From prodigious volcanic degassing to caldera subsidence and quiescence at Ambrym (Vanuatu): the influence of regional tectonics

Eruptive activity shapes volcanic edifices. The formation of broad caldera depressions is often associated with major collapse events, emplacing conspicuous pyroclastic deposits. However, caldera subsidence may also proceed silently by magma withdrawal at depth, more difficult to detect. Ambrym, a basaltic volcanic island, hosts a 12-km wide caldera and several intensely-degassing lava lakes confined to intra-caldera cones. Using satellite remote sensing of deformation, gas emissions and thermal anomalies, combined with seismicity and ground observations, we show that in December 2018 an intra-caldera eruption at Ambrym preceded normal faulting with >2 m of associated uplift along the eastern rift zone and 2.5 m of caldera-wide subsidence. Deformation was caused by lateral migration of >0.4 cubic kilometers of magma into the rift zone, extinguishing the lava lakes, and feeding a submarine eruption in the rift edge. Recurring rifting episodes, favored by stress induced by the D’Entrecasteaux Ridge collision against the New Hebrides arc, lead to progressive subsidence of Ambrym’s caldera and concurrent draining of the lava lakes. Although counterintuitive, convergent margin systems can induce rift zone volcanism and subsequent caldera subsidence.

Diameter of basalt columns derived from fracture mechanics bifurcation analysis

The diameter of columnar joints forming in cooling basalt and drying starch increases with decreasing growth rate. This observation can be reproduced with a linear-elastic three-dimensional fracture mechanics bifurcation analysis, which has been done for a periodic array of hexagonal columnar joints by considering a bifurcation mode compatible with observations on drying starch. In order to be applicable to basalt columns, the analysis has been carried out with simplified stationary temperature fields. The critical diameter differs from the one derived with a two-dimensional model by a mere factor of 1/2. By taking into account the latent heat released at the solidification front, the results agree fairly well with observed column diameters.

Volcanic craters, pit craters and high-level magma-feeding systems of a mafic island-arc volcano: Ambrym, Vanuatu, South Pacific

Ambrym is one of the largest volcanic islands of the Vanuatu arc. It has been the focus of exclusively mafic volcanism and has a structure dominated by a central 13 km-diameter caldera. Contained within the caldera are two major cone complexes, Marum and Benbow, which have been the locus of most historic eruptions. Vents within these are constantly in a state of strong degassing, with visible lava lakes periodically being observed in several subcraters. Vulcanian and strombolian explosive eruptions occur at least yearly, along with larger subplinian events every 20–30 years. The active vent systems are enclosed by several 100 m-deep vertical-walled pit craters that expose cross-sectional views through the transition zone between the conduit and the crater. Units include coherent magma bodies with interbedded pyroclastic successions. One of the Marum craters, Niri Taten, exposes portions of solidified lava lakes, magma pods that fed spatter cones, small shallow-level intrusions and larger sills that connect through a complex network of dykes to the surface and/or into the pyroclastic edifice. These features show that shallow-level infiltration of degassed and low-viscosity melts into pyroclastic-deposit-dominated volcanic sequences of Marum plays an important role in the growth of scoria and spatter cones. Once solidified, the large intrusive bodies apparently provide important buttressing of pyroclastic cones, but during emplacement they may also cause cone collapse and lateral escape of magma to form lava flows.