South Aegean Volcanic Glass: Separation and Analysis by INAA and EPMA

Abstract

Pumice from the major volcanic sources (Milos, Nisyros, Yali, Kos and Santorini) in the South Aegean region was investigated to reveal the differences between the composition of the bulk material, which contains a certain percentage of crystallites, and the pure glass phase, which is the main constituent. The knowledge of these differences is important for the identification of vitric tephra layers found in the Eastern Mediterranean region in archacological context, in deep sea drilling cores and lake sediments. Eruption products, deposited at some distance, show not only a decrease in their grain size, but also have usually lost their crystalline fraction due to gravity separation and consist only of glass shards. Major element distributions in such layers and in pumiceous glass are not sufficient for a reliable identification of the volcanic source, as several eruptions are known to have produced chemically very similar tephra layers in this region. Trace element data, especially of the rather immobile rare earth elements (REEs), can provide greater information on tephra originating from different volcanic eruptions. Therefore, a technique has been developed to separate the glass phase from different primary pumices to reveal differences in their trace element distributions. The concentrations of the major constituents, in particular Al, Ca, Fe, Mg, Mn, Na, Si, and Ti were determined by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), those of Al, As, Ba, Ca, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Dy, Eu, Fe, Hf, K, La, Lu, Mn, Na, Nd, Rb, Sb, Sc, Sm, Ta, Th, Ti, U, V, Yb and Zr by instrumental neutron activation analysis. Subtle differences between the compositions of the glass phase and the bulk material are explained by differentiation during partial crystallization. Their applicability to the classification of tephra layers is demonstrated.