Saucer-shaped sills Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

A model of magma propagation in the crust is presented using a series of analogue experiments, where dyed water is injected at a constant flux into layers of solidified gelatine. The gelatine layers are transparent and, when intruded,... more

A model of magma propagation in the crust is presented using a series of analogue experiments, where dyed water is injected at a constant flux into layers of solidified gelatine. The gelatine layers are transparent and, when intruded, deform in an almost ideal-elastic manner under the experimental conditions (low gelatine concentration: 2.5 or 3 wt%, and low temperature: 5–10◦C). The upper gelatine layer was 1.0 to 1.5 times stiffer than the lower layer, with either a ‘weak’ or ‘strong’ interface strength between the gelatine layers. The gelatine is seeded with 20–50μm-diameter PMMA-RhB neutrally buoyant particles that are fluoresced by a pulsed, vertical laser sheet centred on the injection point. Digital image correlation (DIC) is used to calculate incremental strain and finite strain in the deforming host material as it is intruded. This is mapped in 2D for the developing experimental volcanic plumbing system that comprises a feeder dyke and sill. Since the gelatine deforms elastically, strain measurements correlate with stress. Our results indicate that, for constant magma flux, the moment of sill inception is characterised by a significant magmatic pressure decrease of up to ∼60%. This is evidenced by the rapid contraction of the feeder dyke at the moment the sill forms. Sill propagation is then controlled by the fracture properties of the weak interface, with fluid from the feeder dyke extracted to help grow the sill. Pressure drops during sill inception and growth are likely to be important in volcanic systems, where destabilisation of the magmatic plumbing system could trigger an eruption.

Magma is transported in the crust by blade-like intrusions such as dykes, sills, saucers, and also collects in thicker laccoliths, lopoliths and plutons. Recently, the importance and great number of shallow (b5 km) saucer shaped... more

Magma is transported in the crust by blade-like intrusions such as dykes, sills, saucers, and also collects in thicker laccoliths, lopoliths and plutons. Recently, the importance and great number of shallow (b5 km) saucer shaped intrusions has been recognized. Lopoliths and cup-shaped intrusions have also been reported in many geological contexts. Our field observations indicate that many intrusions, especially those emplaced into breccias or fractured rocks, have bulging, lobate margins and have shear faults at their bulbous terminations. Such features suggest that magma can propagate along a self-induced shear fault rather than a hydraulic tension fracture. To investigate this we use analogue models to explore intrusion propagation in a brittle country rock. The models consist of the injection of analogue magma (honey or Golden syrup) in a granular material (sand or sieved ignimbrite) that is a good analogue for brittle or brecciated rocks. These models have the advantage (over other models that use gelatin) to well represent the properties of brittle materials by allowing both shear-faults and tension fractures to be produced at suitable stresses. In our experiments we mainly obtain vertical dykes and inverted-cone like structures that we call cup-shaped intrusions. Dykes bifurcate into cup-shaped intrusions at depths depending on their viscosity. All cup-shaped intrusions uplift a central block. By injecting against a vertical glass plate we obtain detailed observations of the intrusion propagation style. We observe that dykes commonly split and produce cup shaped intrusions near the surface and that shear zone-related intrusions develop at the dyke tip. We conclude that many dykes propagate as a viscous indenter resulting from shear failure of host rock rather than tensional hydraulic fracturing of host rocks. The shear propagation model provides an explanation for the shape and formation of cup-shaped intrusions, saucer-sills and lopoliths.

Although subparallel swarms of dikes are thought to be the primary feeders to voluminous volcanic eruptions, increasing recognition of volumetrically significant sill complexes suggests that they too play an important role in magma ascent... more

Although subparallel swarms of dikes are thought to be the primary feeders to voluminous volcanic eruptions, increasing recognition of volumetrically significant sill complexes suggests that they too play an important role in magma ascent through the shallow crust. However, the extent to which sills and interconnected, sill-fed dikes actually transport magma to the earth's surface in many large igneous provinces (LIP) is presently unclear. By analyzing field relationships and dimensions of intrusions of the Ferrar LIP in South Victoria Land, Antarctica, we show that sill-fed dikes were the likely feeders for voluminous flood basalt eruptions. These intrusions are small but numerous, with cumulative dimensions equivalent to a feeder network 308,000 km long and 1.8 m wide. Due to the tremendous aerial extent of this intrusive network, each individual dike-feeder segment would only be required to actively feed magma for 2 to 3 days on average to erupt the 70,000 km3 of flood lavas ...

