The internal structure of lava flows—insights from AMS measurements II: Hawaiian pahoehoe, toothpaste lava and 'a'ā

Abstract

We studied the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) of 22 basaltic flow units, including S-type pahoehoe, P-type pahoehoe, toothpaste lava and 'a'ā emplaced over different slopes in two Hawaiian islands. Systematic differences occur in several aspects of AMS (mean susceptibility, degree of anisotropy, magnetic fabric and orientation of the principal susceptibilities) among the morphological types that can be related to different modes of lava emplacement. AMS also detects systematic changes in the rate of shear with position in a unit, allowing us to infer local flow direction and some other aspects of the velocity field of each unit. 'A'ā flows are subject to stronger deformation than pahoehoe, and also their internal parts behave more like a unit. According to AMS, the central part of pahoehoe commonly reveals a different deformation history than the upper and lower extremes, probably resulting from endogenous growth.