free and vesicular rhyolite melts containing spherical voids of 10 and 30 vol %. We used a sinusoidal torsion deformation device. Vesicular rhyolite melts were generated by the melting (at 1 bar) of an Armenian obsidian (Dry Fountain, Erevan, Armenia) and Little Glass Mountain obsidian (California). The real and imaginary parts of shear viscosity and shear modulus have been determined in a frequency range of 0.005–10 Hz and temperature range of 600°–900°C. The relaxed shear viscosities of samples obtained at low frequencies and high temperatures compare well with data previously obtained by parallel plate viscometry. The relaxed shear viscosity of vesicular rhyolites decreases progressively with increasing bubble content. The relaxation spectrum for rhyolite melt without bubbles has an asymmetric form and fits an extended exponent relaxation. The presence of deformable bubbles results in an imaginary component of the shear modulus that becomes more symmetrical and extends into the low-frequency/high-temperature range. The internal friction Q −1 is unaffected in the high-frequency/low-temperature range by the presence of bubbles and depends on the bubble content in the high-temperature/low-frequency range. The present work, in combination with the previous study of Stein and Spera (1992), illustrates that magma viscosity can either increase or decrease with bubble content, depending upon the rate of style of strain during magmatic flow

Fragmentation efficiency of explosive volcanic eruptions: A study of experimentally generated pyroclasts

Products of magma fragmentation can pose a severe threat to health, infrastructure, environment, and aviation. Systematic evaluation of the mechanisms and the consequences of volcanic fragmentation is very difficult as the adjacent processes cannot be observed directly and their deposits undergo transport-related sorting. However, enhanced knowledge is required for hazard assessment and risk mitigation. Laboratory experiments on natural samples allow the precise characterization of the generated pyroclasts and open the possibility for substantial advances in the quantification of fragmentation processes. They hold the promise of precise characterization and quantification of fragmentation efficiency and its dependence on changing material properties and the physical conditions at fragmentation. We performed a series of rapid decompression experiments on three sets of natural samples from Unzen volcano, Japan. The analysis comprised grain-size analysis and surface area measurements. The grain-size analysis is performed by dry sieving for particles larger than 250 Am and wet laser refraction for smaller particles. For all three sets of samples, the grain-size of the most abundant fraction decreases and the weight fraction of newly generated ash particles (up to 40 wt.%) increases with experimental pressure/potential energy for fragmentation. This energy can be estimated from the volume of the gas fraction and the applied pressure. The surface area was determined through Argon adsorption. The fragmentation efficiency is described by the degree of fineparticle generation. Results show that the fragmentation efficiency and the generated surface correlate positively with the applied energy

Field-based density measurements as tool to identify preeruption dome structure: set-up and first results from Unzen volcano, Japan

For an improvement in the quality of conduit flow and dome-related explosive eruption models, knowledge of the preeruption or precollapse density of the rocks involved is necessary. As close investigation is impossible during eruption, the best substitute comes from quantitative investigation of the eruption deposits. The porosity of volcanic rocks is of primary importance for the eruptive behaviour and, accordingly, a key-parameter for realistic models of dome stability and conduit flow. Fortunately, this physical property may be accurately determined via density measurements. We developed a robust, battery-powered device for rapid and reliable density measurements of dry rock samples in the field. The density of the samples (sealed in plastic bags at 250 mbar) is determined using the Archimedean principle. We have tested the device on the deposits of the 1990–1995 eruption of Unzen volcano, Japan. Short setup and operation times allow up to 60 measurements per day under fieldwork conditions. The rapid accumulation of correspondingly large data sets has allowed us to acquire the first statistically significant data set of clast density distribution in block-and-ash flow deposits. More than 1100 samples with a total weight of 2.2 tons were measured. The data set demonstrates that the deposits of the last eruptive episode at Unzen display a bimodal density distribution, with peaks at 2.0F0.1 and 2.3F0.1 g/cm3, corresponding to open porosity values of 20 and 8 vol.%, respectively. We use this data set to link the results of laboratory-based fragmentation experiments to field studies at recently active lava domes

Fall-experiments on Merapi basaltic andesite and constraints on the generation of pyroclastic surges

International audienceWe have performed fall-experiments with basaltic andesite rock samples from Merapi volcano, using an apparatus designed to analyze samples heated up to 850°C. Relative pressure changes during impact and fragmentation of the samples were measured by a pressure transducer. From 200°C, dynamic pressure waves were formed on impact and fragmentation. Peak and duration of the pressure signal, and degree of fragmentation were found to strongly increase with increasing temperature of rock samples. The pressure waves are most likely generated by sudden heating of air forcing it to expand. We propose that the observed pressure changes are analogues to pyroclastic surges that may be generated on impact and fragmentation of large blocks during passage of a pyroclastic flow over a steep cliff. We infer that rock temperatures of ca. 400°C are sufficient for this process to occur, a temperature common in pyroclastic flows even in distal reaches