Magma dynamics within a basaltic conduit revealed by textural and compositional features of erupted ash: the December 2015 Mt. Etna paroxysms.

ABSTRACT: In December 2015, four violent explosive episodes from Mt. Etna's oldest summit crater, the Voragine, produced eruptive columns extending up to 15 km a.s.l. and significant fallout of tephra up to a hundred km from the vent. A combined textural and compositional study was carried out on pyroclasts from three of the four tephra deposits sampled on the volcano at 6 to 14 km from the crater. Ash fractions (Φ = 1-2) were investigated because these grain sizes preserve the magma properties unmodified by post- emplacement processes. Results were used to identify processes occurring in the conduit during each single paroxysm and to understand how they evolve throughout the eruptive period. Results indicate that the magmatic column is strongly heterogeneous, mainly with respect to microlite, vesci

SUBMITTER: Pompilio M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5500471 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature