Fragmentation versus transportation mechanisms in the pyroclastic sequence of Monte Pilato-Rocche Rosse (Lipari, Italy)

Abstract

Monte Pilato is a rhyolitic pumice cone formed about 1400 years ago during the last volcanic activity which occurred at Lipari. Its activity consisted of numerous explosive episodes, ending with the extrusion of the Rocche Rosse obsidian lava flow. We have identified nine different pyroclastic lithofacies, of which four main lithofacies represent 90% of the erupted products; they include: (1) deposits consisting of decimeters- to meters-thick well-sorted, graded beds of pumice lapilli, which are of fall origin; (2) massive deposits consisting of decimeters-thick beds of pumice lapilli in an ash matrix, interpreted as being of pyroclastic flow origin; (3) deposits of centimeters-thick ash beds of surge origin; (4) decimeter-thick fine ash layers with scattered subcentimetric accretionary lapilli of turbulent “flow” origin. The complex grain size distributions of the main lithofacies were distinguished using a multivariate statistic analysis ( R-mode factor analysis). Variations of the grain size characteristics in relation to the distance from the vent area have been investigated in order to discriminate the roles played by fragmentation and transportation processes. In the lithofacies 1 fall deposits, the grain size distribution is always unimodal and varies from a Rosin-type distribution near the vent to a Gaussian one in the distal outcrops. This is caused by the transport process and the different particle trajectories. In lithofacies 2, 3 and 4, the grain size distributions are always polymodal. The polymodality is not caused by preferential processes occurring during transportation, but seems, rather, to be connected with the original fragmentation of the pyroclastic material. The pumice lapilli present both in lithofacies 1 and 2 have mean vesicularity index values always in excess of 65%, and the value is homogeneous throughout the sample. These data suggest that for these two lithofacies, the pumice lapilli originated from exsolution of magmatic gases. In contrast, the fine ash particles in lithofacies 2, and also the main mode of lithofacies 3 and 4 deposits, show typical features of hydromagmatic fragmentation processes. The grain size population is always centered at 4–5 ϕ (0.032–0.064 mm) and, interestingly, the same grain size has been obtained recently (Zimanowski et al., 1991) for fragments produced by experimental magma/water interaction. Field and laboratory data suggest that during Monte Pilato-Rocche Rosse eruptions magmatic and hydromagmatic mechanisms were frequently operative at the same time.