Tephra Sampled from the Intraplate-Oceanic Island Volcano, Cumbre Vieja: The 2021 Eruption

• Published in: Journal of volcanology and seismology 2023-10, Vol.17 (5), p.393-407
• Main Authors: Silaev, V. I., Karpov, G. A., Shuisky, A. S., Khazov, A. F., Ignatiev, G. V., Shanina, S. N., Makeev, B. A., Smoleva, I. V., Kiseleva, D. V.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ashes; Basalt; Calcium magnesium silicates; Carbon dioxide; Carbonaceous materials; Chemical composition; Chlorides; Composition; Copper; Diopside; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Eruptions; Geochemistry; Geology; Geophysics/Geodesy; Grain size distribution; Gravel; Heavy metals; Ilmenite; Island arcs; Isotope composition; Magnetite; Metals; Mineralogy; Oceanic islands; Oceans; Olivine; Plagioclase; Rocks; Size distribution; Solid solutions; Tephra; Trace elements; Vapor phases; Volcanic islands; Volcanoes
• ISSN: 0742-0463; 1819-7108
• DOI: 10.1134/S0742046323700288

Comprehensive mineralogical and geochemical studies were conducted in application to a representative sample of tephra from Cumbre Vieja Volcano (the 2020–2021 eruption). The tephra has a gravel-psammitic grain-size distribution, and is characterized by an anomalously high degree of particle vesicularity. The whole-rock composition of this tephra is consistent with the transition from alkaline picrobasalts to alkaline basalts, while being essentially different from the tephra ashes discharged by marginal continental volcanoes. The tephra was studied to detect 45 trace elements with whole-rock compositions occasionally reaching 2333 g/t, above the respective figure for the tephra of island arc volcanoes. Judging by the relationship among geochemical criteria, the Cumbre Vieja tephra is consistent with the average parameter values for intraplate volcanoes in oceans. One geochemical feature of this tephra consists in a strong enrichment in lanthanoids, as well as in noble and platinoid metals. The lithogenic gas phase which was obtained by heating the tephra sample was found to contain H 2 , CO, CO 2 , H 2 O, CH 4 , C 2 H 4 , C 2 H 6 , C 3 H 6 , and С 3 H 8 . The proportions among inorganic components in the gas phase as a whole correspond to the boundary region between crustal and mantle–crustal derivates, but water is in relatively low amounts. Microlites were found to contain Fo 73–84 olivine; this contains dominantly diopside clinopyroxene, andesine–bytownite plagioclase, chrome-spinellids, phase-homogeneous solid solutions of ilmenite in magnetite, phases of Ni-Cu bearing native iron, quartz, and sodic hydroxyl-chlorides. In addition, the Cumbre Vieja tephra was found to contain dispersed scattered carbonaceous material with δ 13 С PDB = –30…–24‰ as the isotopic composition of carbon, which is consistent with the isotopic composition of carbon in abiogenic carbonaceous materials of volcanogenic origin. The entire set of results of these mineralogical and geochemical studies characterizes Cumbre Vieja Volcano as a typical intraplate-oceanic plume volcano.