The dynamics of the Breccia Museo eruption (Campi Flegrei, Italy) and the significance of spatter clasts associated with lithic breccias

Abstract

The Breccia Museo Member is a pyroclastic deposit produced during an eruptive event that occurred in the southwestern sector of Campi Flegrei about 20,000 years ago. Two depositional units divided by a co-ignimbrite ash-fall deposit have been recognized. Facies variations in the deposits resulted from the interaction between the flow and paleomorphology, from the relative abundance of the lithic and juvenile components supplied by the source, and from the variations of the flow regime. The Lower Depositional Unit is a pyroclastic flow deposit characterized by a thick, coarse valley facies laterally grading into a thin, layered and fine-grained overbank facies. These different facies are due to the interaction between a density-stratified flow and topography. The more basal, high-concentration part of the flow was deposited along the axis of the paleovalleys (valley facies), whereas the upper, low-concentration part was deposited on the slopes (overbank facies). Vertical variations of the structures observed in the deposits of the Lower Depositional Unit resulted from flow unsteadiness during emplacement and, hence, on the variations of the suspended load fallout from the low-concentration upper part of the flow to the high-concentration boundary layer. The Upper Depositional Unit, made up of the Breccia, Spatter and Upper Pumice Flow Units, consists of horizons of lithic breccias and coarse welded spatter which thicken into the valleys. They are closely related to a gas-pipe-rich ash and pumice flow deposit. The strongly fines-poor character of the breccias and spatter beds is due to a very rapid segregation of the dense and coarse clasts and to the high rates of gas ascent through the hindered-settling zone in the basal part of the flow. After deposition of the majority of the dense and coarse material, the subsequent high-density depositional system came to rest immediately, thus yielding a pyroclastic flow deposit that is closely associated with the breccia. The presence of lithic breccia and spatter beds within the stratigraphic sequence is interpreted to reflect changes in the magma chamber structure during the eruption. Due to the drainage of part of the magma during the first phase of the eruption, the roof of the magma chamber collapsed and the lithostatic pressure fell below the magmatic pressure. We suggest that this new magmatic overpressure, not related to the expansion of the gas, generated fragmentation of poorly vesiculated magma inside the magma chamber. This triggered a new eruptive phase during which a mixture of spatter, pumice and collapse-produced lithic debris were erupted.