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Deep-bedded ultramafic diatremes in the Missouri River Breaks volcanic field, Montana, USA: 1 km of syn-eruptive subsidence.

Delpit, Séverine; Ross, Pierre-Simon et Hearn, B. Carter (2014). Deep-bedded ultramafic diatremes in the Missouri River Breaks volcanic field, Montana, USA: 1 km of syn-eruptive subsidence. Bulletin of Volcanology , vol. 76 , nº 7. p. 832. DOI: 10.1007/s00445-014-0832-8.

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Résumé

The ultramafic Eocene Missouri River Breaks volcanic field (MRBVF, Montana, USA) includes over 50 diatremes emplaced in a mostly soft substrate. The current erosion level is 1.3–1.5 km below the pre-eruptive surface, exposing the deep part of the diatreme structures and some dikes. Five representative diatremes are described here; they are 200-375 m across and have sub-vertical walls. Their infill consists mostly of 55-90 % bedded pyroclastic rocks (fine tuffs to coarse lapilli tuffs) with concave-upward bedding, and 45–10 % non-bedded pyroclastic rocks (medium lapilli tuffs to tuff breccias). The latter zones form steep columns 15–135 m in horizontal dimension, which cross-cut the bedded pyroclastic rocks. Megablocks of the host sedimentary formations are also present in the diatremes, some being found 1 km or more below their sources. The diatreme infill contains abundant lithic clasts and ash-sized particles, indicating efficient fragmentation of magma and country rocks. The spherical to sub-spherical juvenile clasts are non-vesicular. They are accompanied by minor accretionary lapilli and armored lapilli. The deposits of dilute pyroclastic density currents are locally observed. Our main interpretations are as follows: (1) the observations strongly support phreatomagmatic explosions as the energy source for fragmentation and diatreme excavation; (2) the bedded pyroclastic rocks were deposited on the crater floor, and subsided by 1.0–1.3 km to their current location, with subsidence taking place mostly during the eruption; (3) the observed non-bedded pyroclastic columns were created by debris jets that punched through the bedded pyroclastic material; the debris jets did not empty the mature diatreme, occupying only a fraction of its width, and some debris jets probably did not reach the crater floor; (4) the mature diatreme was nearly always filled and buttressed by pyroclastic debris at depth – there was never a 1.3–1.5-km-deep empty hole with sub-vertical walls, otherwise the soft substrate would have collapsed inward, which it only did near the surface, to create the megablocks. We infer that syn-eruptive subsidence shifted down bedded pyroclastic material and shallow sedimentary megablocks by 0.8–1.1 km or more, after which limited post-eruptive subsidence occurred. This makes the MRBVF diatremes an extreme end-member case of syn-eruptive subsidence in the spectrum of possibilities for maar-diatreme volcanoes worldwide.

Type de document: Article
Mots-clés libres: diatreme; Missouri River Breaks; ultramafic; phreatomagmatism; subsidence; Maar
Centre: Centre Eau Terre Environnement
Date de dépôt: 26 avr. 2017 13:47
Dernière modification: 26 avr. 2017 13:47
URI: https://espace.inrs.ca/id/eprint/3569

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