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Uranium and thorium in the volcanic processes

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Abstract

Distribution of radioactive elements in the Quaternary alkaline volcanites of Northern Latium has been studied and conclusions of volcanological interest, both as to differentiation of magma in the more superficial levels of the crust and as to the relationship between volcanic eruption and concentration of particular elements, have been drawn.

The following principal results are emphasized:

  1. i)

    There are two well defined types of distribution of U and Th corresponding to fractional crystallization differentiation and to pneumatolytic (gaseous transfer) differentiation. From the volcanological viewpoint, this double distribution mirrors the hypomagma or pyromagma conditions of the melt, thus allowing the physico-chemical characters of the magma to be defined, in respect to the different magma chambers considered and to the different levels of the same magma chamber, before an eruption.

  2. ii)

    The distribution of U and Th characterises better the different situations mentioned in i) than major elements do. In effect, in the magmatic conditions examined, the differentiation processes do not affect the magma inside the magma chamber only, but often may push on up to the surface through fumarolic activity. There ensues the selective loss of some of the major elements (K in particular): one can understand this way why the validity of information from major elements from a already cooled magma comes to being much limited.

  3. iii)

    The close interdependence among gas concentration, increase in trace pneumatophyles and volcanic eruption allows basic information to be extrapolated from concentration and distribution of U and Th to the primary causes of volcanic activity and to the gaseous phase increase and exsolution.

  4. iv)

    Original magma type being equal, the shape of the magma chamber influences strongly on the kind of differentiation and on the type of volcanic eruption.

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  1. Laboratorio Geominerario del CNEN, CSN Casaccia, S. Maria in Galeria, Roma, Italy

    E. Locardi

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Locardi, E. Uranium and thorium in the volcanic processes. Bull Volcanol 31, 235–260 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02597015

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