Tephra glass chemistry provides storage and discharge details of five magma reservoirs which fed the 75 ka Youngest Toba Tuff eruption, northern Sumatra

The Youngest Toba Tuff contains five distinct glass populations, identified from Ba, Sr and Y compositions, termed PI (lowest Ba) \u2013 PV (highest Ba), representing five compositionally distinct pre-eruptive magma batches that fed the eruption. The PI\u2013PV compositions display systematic changes, with higher FeO, CaO, MgO, TiO2 and lower incompatible element concentrations in the low-SiO2 PIV/PV, than the high-SiO2 PI\u2013PIII compositions. Glass shard abundances indicate PIV and PV were the least voluminous magma batches, and PI and PIII the most voluminous. Pressure estimates using rhyolite-MELTS indicate PV magma equilibrated at ~6 km, and PI magma at ~3.8 km. Glass population proportions in distal tephra and proximal (caldera-wall) material describe an eruption which commenced by emptying the deepest PIV and PV reservoirs, this being preferentially deposited in a narrow band across southern India (possibly due to jet-stream and/or plinian eruption transport), and as abundant pumice clasts in the lowermost proximal ignimbrites. Later, shallower magma reservoirs erupted, with PI being the most abundant as the eruption ended, sourcing the majority of distal ash from co-ignimbrite clouds (PI- and PIII-dominant), where associated ignimbrites isolated earlier (PIV- and PV-rich) deposits. This study shows how analysis of tephra glass compositional data can yield pre-eruption magma volume estimates, and enable aspects of magma storage conditions and eruption dynamics to be described

Extraction, Storage and Eruption of Multiple Isolated Magma Batches in the Paired Mamaku and Ohakuri Eruption, Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand

ISSN:0022-3530ISSN:1460-241

An introduction to the application of X-ray microtomography to the three-dimensional study of igneous rocks

Imaging rocks in three-dimensions through X-ray microtomography enables routine visualization of structures in samples, which can be spatially resolved down to the sub-micron scale. Although X-ray tomography has been applied in biomedical research and clinical settings for decades, it has only recently been applied to studies of rocks, and few geoscientists realize its value and potential. This contribution provides an introduction to the principles and techniques of X-ray microtomography to the study of igneous rock textures as well as reviewing the current state of the art. We hope that this short review will encourage more geoscientists to apply X-ray microtomography in their research and that this will lead to new insights into the processes that occur in magmatic (as well as other geological) systems