Combined effusive-explosive silicic volcanism straddles the multiphase viscous-to-brittle transition

Fabian B. Wadsworth (), Taylor Witcher, Caron E. J. Vossen, Kai-Uwe Hess, Holly E. Unwin, Bettina Scheu, Jonathan M. Castro and Donald B. Dingwell ()
Additional contact information
Fabian B. Wadsworth: Durham University
Taylor Witcher: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat
Caron E. J. Vossen: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat
Kai-Uwe Hess: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat
Holly E. Unwin: University of Oxford
Bettina Scheu: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat
Jonathan M. Castro: University of Mainz
Donald B. Dingwell: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Magma is a viscoelastic fluid that can support fracture propagation when local shear stresses are high, or relax and flow when shear stresses are low. Here we present experiments to confirm this using synthetic and natural magmatic liquids across eruptive conditions and use Maxwell’s linear viscoelasticity to parameterize our results and predict the maximum stresses that can be supported during flow. This model proves universal across a large range of liquid compositions, temperatures, crystallinity and rates of strain relevant to shallow crustal magma ascent. Our results predict that the 2008 Volcán Chaitén eruption resided in the viscous field at the onset of magma ascent, but transitioned to a mixed viscous-brittle regime during degassing, coincident with the observed combined effusive-explosive behaviour during dome extrusion. Taking a realistic maximum effusive ascent rate, we propose that silicic eruptions on Earth may straddle the viscous-to-brittle transition by the time they reach the surface.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-07187-w 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:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-07187-w

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07187-w

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 ().