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The Campanian Ignimbrite (southern Italy) geochemical zoning: insight on the generation of a super-eruption from catastrophic differentiation and fast withdrawal

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Abstract

More than ca 100 km3 of nearly homogeneous crystal-poor phonolite and ca 100 km3 of slightly zoned trachyte were erupted 39 ka during the Campanian Ignimbrite super eruption, the most powerful in the Neapolitan area. Partition coefficient calculations, equilibrium mineral assemblages, glass compositions and texture were used to reconstruct compositional, thermal and pressure gradients in the pre-eruptive reservoir as well as timing and mechanisms of evolution towards magma chamber overpressure and eruption. Our petrologic data indicate that a wide sill-like trachytic magma chamber was active under the Campanian Plain at 2.5 kbar before CI eruption. Thermal exchange between high liquidus (1199°C) trachytic sill and cool country rocks caused intense undercooling, driving a catastrophic and fast (102 years) in situ fractional crystallization and crustal assimilation that produced a water oversaturated phonolitic cap and an overpressure in the chamber that triggered the super eruption. This process culminated in an abrupt reservoir opening and in a fast single-step high decompression. Sanidine phenocrysts crystal size distributions reveal high differentiation rate, thus suggesting that such a sill-like magmatic system is capable of evolving in a very short time and erupting suddenly with only short-term warning.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank M. Serracino (CNR-IGAG, Rome) for the kind assistance during the electron microprobe analyses. We are thankful to G. Della Ventura (Università “Roma Tre”, Rome, Italy) for his help during the FT-IR analyses. The comments and suggestions of two anonymous referees are greatly appreciated.

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  1. Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Napoli Osservatorio Vesuviano, Via Diocleziano, 328, 80124, Naples, Italy

    Lucia Pappalardo & Giuseppe Mastrolorenzo

  2. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche—Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse (IGG), Sezione di Pavia, Via Ferrata 1, 27100, Pavia, Italy

    Luisa Ottolini

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  1. Lucia Pappalardo
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Correspondence to Lucia Pappalardo.

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Communicted by T.L. Grove.

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Pappalardo, L., Ottolini, L. & Mastrolorenzo, G. The Campanian Ignimbrite (southern Italy) geochemical zoning: insight on the generation of a super-eruption from catastrophic differentiation and fast withdrawal. Contrib Mineral Petrol 156, 1–26 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-007-0270-0

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