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Bulletin of Volcanology

, Volume 54, Issue 6, pp 447–458 | Cite as

Submarine tumuli and inflated tube-fed lava flows on Axial Volcano, Juan de Fuca Ridge

  • Bruce Appelgate
  • Robert W Embley
Article

Abstract

A seafloor lava field was mapped within the summit caldera of Axial Volcano, Juan de Fuca Ridge, using SeaMARC I sidescan sonor and submersible observations. By analogy with similar subaerial features, we infer that several volcanic seafloor features here formed by the process of lava flow inflation. Flow inflation occurs within tube-fed lava flows when lava continues to be supplied to the interior of a flow that has ceased advancing, thus uplifting the flow's rigid surface and creating a suite of characteristic surface structures. Inflated lavas require a feeder lava tube or tube system connected to a remote lava source, and therefore we infer that inflated submarine lava flows contain lava tubes. Inflated flow features identified from sidescan sonar images elsewhere on Axial Volcano and within the axial valley of the southern Juan de Fuca ridge suggest that flow inflation is a widespread submarine volcanic process.

Keywords

Lava Flow Sonar Image Lava Tube Lava Field Volcanic Process 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 1992

Authors and Affiliations

  • Bruce Appelgate
    • 1
  • Robert W Embley
    • 2
  1. 1.Department of Geology and Geophysics, School of Ocean and Earth Science and TechnologyUniversity of HawaiiHonoluluUSA
  2. 2.Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, NOAAHatfield Marine Science CenterNewportUSA

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