The transition of spatter to lava-like body in lava fountain deposits: features and examples from the Cabezo Segura volcano (Calatrava, Spain)

The Cabezo Segura II volcanic cone (Calatrava volcanic province, Iberian microplate) comprises proximal wall deposits with a well defined crater wall unconformity and crater-fill deposits. The complex volcanic succession, that shows evidence of several eruptive episodes, was built by magmatic and hydrovolcanic explosions of different styles (Strombolian, Hawaiian, sub-Plinian and phreato-Strombolian) generated from a multiple feeder ultrabasic dyke. Intra-crater rock units at the volcano summit include spatter deposits together with up to 10 m thick and more than 200 m long lava-like bodies. Geological logs for the main lava-like bodies define a characteristic facies model that involves a central lava-like mass which grades vertically into a transition zone of apparently coherent spatter, then dense spatter and, finally, into vuggy spatter deposits. These units are inferred to have formed during pulsating lava fountain-type explosive eruptions; the depicted facies distribution being the result of progressive increase in welding grade and densification of the spatter in response to variations in the accumulation rate. Their field features may be used as a guide for the precise identification of vent sites in deposits of Hawaiian eruptions. Also, structures like those here recognised, that might have survived in lava-like flows, could be of help to identify when lava-producing eruptions represented an explosive Hawaiian event (lava fountains) and not a purely effusive event.

► The field relationships between spatter deposits and lava-like rocks. ► Lava-like gradation into apparently coherent spatter, dense spatter and vuggy spatter. ► The occurrence of alternating spatter and lava-like bodies constitute a precise indicator of vent proximity. ► These features may be used as a guide to either explosive or effusive lava-producing eruptions.