Diatremes and Craters Attributed to Natural Explosions: Usgs Trace Elements Memorandum 1090

Diatremes - volcanic pipes attributed to explosion - and craters have been studied to infer the ultimate causes and physical conditions attending natural explosive processes. Initial piercement of diatremes on the Navajo reservation, Arizona was probably along a fracture propagated by a high-pressure aqueous fluid. Gas rising at high velocity along the fracture would become converted to a gas-solid fluidized system by entrainment of wall- rock fragments. The first stages of widening of the vent are probably accomplished mainly by simple abrasion of the high-velocity fluidized system on the walls of the fracture. As the vent widens, its enlargement may be accelerated by inward spalling of the walls. The inferred mechanics of the Navajo-Hopi diatremes is used to illustrate the possibility of diatreme formation over a molten salt mass.

Author: United U. S. Department of the Interior,Eugene Merle Shoemaker
Publisher: Bibliogov
Published: 01/28/2013
Pages: 30
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.16lbs
Size: 9.69h x 7.44w x 0.06d
ISBN: 9781288670888

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