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Insights into eruption dynamics from textural analysis: the case of the May, 2008, Chaitén eruption

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Abstract

The May, 2008, Chaitén (southern Chile) eruption was characterized by several explosive events, each associated with plumes which reached up to about 19 km above sea level on May 6. A study of the textural and physical features of the juvenile clasts erupted during the climactic phase of the 2008 eruption of Chaitén is presented. Pumice clasts show unimodal density distribution (main mode at 600 kg/m3), average vesicularity of about 69 %, a glassy groundmass with no microcrystals, and vesicles with dimension between ∼1 μm and ∼2 mm. They also show a unimodal vesicle size distribution with most frequent vesicle size in the range 0.05–0.08 mm and an estimated vesicle number density of 1.3 ± 0.5 × 105 mm−3 related to a rapid nucleation event produced during the late phases of magma rise. This is confirmed by the absence of microcrystals that could otherwise have delayed vesicle formation and allowed the magma to maintain a low viscosity and a supersaturation in volatiles. Vesiculation and fragmentation were triggered by a sudden decompression of the melt associated with the opening of the volcanic conduit (∼10 MPa s−1).

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Acknowledgments

Special thanks to the “Chaitén field team”: Alain Volentik (Exxon Mobile, US), Charles and Laura Connor (University of South Florida, US), Sebastian Watt (University of Southampton, UK), and David Pyle (University of Oxford, UK). We are grateful to Laura Pioli (University of Geneva, Switzerland) for her useful and helpful comments for the data interpretation and to Wim Degruyter (University of California, Berkeley, US) for his preliminary review of the manuscript. Jonathan Castro (Monash University, US) and an anonymous reviewer are thanked for their constructive suggestions and comments that improved the manuscript.

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  1. Département de Minéralogie, Section des Sciences de la Terre et de L’Environnement, Université de Genève, 13, rue des Maraîchers, CH-1205, Genève, Switzerland

    Fabrizio Alfano & Costanza Bonadonna

  2. Université Blaise Pascal, Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans, Clermont Université, BP 10448, 63000, Clermont Ferrand, France

    Lucia Gurioli

  3. CNRS, UMR 6524, LMV, 63038, Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Lucia Gurioli

  4. IRD, R 163, LMV, 63038, Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Lucia Gurioli

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  1. Fabrizio Alfano
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  2. Costanza Bonadonna
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  3. Lucia Gurioli
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Correspondence to Fabrizio Alfano.

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Editorial responsibility: J.E. Gardner

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Alfano, F., Bonadonna, C. & Gurioli, L. Insights into eruption dynamics from textural analysis: the case of the May, 2008, Chaitén eruption. Bull Volcanol 74, 2095–2108 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-012-0648-3

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