Mechanical models for correlation of ring-fracture eruptions at Pantelleria, Strait of Sicily, with glacial sea-level drawdown

Abstract

Recent K-Ar dating of eruptions at Pantelleria, a peralkaline volcanic island in the Strait of Sicily, shows a correlation between eruption of pantellerite lavas from caldera ring fractures and low stands of sea level as determined fromδ 18O stratigraphy. Post-caldera pantellerite lavas associated with an ∼ 114-ky-old caldera erupted along the ring-fracture zone during a major low stand of sea level at about 67 Ka. The most recent episode of lava-flow emplacement began about 20 ky ago during the last glacial maximum. Magma vented along the ring fault of a 45-ky-old caldera, from fractures radial to the caldera, and along faults formed by intracaldera trapdoor uplift. Two mechanical models based on elasticity theory are presented to explain the correlation of post-caldera ring-fracture eruptions at Pantelleria with lowering of sea level. A simple analysis of a bending circular plate of thickness,T r, and radius,R, representing the magma-chamber roof block, shows that tensile stress is concentrated by a factor of 0.75R 2/T 2 at the lower perimeter of the plate when sea level drops. Stress changes may be even greater ifT r is effectively less than the stratigraphic thickness due to layering of rocks in the roof block. Calculated stress changes due to a 100-m drawdown of sea level are similar in magnitude to stresses associated with dike propagation. More realistic model geometries, including different chamber shapes, a conical volcanic edifice, and sea-level drawdown beyond the surface projection of the magma chamber, were tested using the boundary-element method. Lowering sea level generates a horizontal tensile stress above the chamber, even when sea water is removed outboard of the magma chamber. For some chamber geometries the magnitude of the tensile stress maximum is greater than the ∼ 1 MPa pressure of the 100 m of removed water and is of the right order of magnitude for dike propagation. Dikes initiated by the change of the stress field may originate and propagate along fractures inboard of the chamber margin. The magnitudes of tensile maxima along the top of the chamber decrease as original sea level is moved outboard of the chamber margin and as the chamber thickness decreases. When the depth to the top of the magma chamber reaches a critical value, dependent on chamber geometry, the propagation of dikes to the surface is inhibited.