The fluidization behaviour of ignimbrite at high temperature and with mechanical agitation

Experiments were carried out to study the fluidization behaviour of ignimbrite at high temperature and while being mechanically agitated. Geldart group C behaviour occurs up to 565 degreesC when the material is subjected to increasing gas flow ( without agitation) from the loosely packed state. In contrast, even gentle mechanical agitation inhibits channelling and results in group-A type behaviour with homogeneous (non-bubbling) expansions of up to 30 - 40%. Bed collapse tests exhibit group-C behaviour at room temperature, group-A behaviour at 200 - 565 degreesC, and transitional behaviour at 55 degreesC. Both elevated temperature and mechanical agitation greatly increase the fluidizability of ignimbrite. It is inferred that a combination of high temperature and shear during transport will promote Geldart group A behaviour in pyroclastic flows

Observations on Average Trunk Diameters of Eucalyptus cunninghamii (Myrtaceae) in Relation to Elemental Concentrations of their Substrates

The rare Eucalyptus cunninghamii Sweet (Myrtaceae), the Cliff Mallee Ash, inhabits a geological niche associated with claystones, most often the Wentworth Falls Claystone Member of the Narrabeen Group. We show that some gross morphological attributes of E cunninghamii vary widely and that they are determined by elemental composition of its claystone substrate. We examined eight widely separated specimens and their substrates in the upper Blue Mountains of New South Wales and found that concentrations of thirteen elements in those substrates varied widely, mostly following a linear pattern. We also found that average trunk diameter of each specimen correlated strongly with most of the elemental concentrations in its substrate, and that average trunk diameter was therefore a good guide to the nutrient status of its substrate. Concentrations of potassium and phosphorus both varied by an order of magnitude

Eucalyptus cunninghamii (Myrtaceae) in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales – an Unexpected Connection between Botany and Geology

A three-year field study of the rare Eucalyptus cunninghamii Sweet (Myrtaceae), the Cliff Mallee Ash, uncovered a hitherto unrecognised connection between this taxon and its substrate. E cunninghamii has long been known to grow on cliff edges around two valleys of the upper Blue Mountains, the Grose and the Jamison, but details of that habitat were unexplored. We show that its preferred habitat in the upper Blue Mountains is on or just downslope of a clay layer, most often the Wentworth Falls Claystone Member (WFC), and that E cunninghamii is not found elsewhere (except for an anomalous outlier near Mittagong) because the WFC is not expressed stratigraphically except around the clifflines of the two valleys. This and other environmental features delimit the distribution of E cunninghamii to a very precise geospatial range which may cause problems in times of climate change

The Case for Selective ICT Outsourcing: it\u27s easier for green field sites

This paper examines published research on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Outsourcing and uses this as a framework through which to examine the delivery of ICT services at the South West Alliance of Rural Hospitals, an environment not without challenges. Right from the beginning the CIO appointed to the Alliance decided to address these challenges by implementing a high speed telecommunications network to reduce the costs of data, voice and video communications within the Alliance. The emergence of the truly virtual health care network in Victoria’s South West supported by external service providers but managed by a small yet powerful central ICT team holds a number of useful lessons for the delivery of services in start up cooperative organisations, particularly regional, rural and remote (R3) organisations

Evolution of the crustal magma plumbing system during the build-up to the 22-ka caldera-forming eruption of Santorini (Greece)

International audienceThe formation of shallow, caldera-sized reservoirs of crystal-poor silicic magma requires the generation of large volumes of silicic melt, followed by the segregation of that melt and its accumulation in the upper crust. The 21.8 ± 0.4-ka Cape Riva eruption of Santorini discharged >10 km3 of crystal-poor dacitic magma, along with <0.004 km3 year-1. Rapid ascent and accumulation of the Cape Riva dacite may have been caused by an increased flux of mantle-derived basalt into the crust, explaining the occurrence of hybrid andesites (formed by the mixing of olivine basalt and dacite in approximately equal proportions) in the Cape Riva and late Therasia products. Pressurisation of the upper crustal plumbing system by sustained, high-flux injection of dacite and basalt may have triggered the transition from prolonged, largely effusive activity to explosive eruption and caldera collapse

Volcanism of the South Aegean Volcanic Arc

Volcanism along the South Aegean Volcanic Arc began about 4.7 Ma and has lasted until the present day, with eruptions at Methana, Milos, Santorini, Kolumbo and Nisyros Volcanoes in historical times. These volcanoes can be grouped into five volcanic fields: three western fields of small, mostly monogenetic edifices, and two central/eastern fields with composite cones and calderas that have produced large explosive eruptions. Crustal tectonics exerts a strong control over the locations of edifices and vents at all five volcanic fields. Tephra and cryptotephra layers in deep-marine sediments preserve a continuous record of arc volcanism in the Aegean as far back as 200,000 years. Hazards from the volcanoes include high ash plumes, pyroclastic flows and tsunamis. Monitoring networks should be improved and expanded

