E. A. Parfitt

Giant radiating dyke swarms on Earth and Venus

Abstract Concentrations of dykes of basic composition emplaced in the same igneous episode or along similar trends are known as mafic dyke swarms and they occur in a wide variety of environments and over a wide range of scales on Earth. Recent radar mapping of Venus has revealed families of linear features interpreted to be the surface expression of near-surface dyke swarms. The lack of significant erosion on Venus provides a view of the surface manifestation of dyke swarm emplacement, one which complements the terrestrial perspective of erosion to deeper levels. The goal of this review is to synthesize the information available on both planets in order to use the complementary and synergistic record of mafic dyke swarm emplacement to build toward a better understanding of this important phenomenon in planetary history. We focus on the formation and evolution of giant dyke swarms which cover tens to hundreds of thousands of square kilometres on both Earth and Venus. Mafic dyke swarms on Earth occur in a wide range of modes and are observed in environments ranging from volcanic edifices (e.g., Hawaii), to central complexes (e.g., Spanish Peaks Complex, USA; Ramon Swarm, Israel), spreading centres and ophiolite complexes, compressional plate boundaries in back-arc settings (Columbia River Basalts, USA) and in continent-continent collisions. One of the most impressive modes of occurrence is that linked to the formation and evolution of mantle plumes. Terrestrial examples include a giant radiating swarm covering 100° of azimuth (the Mackenzie swarm, Canada), a 360° giant radiating swarm (the Central Atlantic reconstructed swarm), deformed giant radiating swarms (the Matachewan swarm, Canada), rift-arm associated swarms (e.g., Grenville swarm, Canada; Yakutsk swarm, Siberia), and one consisting of widely separated dykes (e.g., the Abitibi swarm, Canada). We summarize the geometric, chemical and isotopic characteristics of terrestrial dyke swarms, including their size and geometry, ages, presence and absence of subswarms, and the relation between swarms of different ages. We also summarize the characteristics of individual dykes, examining dyke length and continuity, en echelon offsets, dyke bifurcation, dyke height, width and depth, dyke intrusion and cooling history, and evidence for flow directions. On Venus at least 163 large radiating lineament systems (radius generally > 100 km) composed of graben, fissure and fracture elements have been identified. On the basis of their structure, plan view geometry and volcanic associations, the radial elements of more than 70% of these are interpreted to have formed primarily through subsurface dyke swarm emplacement, with the remainder forming through uplift or some combination of these two mechanisms. These systems are essentially uneroded and provide a view of the surface characteristics of giant radial swarms prior to the erosion which commonly occurs on Earth. The individual graben, fissures and fractures of which the systems are composed are typically less than several kilometres in width and cluster near the centre, with fissures grading smoothly into fractures at greater distances to define the overall radial pattern. While the largest systems, like those on Earth, are thousands of kilometres in radius, the population average is about 325 km, and they generally do not extend to equal lengths in all directions. In their distal regions, however, the elements in 72% of the systems continue along a purely radial trend, while distal elements in the remaining 28% curve gradually into unidirectional, sub-parallel geometries, generally interpreted to be related to regional stress patterns. The radial systems have a strong association with volcanism; all but seven display some form of volcanic signature. A review of models of the emplacement of lateral dykes from magma chambers under constant (buffered) driving pressure conditions and declining (unbuffered) driving pressure conditions indicates that the two pressure scenarios lead to distinctly different styles of dyke emplacement. Emplacement of lateral dykes in the constant driving pressure (buffered) case, however, can produce dykes which have sizes and widths which are very large and independent of chamber size. On Earth, the characteristics of giant mafic dyke swarms such as the Mackenzie dyke swarm in Canada strongly suggest that they were emplaced in buffered conditions. On Earth, giant radiating dyke swarms are usually preserved as fan-shaped fragments which have been dismembered and distorted by subsequent plate tectonic rifting events. The abundant intact giant radiating swarms on Venus provide criteria by which fragmented terrestrial swarms can be reconstructed.

A study of clast size distribution, ash deposition and fragmentation in a Hawaiian-style volcanic eruption

Ash deposits from Hawaiian-style eruptions are generally of small volume but are important in understanding the mechanisms of these eruptions. An analysis of the ash deposit from the 1959 Kilauea Iki eruption of Kilauea Volcano is presented and the whole-deposit grain size distribution for the eruption is calculated. The grain size distribution is found to be heavily skewed towards the coarsest clast sizes and to differ considerably from size distributions for Plinian deposits.

Buffered and unbuffered dike emplacement on Earth and Venus - Implications for magma reservoir size, depth, and rate of magma replenishment

Models of the emplacement of lateral dikes from magma chambers under constant (buffered) driving pressure conditions and declining (unbuffered) driving pressure conditions indicate that the two pressure scenarios lead to distinctly different styles of dike emplacement. In the unbuffered case, the lengths and widths of laterally emplaced dikes will be severely limited and the dike lengths will be highly dependent on chamber size; this dependence suggests that average dike length can be used to infer the dimensions of the source magma reservoir. Probable examples on Earth of the unbuffered case are flanking rift zones on shield volcanoes such as the Hawaiian Kilauea East Rift Zone, in which the dikes of average widths of less than a meter extend for several km from the central part of the edifice. In contrast, emplacement of lateral dikes in the constant driving pressure (buffered) case can produce dikes which have sizes and widths which are very large, and are independent of chamber size. For relatively shallow magma chambers, buffered emplacement is expected to produce graben of relatively fixed length which are associated with eruptive fissures and long, large volume lava flows. A decline in magma supply rate and loss of pressure buffering during the later stages of such eruptions may give rise to caldera formation/collapse events. Deeper dikes are not likely to erupt but will produce surface graben of variable length. Therefore, edifices or dike swarms which show an extremely wide variation in fracture or dike lengths are likely to have been formed in buffered conditions. On Earth, the characteristics of many mafic-dike swarms suggest that they were emplaced in buffered conditions (e.g., the Mackenzie dike swarm in Canada and some dikes within the Scottish Tertiary). On Venus, the distinctive radial fractures and graben surrounding circular to oval features and edifices on many size scales and extending for hundreds to over a thousand km are candidates for dike emplacement in buffered conditions.

