Showing papers by "R. Stephen J. Sparks published in 1996"

Degassing during magma ascent in the Mule Creek vent (USA)

Abstract: The structures and textures of the rhyolite in the Mule Creek vent (New Mexico, USA) indicate mechanisms by which volatiles escape from silicic magma during eruption. The vent outcrop is a 300-m-high canyon wall comprising a section through the top of a feeder conduit, vent and the base of an extrusive lava dome. Field relations show that eruption began with an explosive phase and ended with lava extrusion. Analyses of glass inclusions in quartz phenocrysts from the lava indicate that the magma had a pre-eruptive dissolved water content of 2.5–3.0 wt% and, during eruption, the magma would have been water-saturated over the vertical extent of the present outcrop. However, the vesicularity of the rhyolite is substantially lower than that predicted from closed-system models of vesiculation under equilibrium conditions. At a given elevation in the vent, the volume fraction of primary vesicles in the rhyolite increases from zero close to the vent margin to values of 20–40 vol.% in the central part. In the centre the vesicularity increases upward from approximately 20 vol.% at 300 m below the canyon rim to approximately 40 vol.% at 200 m, above which it shows little increase. To account for the discrepancy between observed vesicularity and measured water content, we conclude that gas escaped during ascent, probably beginning at depths greater than exposed, by flow through the vesicular magma. Gas escape was most efficient near the vent margin, and we postulate that this is due both to the slow ascent of magma there, giving the most time for gas to escape, and to shear, favouring bubble coalescence. Such shear-related permeability in erupting magma is supported by the preserved distribution of textures and vesicularity in the rhyolite: Vesicles are flattened and overlapping near the dense margins and become progressively more isolated and less deformed toward the porous centre. Local zones have textures which suggest the coalescence of bubbles to form permeable, collapsing foams, implying the former existence of channels for gas migration. Local channelling of gas into the country rocks is suggested by the presence of sub-horizontal syn-eruptive rhyolitic tuffisite veins which depart from the vent margin and invade the adjacent country rock. In the central part of the vent, similar local channelling of gas is indicated by steep syn-eruption tuffisite veins which cut the rhyolite itself. We conclude that the suppression of explosive eruption resulted from gas separation from the ascending magma and vent structure by shear-related porous flow and channelling of gas through tuffisite veins. These mechanisms of gas loss may be responsible for the commonly observed transition from explosive to effusive behaviour during the eruption of silicic magma.

Sedimentation from turbulent jets and plumes

Abstract: Theoretical models are developed for the sedimentation from the margins of a particle-laden, axisymmetric, turbulent, buoyant plume, in a still environment and for an axisymmetric turbulent momentum jet. The models assume that the mass of each individual size fraction of sediment carried in a parcel of fluid decreases exponentially with time. For relatively coarse particles, the fallout models predict that the sediment deposition beyond a distance r on the ground expressed in log units should decay linearly with distance away from the vent for the momentum jet and should decrease with r1/3 for the buoyant plume. The exponential decay constant J is proportional to the terminal fall velocity Vt of the particles in both cases and inversely proportional to the square root of the initial momentum flux M0 for the jet fallout (Jj ∝ VtMo−1/2) and to the third power of the initial buoyancy flux Fo for the plume fallout (Jp ∝ VtFo−1/3). Smaller particles are affected by reentrainment caused by the turbulent eddies sweeping ambient fluid back into the plume or jet and thus reincorporating some particles that were released from the flow at greater heights. This is taken into account by introducing a reentrainment coefficient, ϕ, into the theoretical models with the assumption that the coefficient has a constant value for a plume of given strength. In new experiments, fallout occurs from the margins of particle-laden, fresh water, buoyant jets, and plumes in a tank of salty water, and sedimentation is measured on the tank floor. Two experiments were weakly affected by reentrainment and show excellent agreement with the simple theory. For smaller particles and increasingly buoyant plumes and strong jets, particle reentrainment is important. The experimental data are fitted by the new reentrainment theory, confirming that values of the reentrainment coefficient are approximately constant for a given flow. A settling number, β, is defined as the ratio of the characteristic velocity of the jet or plume to the particle settling velocity. For β ≥ 1, reentrainment seems to reach an equilibrium state for which the reentrainment coefficient is a constant of value 0.1 for jets and 0.4 for plumes, irrespective of flow strength or particle size. The plume experiments indicate that the value of the reentrainment coefficient is strongly dependent on plume strength and particle size for β slightly less than 1. The general principles of sedimentation from turbulent plumes and jets are applied to the fallout of pumice from volcanic eruption columns and of metalliferous particles from black smokers on the ocean floor. For volcanic eruptions, the results provide an explanation for the near vent overthickening of tephra fall deposits and imply that lithic and pumice fragments from small lapilli up to at least 1 m diameter blocks are efficiently reentrained into eruption columns. The size of particles reentrained in hydrothermal plumes is predicted to vary from less than 100 μm in weakly buoyant plumes up to over 1000 μm in megaplumes.

Melting of a sphere in hot fluid

Abstract: Solid bodies immersed in hot fluids may melt. The molten material produced can then mix with, and be assimilated into, the fluid influencing its compositional and thermal states. Compositional convection of melt and thermal convection of cooled fluid around the solid determine the heat flux from the fluid to the solid's surface. This, together with the thermal properties of the solid, controls the rate of melting. Experiments on melting wax spheres into water are described; these have shown how variations in the nature of melt flow round the sphere cause differing melting rates and hence the development of a distinctive melting morphology. Melting rates are calculated by a simple theoretical analysis which estimates melt layer thickness and the heat flux from the fluid. Melting rate predictions agree well with the experimental data. A geological application occurs when magma incorporates blocks of its surrounding wall rock. Relatively rapid melting rates are estimated, typically in the order of a half metre per day. Such fast rates indicate that this method of contamination may be an important influence on magmatic evolution in continental environments.