The submarine eruption of the Bombarda volcano, Milos Island, Cyclades, Greece

Abstract

The Milos volcanic field includes a well-exposed volcaniclastic succession which records a long history of submarine explosive volcanism. The Bombarda volcano, a rhyolitic monogenetic center, erupted ∼1.7 Ma at a depth <200 m below sea level. The aphyric products are represented by a volcaniclastic apron (up to 50 m thick) and a lava dome. The apron is composed of pale gray juvenile fragments and accessory lithic clasts ranging from ash to blocks. The juvenile clasts are highly vesicular to non-vesicular; the vesicles are dominantly tube vesicles. The volcaniclastic apron is made up of three fades: massive to normally graded pumice-lithic breccia, stratified pumice-lithic breccia, and laminated ash with pumice blocks. We interpret the apron beds to be the result of water-supported, volcaniclastic mass-How emplacement, derived directly from the collapse of a small-volume, subaqueous eruption column and from syn-eruptive, down-slope resedimentation of volcaniclastic debris. During this eruptive phase, the activity could have involved a complex combination of phreatomagmatic explosions and minor submarine effusion. The lava dome, emplaced later in the source area, is made up of flow-banded lava and separated from the apron by an obsidian carapace a few meters thick. The near-vertical orientation of the carapace suggests that the dome was intruded within the apron. Remobilization of pyroclastic debris could have been triggered by seismic activity and the lava dome emplacement.