Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Spatter matters – distinguishing primary (eruptive) and secondary (non-eruptive) spatter deposits

Jones, T.J.; Houghton, B.F.; Llewellin, E.W.; Parcheta, C.; Höltgen, L.

Spatter matters – distinguishing primary (eruptive) and secondary (non-eruptive) spatter deposits Thumbnail


Authors

T.J. Jones

B.F. Houghton

C. Parcheta

L. Höltgen



Abstract

Spatter is a common pyroclastic product of hawaiian fountaining, which typically forms vent-proximal ramparts or cones. Based on textural characteristics and field relations of spatter from the 1969 Mauna Ulu eruption of Kīlauea, Hawai’i, three spatter types were identified: (1) Primary spatter deposited as spatter ramparts and isolated cones during the peak of episode 1; (2) Late-stage spatter comprising dense, small volume, vent proximal deposits, formed at the end of episode 1; (3) Secondary spatter preserved in isolated mounds around tectonic ground cracks that we interpret to have formed by the disruption of overlying lava. We propose that not all spatter deposits are evidence of primary magmatic fountaining. Rather, deposits can be “secondary” in nature and associated with lava drain-back, disruption, and subsequent ejection from tectonic cracks. Importantly, these secondary pyroclastic deposits are difficult to distinguish from primary eruptive features based on field relations and bulk clast vesicularity alone, allowing for the potential misinterpretation of eruption vents, on Earth and in remotely sensed planetary data, thereby misinforming hazard maps and probabilistic assessments. Here, we show that vesicle number density provides a statistically-robust metric by which to discriminate primary and secondary spatter, supporting accurate identification of eruptive vents.

Citation

Jones, T., Houghton, B., Llewellin, E., Parcheta, C., & Höltgen, L. (2018). Spatter matters – distinguishing primary (eruptive) and secondary (non-eruptive) spatter deposits. Scientific Reports, 8, Article 9179. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27065-1

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 29, 2018
Online Publication Date Jun 15, 2018
Publication Date Jun 15, 2018
Deposit Date Apr 10, 2018
Publicly Available Date Jun 15, 2018
Journal Scientific Reports
Publisher Nature Research
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 8
Article Number 9179
DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27065-1

Files

Published Journal Article (5.4 Mb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.





You might also like



Downloadable Citations