Abstract
The behavior of magma as it encounters unconsolidated sediment can be studied in fortuitous exposures of incised volcanic systems to help determine the conditions that control the transport, arrest, or mingling of that magma in the sediment. The Pliocene subaqueous basaltic fissure at 71 Gulch, Idaho, USA contains unusual light-colored glassy mingled clasts that were produced through the incorporation of domains of siliciclastic sands and silts into basalt. These clasts contain textures reflective of melting and mechanical mixing of these sediments with the rising basalt along intrusions at depths > 30 m beneath the pre-eruptive surface and transport into and through a shallow subsurface debris-filled vent. Mingled clasts comprised colorless glass with locally high silica contents and visible swirls of sideromelane along with crystals derived from both the host sediment and the 71 Gulch basalt. The unique combination of textures, minerals, plus major and trace element geochemistry within the geologic context of 71 Gulch points to a two-phase mixing that did not contribute directly to, nor impede, the phreatomagmatic explosions that erupted the mingled clasts.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Araña V, Ibarrola E (1973) Rhyolitic pumice in the basaltic pyroclasts from the 1971 eruption of Teneguia volcano, Canary Islands. Lithos 6:273–278
Befus KS, Hanson RE, Miggens DP, Breyer JA, Busbey AB (2009) Nonexplosive and explosive magma/wet-sediment interaction during emplacement of Eocene intrusions into Cretaceous to Eocene strata, Trans-Pecos igneous province, West Texas. J Volcanol Geotherm Res 181:155–172
Bennis KL, Graettinger AH (2020) Basaltic phreatomagmatic fissure at 71 Gulch Part 1: sediment magma mingling and eruptive behavior. Bull Volcanol. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-020-01416-1
Berg SE, Troll VE, Deegan FM, Burchardt S, Krumbholz M, Mancini L, Polacci M, Carracedo JC, Soler V, Arzilli F, Brun F (2016) Heterogeneous vesiculation of 2011 El Hierro xeno-pumice revealed by X-ray computed microtomography. Bull Volcanol 78(85). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-016-1080-x
Bonnichsen B, Boroughs S, Godchaux MM, Wolff J (2016) From land to lake: basalt and rhyolite volcanism in the western Snake River Plain, Idaho. In: Lewis RS, Schmidt KL (eds) Exploring the Geology of the Inland Northwest: Geological Society of America Field Guide, vol 41, pp 93–125. https://doi.org/10.1130/2016.0041(03)
Brand B, White CM (2007) Origin and stratigraphy of phreatomagmatic deposits at the Pleistocene Sinker Butte Volcano, Western Snake River Plain, Idaho. J Volcanol Geotherm Res 160:319–339
Busby-Spera C, White JDL (1987) Variation in peperite textures associated with different host-sediment properties. Bull Volcanol 49:765–775
Graettinger AH, Valentine GA (2017) Evidence for the relative depths and energies of phreatomagmatic explosions recorded in tephra rings. Bull Volcanol 79(88). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-017-1177x
Graettinger AH, Skilling IP, McGarvie DW, Hoskuldsson A (2012) Intrusion of basalt into frozen sediments and generation of coherent-margined volcaniclastic dikes (CMVDs). J Volcanol Geotherm Res 217-218:30–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2011.12.008
Graettinger AH, Valentine GA, Sonder I (2016) Recycling in debris-filled volcanic vents. Geology 44:811–814. https://doi.org/10.1130/G38081.1
Houghton BF, Smith RT (1993) Recycling of magmatic clasts during explosive eruptions: estimating the true juvenile content of phreatomagmatic volcanic deposits. Bull Volcanol 55:414–420
Jutras P, Macrae A, Owen JV, Dostal J, Preda M, Prichonnet G (2006) Carbonate melting and peperite formation at the intrusive contact between large mafic dykes and clastic sediments of the upper Palaeozoic Saint-Jules Formation, New-Carlisle, Quebec. Geol J 41:23–48. https://doi.org/10.1002/gj.1031
Kano K (2002) Middle Miocene volcaniclastic dikes at Kukedo, Shimane Peninsula, SW Japan: fluidization of volcaniclastic beds by emplacement of syn-volcanic andesitic dikes. J Volcanol Geotherm Res 114:81–94
Klügel A, Schmincke H-U, White JDL, Hoernle KA (1999) Chronology and volcanology of the 1949 multi-vent rift-zone eruption on La Palma (Canary Islands). J Volcanol Geotherm Res 94:267–282
Lanzafame G, Ferlito C, Donato S (2018) Combining chemical and X-ray microtomography investigations on crustal xenoliths at Mount Etna: evidence of volcanic gas fluxing. Ann Geophys 61. https://doi.org/10.4401/ag-7740
Latutrie B, Ross P-S (2019) Transition zone between the upper diatreme and lower diatreme: origin and significance at Round Butte, Hopi Buttes volcanic field, Navajo Nation Arizona. Bull Volcanol 81(26). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-019-1285-x
Lefebvre NS, White JDL, Kjarsgaard BA (2013) Unbedded diatreme deposits reveal maar-diatreme forming eruptive processes: Standing Rocks West, Hopi Buttes, Navajo Nation, USA. Bull Volcanol 75(739)
