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Large phreatomagmatic vent complex at Coombs Hills, Antarctica: Wet, explosive initiation of flood basalt volcanism in the Ferrar-Karoo LIP

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Abstract

The Mawson Formation and correlatives in the Transantarctic Mountains and South Africa record an early eruption episode related to the onset of Ferrar-Karoo flood basalt volcanism. Mawson Formation rocks at Coombs Hills comprise mainly (≥80% vol) structureless tuff breccia and coarse lapilli tuff cut by irregular dikes and sills, within a large vent complex (>30 km2). Quenched juvenile fragments of generally low but variable vesicularity, accretionary lapilli and country rock clasts within vent-fill, and pyroclastic density current deposits point to explosive interaction of basalt with groundwater in porous country rock and wet vent filling debris. Metre-scale dikes and pods of coherent basalt in places merge imperceptibly into peperite and then into surrounding breccia. Steeply dipping to sub-vertical depositional contacts juxtapose volcaniclastic rocks of contrasting componentry and grainsize. These sub-vertical tuff breccia zones are inferred to have formed when jets of debris + steam + water passed through unconsolidated vent-filling deposits. These jets of debris may have sometimes breached the surface to form subaerial tephra jets which fed subaerial pyroclastic density currents and fall deposits. Others, however, probably died out within vent fill before reaching the surface, allowing mixing and recycling of clasts which never reached the atmosphere. Most of the ejecta that did escape the debris-filled vents was rapidly recycled as vents broadened via lateral quarrying of country rock and bedded pyroclastic vent-rim deposits, which collapsed along the margins into individual vents. The unstratified, poorly sorted deposits comprising most of the complex are capped by tuff, lapilli tuff and tuff breccia beds inferred to have been deposited on the floor of the vent complex by pyroclastic density currents. Development of the extensive Coombs Hills vent-complex involved interaction of large volumes of magma and water. We infer that recycling of water, as well as recycling of pyroclasts, was important in maintaining water supply for phreatomagmatic interactions even when aquifer rock in the vent walls lay far from eruption sites as a consequence of vent-complex widening. The proportion of recycled water increased with vent-complex size in the same way that the proportion of recycled tephra did. Though water recycling leaves no direct rock record, the volcaniclastic deposits within the vent complex show through their lithofacies/structural architecture, lithofacies characteristics, and particle properties clear evidence for extensive and varied recycling of material as the complex evolved.

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Acknowledgements

Rachel Brown and Tim Barry are thanked for their cheerful field assistance, and Antarctica New Zealand, Helicopters New Zealand and the Royal New Zealand Air Force are thanked for logistical support. The technical assistance of Brent Pooley and Steven Read is much appreciated. This project was funded by Antarctica New Zealand and the University of Otago; MM is grateful to Fulbright New Zealand and the University of Hawaii for support during writing. Comments by Bruce Houghton, Pierre-Simon Ross and Thorvaldur Thordarson on earlier versions of the manuscript led to substantial improvements, and our thanks are due to Bruce, Pierre-Simon, Thor, Ian Skilling, David Elliot, Goonie Marsh and Karoly Németh for thought-provoking discussions of phreatomagmatism and flood basalt volcanism. We extend our thanks to Volker Lorenz and Cathy Busby for their thorough, helpful reviews, and to Julie Donnelly-Nolan for her editorial direction

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  1. Department of Geology, University of Otago, P.O Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Murray McClintock & James D. L. White

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Correspondence to Murray McClintock.

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Editorial responsibility: J. Donnelly-Nolan

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McClintock, M., White, J.D.L. Large phreatomagmatic vent complex at Coombs Hills, Antarctica: Wet, explosive initiation of flood basalt volcanism in the Ferrar-Karoo LIP. Bull Volcanol 68, 215–239 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-005-0001-1

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