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New physical characterization of the Fontana Lapilli basaltic Plinian eruption, Nicaragua

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Abstract

The Fontana Lapilli deposit was erupted in the late Pleistocene from a vent, or multiple vents, located near Masaya volcano (Nicaragua) and is the product of one of the largest basaltic Plinian eruptions studied so far. This eruption evolved from an initial sequence of fluctuating fountain-like events and moderately explosive pulses to a sustained Plinian episode depositing fall beds of highly vesicular basaltic-andesite scoria (SiO2 > 53 wt%). Samples show unimodal grain size distribution and a moderate sorting that are uniform in time. The juvenile component predominates (> 96 wt%) and consists of vesicular clasts with both sub-angular and fluidal, elongated shapes. We obtain a maximum plume height of 32 km and an associated mass eruption rate of 1.4 × 108 kg s−1 for the Plinian phase. Estimates of erupted volume are strongly sensitive to the technique used for the calculation and to the distribution of field data. Our best estimate for the erupted volume of the majority of the climactic Plinian phase is between 2.9 and 3.8 km3 and was obtained by applying a power-law fitting technique with different integration limits. The estimated eruption duration varies between 4 and 6 h. Marine-core data confirm that the tephra thinning is better fitted by a power-law than by an exponential trend.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the staff of the Instituto Nicaraguense de Estudios Territoriales (INETER) for their crucial support during field work and to Steffen Kutterolf for kindly providing information on marine-core data. We also thank Raffaello Cioni for the helpful comments and suggestions on the draft manuscript and the University of South Florida (USF) for the use of the Malvern PharmaVision 830 automated optical device. The manuscript benefited greatly from the constructive reviews of Andy Harris, Roberto Sulpizio and Don Swanson. This work was supported by NSF grants EAR-01-25719, EAR-03-10096, and EAR-05-37459, and by a fellowship from University of Rome La Sapienza (to Costantini). This is contribution no. 127 to Sonderforschungsbereich 574 “Volatiles and Fluids in Subduction Zones” at Kiel University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departement de Mineralogie, Université de Genève, Rue des Maraichers 13, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland

    L. Costantini & C. Bonadonna

  2. University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

    B. F. Houghton

  3. IfM-Geomar/SFB 574, Kiel, Germany

    H. Wehrmann

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  1. L. Costantini
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  2. C. Bonadonna
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  4. H. Wehrmann
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Correspondence to L. Costantini.

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Editorial responsibility: A. Harris

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Costantini, L., Bonadonna, C., Houghton, B.F. et al. New physical characterization of the Fontana Lapilli basaltic Plinian eruption, Nicaragua. Bull Volcanol 71, 337–355 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-008-0227-9

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