Unusual lapilli tuff ejecta erupted at Stromboli during the 15 March 2007 explosion shed light on the nature and thermal state of rocks forming the crater system of the volcano

Abstract

Textural and mineralogical study of high-temperature, angular blocks erupted during the Stromboli explosion of 15 March 2007 was used to make inferences on the nature and thermal state of rocks forming the subsurface of the volcano' summit crater terrace. The studied ejecta consist of lapilli tuff that formed as a result of the transformation and high temperature induration (sintering) of the basaltic scoriae, lapilli and ash originally accumulated as loose tephra during the current activity of the volcano. The main processes leading to the tephra transformation were investigated through microstructural observations, mineral and glass analyses (SEM-EDS and EMP analyses). Investigations revealed that subsolidus reactions and partial melting of the tephra occurred, at temperatures higher than 600 °C and under variable fO2 conditions from QFM to HM buffering curves. In some blocks, evidence of high-T reheating and partial melting at the expense of secondary hydrothermal minerals was also observed. In order to track the subsolidus reheating history of the basaltic pyroclasts, a detailed study of the pseudomorphic phases and reactions after olivine, driven by iron oxidation under high-T conditions, was performed. The observed mineralogical transformation suggests that the lapilli tuff material, originating from the burial of tephra routinely accumulated by persistent Strombolian explosions within the crater terrace, were in some cases altered by the circulation of acidic fluids and were in any case reheated due to isotherm rise forced by high heat flux and gas streaming delivered by the underlying magma system. It is worth noting that the ejection of these unusual volcanic lithotypes was possible because a few days before the 15 March 2007 event, the craters were clogged with lapilli tuff material that slid into the crater bottom between 7 and 9 March. Findings of this study suggest that the scattered permanently active vents and shallow conduits of Stromboli are surrounded sideways and underneath the crater terrace, by a fairly large volume of high temperature rocks with variable degree of compaction, sintering up to partially melted. Such a spectrum of rock types is in good agreement with the conceptual model of prominent thermal zoning all around (sideway and upwards) the active magmatic system. We speculate that continuous migration upwards of isotherms led to transformation and partial melting of the normal Strombolian tephra.