Highly explosive basaltic eruptions driven by CO2 exsolution

Chelsea M. Allison (), Kurt Roggensack and Amanda B. Clarke
Additional contact information
Chelsea M. Allison: Arizona State University
Kurt Roggensack: Arizona State University
Amanda B. Clarke: Arizona State University

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract The most explosive basaltic scoria cone eruption yet documented (>20 km high plumes) occurred at Sunset Crater (Arizona) ca. 1085 AD by undetermined eruptive mechanisms. We present melt inclusion analysis, including bubble contents by Raman spectroscopy, yielding high total CO2 (approaching 6000 ppm) and S (~2000 ppm) with moderate H2O (~1.25 wt%). Two groups of melt inclusions are evident, classified by bubble vol%. Modeling of post-entrapment modification indicates that the group with larger bubbles formed as a result of heterogeneous entrapment of melt and exsolved CO2 and provides evidence for an exsolved CO2 phase at magma storage depths of ~15 km. We argue that this exsolved CO2 phase played a critical role in driving this explosive eruption, possibly analogous to H2O exsolution driving silicic caldera-forming eruptions. Because of their distinct gas compositions relative to silicic magmas (high S and CO2), even modest volume explosive basaltic eruptions could impact the atmosphere.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20354-2 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-20354-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20354-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().