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Dynamics of ash-dominated eruptions at Vesuvius: the post-512 AD AS1a event

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Abstract

Recent stratigraphic studies at Vesuvius have revealed that, during the past 4,000 years, long lasting, moderate to low-intensity eruptions, associated with continuous or pulsating ash emission, have repeatedly occurred. The present work focuses on the AS1a eruption, the first of a series of ash-dominated explosive episodes which characterized the period between the two Subplinian eruptions of 472 AD and 1631 AD. The deposits of this eruption consist of an alternation of massive and thinly laminated ash layers and minor well sorted lapilli beds, reflecting the pulsatory injection into the atmosphere of variably concentrated ash-plumes alternating with Violent Strombolian stages. Despite its nearly constant chemical composition, the juvenile material shows variable external clast morphologies and groundmass textures, reflecting the fragmentation of a magma body with lateral and/or vertical gradients in both vesicularity and crystal content. Glass compositions and mineralogical assemblages indicate that the eruption was fed by rather homogeneous phonotephritic magma batches rising from a reservoir located at ~ 4 km (100 MPa) depth, with fluctuations between magma delivery and magma discharge. Using crystal size distribution (CSD) analyses of plagioclase and leucite microlites, we estimate that the transit time of the magma in the conduit was on the order of ~ 2 days, corresponding to an ascent rate of around 2 × 10−2 ms−1. Accordingly, assuming a typical conduit diameter for this type of eruption, the minimum duration of the AS1a event is between about 1.5 and 6 years. Magma fragmentation occurred in an inertially driven regime that, in a magma with low viscosity and surface tension, can act also under conditions of slow ascent.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially funded by the Italian “Dipartimento della Protezione Civile” in the frame of the 2004–2006 agreement with Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia—INGV, project V3_4/11 “V3_4 - Vesuvio”, to R Cioni. The work of C D’Oriano was founded by MIUR project: Advancing Interdisciplinary Research Platform on Volcanoes and Earthquakes (AIRPLANE). Helpful comments were provided by S Nakada, JDL White, A Volentik and an anonymous reviewer and they are gratefully acknowledged. We are grateful to P Pantani for graphical assistance and A Cavallo for technical assistance in EMP analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Pisa, Via della Faggiola 32, 56126, Pisa, Italy

    C. D’Oriano, R. Cioni & A. Bertagnini

  2. Dip.to di Scienze della Terra, Università di Cagliari, Via Trentino 51, 09127, Cagliari, Italy

    R. Cioni

  3. Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Catania, Piazza Roma 2, 95123, Catania, Italy

    D. Andronico

  4. Montserrat Volcano Observatory, Flemmings, Montserrat, West Indies

    P. D. Cole

  5. Seismic Research Centre, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies

    P. D. Cole

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  1. C. D’Oriano
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  2. R. Cioni
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  4. D. Andronico
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Correspondence to C. D’Oriano.

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Editorial responsibility: S. Nakada

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Fig. I

Vesicle volume distributions of all ash fragments. L is the vesicles diameter in μm. For the characterization of the three groups of ash fragments see Table 2 in the text. (GIF 22 kb)

High Resolution Image (TIFF 5.2 mb)

Fig. II

a) Composition of feldspar microlites represented on the feldspar ternary diagram. Core-rim pairs are indicated. b) Plot of pyroxene microlites composition. open circles: top of the eruption (L5); square: lapilli rich-layer (L4); filled circles: base of the eruption (L2). (GIF 18 kb)

High Resolution Image (TIFF 3.82 mb)

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D’Oriano, C., Cioni, R., Bertagnini, A. et al. Dynamics of ash-dominated eruptions at Vesuvius: the post-512 AD AS1a event. Bull Volcanol 73, 699–715 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-010-0432-1

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