Internal vs. external forcing in shallow marine diatreme formation: A case study from the Iblean Mountains (SE-Sicily, Central Mediterranean)

A model of diatreme evolution in a shallow marine setting is based on a multi-disciplinary analysis of diatremes in the Iblean Mountains (Sicily). The approach includes stratigraphic, volcanological, structural, petrologic and compositional data. We invoke a complex interplay of internal (rapid ascent and pyroclastic fragmentation of a volatile (CO2)-rich nephelinitic magma at depth) and external factors. These comprise hydroclastic explosions due to near-surface interaction of the rising particle/volatile mixture with seawater and water-saturated lime mud. Other external factors contributing to diatreme formation include regional and local tectonics (graben formation in pull-apart motion) combined with lateral pipe enlargement by bedrock-spalling and radial block subsidence into the diatreme pipe. We suggest that fragmentation of volatile-rich magma due to internal eruption forcing was fundamental in the formation of the Iblean shallow marine diatremes. Internal and external factors may act to a variable degree, however, during diatreme evolution in general.