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- Creators: Arizona State University
Description
Tempe Terra, Mars, has a complex history marked by volcanism and tectonism. Investigation results presented here build on previous work to better determine the volcanic history of the Tempe volcanic province by identifying and mapping previously undetected vents, characterizing all vents, identifying spatial and temporal trends in eruptive styles, comparing vent density to similar provinces such as the Snake River Plains of Idaho and Syria Planum and determining absolute age relationships among the volcanic features. Crater size-frequency distribution model ages of 120 Ma to 2.4 Ga indicate the province has been active for over half of the planet's history. During that time, age decreases from southwest to northeast, a trend that parallels the dominant orientation of faulting in the region, providing further evidence that volcanic activity in the region is tectonically controlled (or the tectonics is magmatically controlled). Morphological variation with age hints at an evolving magma source (increasing viscosity) or changing eruption conditions (decreasing eruption rate or eruption through thicker lithosphere).
ContributorsManfredi, Leon (Author) / Clarke, Amanda B (Thesis advisor) / Williams, David A. (Thesis advisor) / Reynolds, Stephen J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Silicic volcanoes produce many styles of activity over a range of timescales. Eruptions vary from slow effusion of viscous lava over many years to violent explosions lasting several hours. Hazards from these eruptions can be far-reaching and persistent, and are compounded by the dense populations often surrounding active volcanoes. I apply and develop satellite and ground-based remote sensing techniques to document eruptions at Merapi and Sinabung Volcanoes in Indonesia. I use numerical models of volcanic activity in combination with my observational data to describe the processes driving different eruption styles, including lava dome growth and collapse, lava flow emplacement, and transitions between effusive and explosive activity.
Both effusive and explosive eruptions have occurred recently at Merapi volcano. I use satellite thermal images to identify variations during the 2006 effusive eruption and a numerical model of magma ascent to explain the mechanisms that controlled those variations. I show that a nearby tectonic earthquake may have triggered the peak phase of the eruption by increasing the overpressure and bubble content of the magma and that the frequency of pyroclastic flows is correlated with eruption rate. In 2010, Merapi erupted explosively but also shifted between rapid dome-building and explosive phases. I explain these variations by the heterogeneous addition of CO2 to the melt from bedrock under conditions favorable to transitions between effusive and explosive styles.
At Sinabung, I use photogrammetry and satellite images to describe the emplacement of a viscous lava flow. I calculate the flow volume (0.1 km3) and average effusion rate (4.4 m3 s-1) and identify active regions of collapse and advance. Advance rate was controlled by the effusion rate and the flow’s yield strength. Pyroclastic flow activity was initially correlated to the decreasing flow advance rate, but was later affected by the underlying topography as the flow inflated and collapsed near the vent, leading to renewed pyroclastic flow activity.
This work describes previously poorly understood mechanisms of silicic lava emplacement, including multiple causes of pyroclastic flows, and improves the understanding, monitoring capability, and hazard assessment of silicic volcanic eruptions.
Both effusive and explosive eruptions have occurred recently at Merapi volcano. I use satellite thermal images to identify variations during the 2006 effusive eruption and a numerical model of magma ascent to explain the mechanisms that controlled those variations. I show that a nearby tectonic earthquake may have triggered the peak phase of the eruption by increasing the overpressure and bubble content of the magma and that the frequency of pyroclastic flows is correlated with eruption rate. In 2010, Merapi erupted explosively but also shifted between rapid dome-building and explosive phases. I explain these variations by the heterogeneous addition of CO2 to the melt from bedrock under conditions favorable to transitions between effusive and explosive styles.
At Sinabung, I use photogrammetry and satellite images to describe the emplacement of a viscous lava flow. I calculate the flow volume (0.1 km3) and average effusion rate (4.4 m3 s-1) and identify active regions of collapse and advance. Advance rate was controlled by the effusion rate and the flow’s yield strength. Pyroclastic flow activity was initially correlated to the decreasing flow advance rate, but was later affected by the underlying topography as the flow inflated and collapsed near the vent, leading to renewed pyroclastic flow activity.
This work describes previously poorly understood mechanisms of silicic lava emplacement, including multiple causes of pyroclastic flows, and improves the understanding, monitoring capability, and hazard assessment of silicic volcanic eruptions.