Magma intrusions grow to their final geometries by deforming the Earth's crust internally and by displacing the Earth's surface. Interpreting the related displacements in terms of intrusion geometry is key to forecasting a volcanic... more

Magma intrusions grow to their final geometries by deforming the Earth's crust internally and by displacing the Earth's surface. Interpreting the related displacements in terms of intrusion geometry is key to forecasting a volcanic eruption. While scaled laboratory models enable us to study the relationships between surface displacement and intrusion geometry, past approaches entailed limitations regarding imaging of the laboratory model interior or simplicity of the simulated crustal rheology. Here we apply cutting-edge medical wide beam X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) to quantify in 4D the deformation induced in laboratory models by an intrusion of a magma analog (golden syrup) into a rheologically-complex granular host rock analog (sand and plaster). We extract the surface deformation and we quantify the strain field of the entire experimental volume in 3D over time by using Digital Volume Correlation (DVC). By varying the strength and height of the host material, and intrusion velocity, we observe how intrusions of contrasting geometries grow, and induce contrasting strain field characteristics and surface deformation in 4D. The novel application of CT and DVC reveals that distributed strain accommodation and mixed-mode (opening and shear) fracturing dominates in low-cohesion material overburden, and leads to the growth of thick cryptodomes or cup-shaped intrusions. More localized strain accommodation and opening-mode fracturing dominates in high-cohesion material overburden, and leads to the growth of cone sheets or thin dikes. The results demonstrate how the combination of CT and DVC can greatly enhance the utility of optically non-transparent crustal rock analogs in obtaining insights into shallow crustal deformation processes. This unprecedented perspective on the spatio-temporal interaction of intrusion growth coupled with host material deformation provides a conceptual framework that can be tested by field observations at eroded volcanic systems and by the ever increasing spatial and temporal resolution of geodetic data at active volcanoes.

Although monogenetic volcanic fields pose hazards to major cities worldwide, their shallow magma feeders (<500 m depth) are rarely exposed and, therefore, poorly understood. Here, we investigate exposures of dikes and sills in the Hopi... more

Although monogenetic volcanic fields pose hazards to major cities worldwide, their shallow magma feeders (<500 m depth) are rarely exposed and, therefore, poorly understood. Here, we investigate exposures of dikes and sills in the Hopi Buttes volcanic field, Arizona, to shed light on the nature of its magma feeder system. Shallow exposures reveal a transition zone between intrusion and eruption within 350 m of the syn-eruptive surface. Using a combination of field-and satellite-based observations, we have identified three types of shallow magma systems: (1) dike-dominated, (2) sill-dominated , and (3) interconnected dike-sill networks. Analysis of vent alignments using the pyroclastic massifs and other erup-tive centers (e.g., maar-diatremes) shows a NW-SE trend, parallel to that of dikes in the region. We therefore infer that dikes fed many of the eruptions. Dikes are also observed in places transforming to transgressive (ramping) sills. Estimates of the observable volume of dikes (maximum volume of 1.90 × 10 6 m 3) and sills (minimum volume of 8.47 × 10 5 m 3) in this study reveal that sills at Hopi Buttes make up at least 30 % of the shallow intruded volume (∼2.75 × 10 6 m 3 total) within 350 m of the paeosurface. We have also identified saucer-shaped sills, which are not traditionally associated with monogenetic volcanic fields. Our study demonstrates that shallow feeders in monogenetic fields can form geometrically complex networks, particularly those intruding poorly consolidated sedimentary rocks. We conclude that the Hopi Buttes eruptions were primarily fed by NW-SE-striking dikes. However, saucer-shaped sills also played an important role in modulating eruptions by transporting magma toward and away from eruptive conduits. Sill development could have been accompanied by surface uplifts on the order of decime-ters. We infer that the characteristic feeder systems described here for the Hopi Buttes may underlie monogenetic fields elsewhere, particularly where magma intersects shallow, and often weak, sedimentary rocks. Results from this study support growing evidence of the important role of shallow sills in active monogenetic fields.

Although subparallel swarms of dikes are thought to be the primary feeders to voluminous volcanic eruptions, increasing recognition of volumetrically significant sill complexes suggests that they too play an important role in magma ascent... more

Although subparallel swarms of dikes are thought to be the primary feeders to voluminous volcanic eruptions, increasing recognition of volumetrically significant sill complexes suggests that they too play an important role in magma ascent through the shallow crust. However, the extent to which sills and interconnected, sill-fed dikes actually transport magma to the earth's surface in many large igneous provinces (LIP) is presently unclear. By analyzing field relationships and dimensions of intrusions of the Ferrar LIP in South Victoria Land, Antarctica, we show that sill-fed dikes were the likely feeders for voluminous flood basalt eruptions. These intrusions are small but numerous, with cumulative dimensions equivalent to a feeder network 308,000 km long and 1.8 m wide. Due to the tremendous aerial extent of this intrusive network, each individual dike-feeder segment would only be required to actively feed magma for 2 to 3 days on average to erupt the 70,000 km3 of flood lavas represented by the Kirkpatrick basalts. The Ferrar intrusions form a broadly-distributed array of small, moderately dipping dikes (<2 km long, 1.8 m wide, 56° mean dip) exhibiting almost any orientation. This sill-fed dike network contrasts with dike swarms conventionally depicted to feed flood basalt provinces, and has the appearance of a variably “cracked lid” atop a sill complex. The cracked lid model may apply to a range of shallow feeder systems (<4 km depth) intruding sedimentary basins, where the effects of far-field tectonic stresses are negligible and sill intrusions exert the dominant control on dike orientations. We conclude that sill inflation, and resulting deformation of surrounding host rock, plays a critical role in the ascent of magma in shallow volcanic systems that span the full spectrum of eruptive volumes.