The largest known Quaternary silicic lava body in the world is Cerro Chao in north Chile, a 14‐km‐long coulée with a volume of at least 26 km3. It is the largest of a group of several closely similar dacitic lavas erupted during a recent (< 100,000 year old) magmatic episode in the Altiplano‐Puna Volcanic Complex (APVC; 21‐24°S) of the Central Andean Volcanic Zone. The eruption of Chao proceeded in three phases. Phase 1 was explosive and produced ∼1 km3 of coarse, nonwelded dacitic pumice deposits and later block and ash flows that form an apron in front of the main lava body. Phase 2 was dominantly effusive and erupted ∼22.5 km3 of magma in the form of a composite couleé covering ∼53 km2 with a 400‐m‐high flow front and a small cone of poorly expanded pumice around the vent. The lava is homogeneous with rare flow banding and vesicular tops and selvages. Ogives (flow ridges) reaching heights of 30 m form prominent features on its surface. Phase 3 produced a 6‐km‐long, 3‐km‐wide flow that emanated from a collapsed dome. Ogives are subdued, and the lava is glassier than that produced in previous phases. All the Chao products are crystal‐rich high‐K dacites and rhyodacites with phenocrysts of plagioclase, quartz, hornblende, biotite, sphene, rare sanidine, and oxides. Phenocryst contents reach 40–60 vol % (vesicle free) in the main phase 2 lavas but are lower in the phase 1 (20–25%) and phase 3 (∼40%) lavas. Ovoid andesitic inclusions with vesicular interiors and chilled margins up to 10 cm are found in the later stages of phase 2 and compose up to 5% of the phase 3 lava. There is little evidence for preemptive zonation of the magma body in composition, temperature (∼840°C), ƒO2 (10−11), or water content, so we propose that eruption of the Chao complex was driven by intrusion of fresh, hot andesitic magma into a crystallizing and largely homogeneous body of dacitic magma. Morphological measurments suggest that the Chao lavas had internal plastic viscosities of 1010 to 1012Pa s, apparent viscosities of 109 Pa s, surface viscosities of 1015 to 1024 Pa s, and a yield strength of 8×105 Pa. These estimates indicate that Chao would have exhibited largely similar rheological properties to other silicic lava extrusions, notwithstanding its high phenocryst content. We suggest that Chao's anomalous size is a function of both the relatively steep local slope (20° to 3°) and the available volume of magma. The eruption duration for Chao's emplacement is thought to have been about 100 to 150 years, with maximum effusion rates of about 25 m3 s−1 for short periods. Four other lavas in the vicinity with volumes of ∼5 km3 closely resemble Chao and are probably comagmatic. The suite as a whole shares a petrologic and chemical similarity with the voluminous regional Tertiary to Pleistocene ignimbrites of the APVC and may be derived from a zone of silicic magmatism that is thought to have been active since the late Tertiary. Chao and the other young lavas may represent either the waning of this system or a new episode fueled by intrusio...
The 1963 eruption of Gunung Agung produced 0.95 km 3 dense rock equivalent (DRE) of olivineBhornblende-bearing, weakly phyric, basaltic andesite tephra and lava. Evidence for magma mixing in the eruptive products includes whole-rock compatible and incompatible trace element trends, reverse and complex compositional zoning of mineral phases, disequilibrium mineral assemblages, sieve-textured plagioclase phenocrysts, and augite rims on reversely zoned orthopyroxene. Basalt magma mixed with pre-existing andesite magma shortly before eruption to yield basaltic andesite with a temperature of 1040-1100 7C at an assumed pressure of 2 kb, f O 2`N NO, and an average melt volatile content (H 2 OBCO 2 ) of 4.3 wt.%. Magmamixing end members may have provided some of the S and Cl emitted in the eruption. Glass inclusions in phenocrysts contain an average of 650 ppm S and 3130 ppm Cl as compared with 70 ppm and 2220 ppm, respectively, in the matrix glass. Maximum S and Cl contents of glass inclusions approach 1800 and 5000 ppm, respectively. Application of the petrologic method to products of the 1963 eruption for estimating volatile release yields of 2.5!10 12 g (Mt) of SO 2 and 3.4 Mt of Cl released from the 0.65 km 3 of juvenile tephra which contributed to stratospheric injection of H 2 SO 4 aerosols on 17 March and 16 May, when eruption column heights exceeded 20 km above sea level. An independent estimate of SO 2 release from atmospheric aerosol loading (11)(12) suggests that approximately 7 Mt of SO 2 was injected into the stratosphere. The difference between the two estimates can be most readily accounted for by the partitioning of S, as well as some Cl, from the magma into a water-rich vapor phase which was released upon eruption. For other recent high-S-release eruptions of more evolved and oxidized magmas (El Chichón, Pinatubo), the petrologic method gives values two orders of magnitude less than independent estimates of SO 2 emissions. Results from this study of the Agung 1963 magma and its volatile emissions, and from related studies on eruptions of more mafic magmas, suggest that SO 2 emissions from eruptions of higher-Ssolubility magma may be more reliably estimated by the petrologic method than may those from moreevolved magma eruptions.
We have conducted a preliminary investigation of the fractal nature of the plan‐view shapes of lava flows in Hawaii (based on field measurements and aerial photographs) as well as in Idaho and the Galapagos Islands (using aerial photographs only). Our results indicate that the shapes of lava flow margins are fractals. In other words, lava flow shape is scale‐invariant (at least within the range of scale measured, 0.5m to 2.4km). This observation has important implications for understanding the fluid dynamics of lava flows. It suggests that nonlinear forces are operating in them because nonlinear systems frequently produce fractals. Furthermore, a'a and pahoehoe flows can be distinguished by their fractal dimensions (D). The majority of the a'a flows we measured have D between 1.05 and 1.09, whereas the pahoehoe flows generally have higher D (1.14 – 1.23). We have extended our analysis to other planetary bodies by measuring flows from orbital images of Venus, Mars and the Moon. All are fractal, and have D consistent with the range of terrestrial a'a and pahoehoe values. Combining the terrestrial and extraterrestrial data, the fractal nature of lava flow outlines holds for over five orders of magnitude in scale (0.5m to 60km).
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