Loewen MW, Izbekov P, Moshrefezadeh J, Coombs M, Larsen J, Graham N, Harbin M, Waythomas C, Wallace K (2019) Petrology of the 2016-2017 eruption of Bogoslof Island, Alaska. Bull Volcanol 81(72). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-019-1333-6
Malde HE, Powers HA (1962) Upper Cenozoic stratigraphy of western Snake River Plain, Idaho. Geol Soc Am Bull 73:1197–1220
Martin U, Németh K (2007) Blocky versus fluidal peperite textures developed in volcanic conduits, vents and crater lakes of phreatomagmatic volcanoes in Mio/Pliocene volcanic fields of Western Hungary. J Volcanol Geotherm Res 159:164–178
Martin U, White JDL (2002) Melting and mingling of phonolitic pumice deposits with intruding dykes: an example from the Otago Peninsula, New Zealand. J Volcanol Geotherm Res 114:129–146
Muirhead JD, Van Eaton AR, Re G, White JDL, Ort M (2016) Monogenetic volcanoes fed by interconnected dikes and sills in the Hopi Buttes volcanic field, Navajo Nation, USA. Bull Volcanol 78(11)
Nemeth K, White CM (2009) Intra-vent peperites related to the phreatomagmatic 71 Gulch Volcano, western Snake River Plain volcanic field, Idaho (USA). J Volcanol Geotherm Res 183:30–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2009.02.020
Paredes-Mariño J, Dobson KJ, Ortenzi G, Kuepper U, Morgavi D, Petrelli M, Hess K-U, Laeger K, Porreca M, Pimentel A, Perugini D (2017) Enhancement of eruption explosivity by heterogeneous bubble nucleation triggered by magma mingling. Sci Rep 7:16897. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-17098-3
Squire RJ, McPhie J (2002) Characteristics and origin of peperite involving coarse-grained host sediment. J Volcanol Geotherm Res 114:45–61
Sweeney MR, Valentine GA (2015) Transport and mixing dynamics from explosions in debris-filled volcanic conduits: Numerical results and implications for maar-diatreme volcanoes. Earth Planet Sci Lett 425:64–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2015.05.038
Swirydczuk K, Larson GP, Smith GR (1981a) Volcanic ash stratigraphy of the Glenns Ferry and Chalk Hills Formations, western Snake River Plain, Idaho. Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology, Department of Lands
Swirydczuk K, Wilkinson BH, Smith GR (1981b) Synsedimentary lacustrine phosphorites from the Pliocene Glenns Ferry Formation of southwestern Idaho. J Sediment Res 51:1205–1214
Swirydczuk K, Larson GP, Smith GR (1982) Volcanic ash beds as stratigraphic markers in the Glenns Ferry and Chalk Hills Formations from Adrian, Oregon, to Bruneau, Idaho. Cenozoic Geol. Idaho. Idaho Bur Mines Geol Bull 26:543–558
Troll VR, Klügel A, Longpre M-A, Burchardt S, Deegan FM, Carracedo JC, Wismainer S, Kueppers U, Dahren B, Blythe LS, Hansteen TH, Freeda C, Budd DA, Jolis EM, Jonsson E, Meade FC, Harris C, Berg SE, Mancini L, Polacci M, Pedroza K (2012) Floating stones off El Hierro, Canary Islands: xenoliths of pre-island sedimentary origin in the early products of the October 2011 eruption. JGR Solid Earth 3:97–110. https://doi.org/10.5194/se-2-97/-2012
Valentine GA, Van Wyk de Vries B (2014) Unconventional maar diatreme and associated intrusions in the soft sediment-hosted Mardoux structure (Gergovie, France). Bull Volcanol 76(807). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-014-0807-9
Viney M, Mustoe GE, Dillhoff TA, Link PK (2017) The Bruneau woodpile: a Miocene phosphatized fossil wood locality in Southwestern Idaho, USA. Geosciences 7:82. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences7030082
White JDL (1991) Maar-diatreme phreatomagmatism at Hopi Buttes, Navajo Nation (Arizona), USA. Bull Volcanol 53:239–258
Wood SH, Clemens DM (1998) Geologic and tectonic history of the Western Snake River Plain, Idaho and Oregon. In: Bonnichsen B, White CM, McCurry M (eds) Tectonic and magmatic evolution of the Snake River Plain Volcanic Province, vol 30. Idaho Geological Survey Bulletin, pp 69–103
Acknowledgments
This work was completed with support from the University of Missouri Kansas City Research Board (AHG), Geological Society of America Graduate Research Grant (KB), and Academic Development Via Applied and Cutting-Edge Research for UMKC undergraduate and professional students from underrepresented minorities (ER). We are grateful to U. Kueppers and K. Nemeth for their valuable comments that improved this set of papers, as well as P.-S. Ross for his editorial oversight. We acknowledge that this work was conducted on the traditional territory of the Shoshone-Bannock people.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Editorial responsibility: P-S. Ross
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Graettinger, A., Bennis, K., Brand, B. et al. Basaltic phreatomagmatic fissure at 71 Gulch Part 2: unusual pyroclasts from sediment magma mingling and melting. Bull Volcanol 82, 81 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-020-01417-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-020-01417-0