ContributorsCarr, Brett B (Author) / Clarke, Amanda B (Thesis advisor) / Arrowsmith, Ramon (Committee member) / Mcnamara, Allen (Committee member) / Shirzaei, Manoochehr (Committee member) / Williams, Stanley (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Both volcanism and impact cratering produce ejecta and associated deposits incorporating a molten rock component. While the heat sources are different (exogenous vs. endogenous), the end results are landforms with similar morphologies including ponds and flows of impact melt and lava around the central crater. Ejecta from both impact and volcanic craters can also include a high percentage of melted rock. Using Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera Narrow Angle Camera (LROC NAC) images, crucial details of these landforms are finally revealed, suggesting a much more dynamic Moon than is generally appreciated. Impact melt ponds and flows at craters as small as several hundred meters in diameter provide empirical evidence of abundant melting during the impact cratering process (much more than was previously thought), and this melt is mobile on the lunar surface for a significant time before solidifying. Enhanced melt deposit occurrences in the lunar highlands (compared to the mare) suggest that porosity, target composition, and pre-existing topography influence melt production and distribution. Comparatively deep impact craters formed in young melt deposits connote a relatively rapid evolution of materials on the lunar surface. On the other end of the spectrum, volcanic eruptions have produced the vast, plains-style mare basalts. However, little was previously known about the details of small-area eruptions and proximal volcanic deposits due to a lack of resolution. High-resolution images reveal key insights into small volcanic cones (0.5-3 km in diameter) that resemble terrestrial cinder cones. The cones comprise inter-layered materials, spatter deposits, and lava flow breaches. The widespread occurrence of the cones in most nearside mare suggests that basaltic eruptions occur from multiple sources in each basin and/or that rootless eruptions are relatively common. Morphologies of small-area volcanic deposits indicate diversity in eruption behavior of lunar basaltic eruptions driven by magmatic volatiles. Finally, models of polar volatile behavior during impact-heating suggest that chemical alteration of minerals in the presence of liquid water is one possible outcome that was previously not thought possible on the Moon.
ContributorsStopar, Julie D (Author) / Robinson, Mark S. (Thesis advisor) / Bell, James (Committee member) / Christensen, Philip R. (Philip Russel) (Committee member) / Clarke, Amanda (Committee member) / Scowen, Paul (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Lava flow emplacement in the laboratory and on the surface of Mars was investigated. In the laboratory, the effects of unsteady effusion rates at the vent on four modes of emplacement common to lava flow propagation: resurfacing, marginal breakouts, inflation, and lava tubes was addressed. A total of 222 experiments were conducted using a programmable pump to inject dyed PEG wax into a chilled bath (~ 0° C) in tanks with a roughened base at slopes of 0, 7, 16, and 29°. The experiments were divided into four conditions, which featured increasing or decreasing eruption rates for either 10 or 50 s. The primary controls on modes of emplacement were crust formation, variability in the eruption rate, and duration of the pulsatory flow rate. Resurfacing – although a relatively minor process – is inhibited by an extensive, coherent crust. Inflation requires a competent, flexible crust. Tube formation requires a crust and intermediate to low effusion rates. On Mars, laboratory analogue experiments combined with models that use flow dimensions to estimate emplacement conditions and using high resolution image data and digital terrain models (e.g. THEMIS IR, CTX, HRSC), the eruption rates, viscosities, and yield strengths of 40 lava flows in the Tharsis Volcanic Province have been quantified. These lava flows have lengths, mean widths, and mean thicknesses of 15 – 314 km, 0.5 – 29 km, and 11 – 91 m, respectively. Flow volumes range from ~1 – 430 km3. Based on laboratory experiments, the 40 observed lava flows were erupted at 0.2 – 6.5x103 m3/s, while the Graetz number and Jeffrey’s equation when applied to 34 of 40 lava flows indicates eruption rates and viscosities of 300 – ~3.5 x 104 m3/s and ~105 – 108 Pa s, respectively. Another model which accounts for mass loss to levee formation was applied to a subset of flows, n = 13, and suggests eruption rates and viscosities of ~30 – ~1.2 x 103 m3/s and 4.5 x 106 – ~3 x 107 Pa s, respectively. Emplacement times range from days to centuries indicating the necessity for long-term subsurface conduits capable of delivering enormous volumes of lava to the surface.
ContributorsPeters, Sean (Author) / Christensen, Philip R. (Thesis advisor) / Clarke, Amanda B (Committee member) / Fink, Jonathan H. (Committee member) / Whipple, Kelin X (Committee member) / Sharp, Thomas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020