Pre-explosive conduit conditions of the 1997 Vulcanian explosions at Soufrière Hills Volcano, Montserrat: II. Overpressure and depth distributions

International audienceA type example of Vulcanian eruptive dynamics is the series of 88 explosions that occurred between August and October 1997 at Soufrière Hills volcano on Montserrat Island. These explosions are interpreted to be caused by the pressurization of a conduit by a shallow highly crystalline and degassed magma plug. We test such an interpretation by combining the pressures and porosities of the pre-explosive magma column proposed by Burgisser et al. (2010, doi:10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2010.04.008) into a physical model that reconstructs a depth-referenced density profile of the column for four mechanisms of pressure buildup. Each mechanism yields a different overpressure profile: 1) gas accumulation, 2) conduit wall elasticity, 3) microlite crystallization, and 4) magma flowage. For the first three mechanisms, the three-part vertical layering of the conduit prior to explosion was spatially distributed as a dense cap atop the conduit with a thickness of a few tens of meters, a transition zone of 400–700 m with heterogeneous vesicularities, and, at greater depth, a more homogeneous, low-porosity zone that brings the total column length to ~ 3.5 km. A shorter column can be obtained with mechanism 4: a dense cap of less than a few meters, a heterogeneous zone of 200–500 m, and a total column length as low as 2.5 km. Inflation/deflation cycles linked to a periodic overpressure source offer a dataset that we use to constrain the four overpressure mechanisms. Magma flowage is sufficient to cause periodic edifice deformation through semi-rigid conduit walls and build overpressures able to trigger explosions. Gas accumulation below a shallow plug is also able to build such overpressures and can occur regardless of magma flowage. The concurrence of these three mechanisms offers the highest likelihood of building overpressures leading to the 1997 explosion series. We also explore the consequences of sudden (eruptive) overpressure release on our magmatic columns to assess the role of syn-explosive vesiculation and pre-fragmentation column expansion. We find that large shallow overpressures and efficient syn-explosive vesiculation cause the most dramatic pre-fragmentation expansion. This leads us to depict two end-member pictures of a Vulcanian explosion. The first case corresponds to the widely accepted view that the downward motion of a fragmentation front controls column evacuation. In the second case, syn-explosive column expansion just after overpressure release brings foamed-up magma up towards an essentially stationary and shallow fragmentation front

Bubble nucleation, growth and coalescence during the 1997 Vulcanian explosions of Soufrière Hills Volcano, Montserrat

International audienceSoufrière Hills Volcano had two periods of repetitive Vulcanian activity in 1997. Each explosion discharged the contents of the upper 0.5–2 km of the conduit as pyroclastic flows and fallout: frothy pumices from a deep, gas-rich zone, lava and breadcrust bombs from a degassed lava plug, and dense pumices from a transition zone. Vesicles constitute 1–66 vol.% of breadcrust bombs and 24–79% of pumices, all those larger than a few tens of µm being interconnected. Small vesicles ( few hundreds of µm) in pumices are interpreted as pre-dating explosion, implying pre-explosive conduit porosities up to 55%. About a sixth of large vesicles in pumices, and all those in breadcrust bombs, are angular voids formed by syn-explosive fracturing of amphibole phenocrysts. An intermediate-sized vesicle population formed by coalescence of the small syn-explosive bubbles. Bubble nucleation took place heterogeneously on titanomagnetite, number densities of which greatly exceed those of vesicles, and growth took place mainly by decompression. Development of pyroclast vesicle textures was controlled by the time interval between the onset of explosion–decompression and surface quench in contact with air. Lava-plug fragments entered the air quickly after fragmentation (not, vert, similar 10 s), so the interiors continued to vesiculate once the rinds had quenched, forming breadcrust bombs. Deeper, gas-rich magma took longer (not, vert, similar 50 s) to reach the surface, and vesiculation of resulting pumice clasts was essentially complete prior to surface quench. This accounts for the absence of breadcrusting on pumice clasts, and for the textural similarity between pyroclastic flow and fallout pumices, despite different thermal histories after leaving the vent. It also allowed syn-explosive coalescence to proceed further in the pumices than in the breadcrust bombs. Uniaxial boudinage of amphibole phenocrysts in pumices implies significant syn-explosive vesiculation even prior to magma fragmentation, probably in a zone of steep pressure gradient beneath the descending fragmentation front. Syn-explosive decompression rates estimated from vesicle number densities (> 0.3–6.5 MPa s− 1) are consistent with those predicted by previously published numerical models