Basaltic magma reservoirs: factors controlling their rupture characteristics and evolution

The manner in which magma enters and leaves a magma reservoir is a fundamental aspect of magmatic activity. A quantitative model is developed to evaluate the variation of stress acting on the wall of a magma reservoir as a function of depth. Factors assessed include the size of the reservoir, its depth of burial, the strength of the country rocks, and the variation with depth of the densities of the magma and country rocks. It is shown that small magma reservoirs (with halfheights less than 1 km) centered at levels of neutral buoyancy can grow in all directions with nearly equal ease by injecting dikes into their surroundings at the sites of wall ruptures. In larger reservoirs (with half-heights greater than 2 km), however, the stress required to cause wall failure is much less at the depth corresponding to the center of the reservoir than it is near the top or bottom. Thus, larger reservoirs are likely to grow predominantly sideways by lateral dike injection. In these cases, vertical growth will not be important unless significant accumulation of low-density material can occur in the upper part of the reservoir. The formation of a low-density layer, due to gas exsolution or chemical differentiation of the magma, can facilitate failure of the roof and upward dike migration from a mature reservoir. As the reservoir grows and evolves through time, the increasing magma pressure head at the depth corresponding to the center of the reservoir means that the amount of gas exsolution or chemical differentiation required to allow the occurrence of vertical dike emplacement also increases. Ultimately, a vertical reservoir size is reached beyond which the excess stress required to cause lateral dike injection is so much less than that required to cause vertical injection that essentially no further vertical growth of the reservoir will occur. The reservoir will thus develop a more laterally elongate shape with time. The final aspect ratio will then depend mainly on the supply rate of magma to the reservoir from the mantle.

A Plinian treatment of fallout from Hawaiian lava fountains

A new model is presented which simulates the dispersal and deposition of material from a Hawaiian eruption column. The model treats the Hawaiian column as a coarse-grained Plinian column and uses a modified version of the Wilson and Walker [Wilson, L., Walker, G.P.L., 1987. Explosive volcanic eruptions: VI. Ejecta dispersal in Plinian eruptions: the control of eruption conditions and atmospheric properties. Geophys. J. R. Astron. Soc. 89, 657–679.] Plinian pyroclast dispersal model to simulate the fall out of material during a Hawaiian eruption. The model results are found to be in good agreement with independent estimates of various parameters made for the 1959 Kilauea Iki eruption of Kilauea volcano. The close agreement between the model results and these independent estimates shows that, dynamically, Hawaiian eruptions are indistinguishable from Plinian eruptions. The major differences in the styles and deposits of these two types of eruptions are accounted for by differences in the mass fluxes and gas contents of the erupting magmas and, most fundamentally, by differences in the grainsize distribution of the erupted clasts. Plume heights predicted by the model are greater than those found for previous models of Hawaiian eruptions. This is because previous models did not allow for the progressive fall out of particles from the plume and, more importantly, made no correction for the velocity disequilibrium between gas and clasts when the grainsize distribution is coarse.

The formation of perched lava ponds on basaltic volcanoes: the influence of flow geometry on cooling-limited lava flow lengths

Analysis of the formation of morphologically distinctive perched lava ponds produced in effusive basaltic eruptions focusses attention on the ways in which cooling and fluid dynamics interact to limit the distance a lava flow can travel. If a previously channelised flow spreads laterally on encountering a sudden decrease in the slope of the substrate or some other abrupt change in topography, its speed and thickness decrease progressively, in a way dictated by the requirements of mass and energy conservation. There is a consequent dramatic increase in heat loss from the lava as it thins. Where a flow spreads approximately radially in this way, it may form a perched lava pond. The high heat loss limits the size of any such pond to be at most a few hundred meters under almost all circumstances. Pond size depends much more strongly on lava volume flux than on any other physical parameter involved in the system, and the formation of these features provides a means of estimating eruption rates in paleo-eruptive episodes.

The relationship between the height of a volcano and the depth to its magma source zone: A critical reexamination

It is commonly assumed that hydrostatic pressure balance arguments can be used to establish a relationship between the maximum height to which a volcanic edifice is able to grow and the depth at which the partial melts providing its magma supply are formed. Such a relationship has been used to infer various aspects of the thermal and stress state of the lithosphere beneath volcanic constructs on Earth, Mars, Io and Venus. We examine the assumptions behind this relationship (which are that: (1) a continuous pressure connection exists between source and summit, (2) the pressure around the magma source is the local hydrostatic pressure dictated by the depth below the geoid, and (3) the melt erupting at the summit has a net positive buoyancy), and show that many of them require geologically unreasonable conditions. We then critically assess the evidence cited in the literature for the relationship and find that there are other factors that may explain the observations. We conclude that volcano heights on the terrestrial planets cannot be related in any simple way to lithospheric thickness or depth to the magma source zone and we review the range of other factors controlling volcano height.