The role of water in cooling ignimbrites

A summary of observational literature on ignimbrites provides the basis for the development of a two-dimensional numerical model of ignimbrite cooling processes. Factors include emplacement conditions, post-emplacement processes, and the nature and timing of interactions with water during cooling. The model uses the multiphase finite element heat and mass transfer (FEHM) code, which has been enhanced to handle conditions up to 1500 °C. The instantaneous emplacement of a 750 °C ignimbrite with internal gas pressures of up to 0.5 MPa (lithostatic) has a great effect on the variably saturated substrate. A water table present within a few tens of meters of the base of the ignimbrite produces a region of high pressure and temperature that exists for about 20 years, driving vapor upward through the ignimbrite as diffuse flow and in gas escape structures and enhancing cooling at the base of the ignimbrite. Variations in initial gas pressure between atmospheric and lithostatic conditions have little effect on the thermal evolution. The results of the numerical modeling of 20- and 40-m-thick ignimbrites indicate that, even for moderate pore water saturations in the substrate, vaporization and resultant pressurization may exceed lithostatic confining pressures in the upper substrate and basal ignimbrite, and explosive pressure release may occur, resulting in the development of discrete fumarole conduits or phreatic explosions. The likelihood for explosive pressure release appears to be greater when the nominal ignimbrite thickness is on the order of the depth of a buried valley. The pressure buildup is enhanced by the geometry of the ignimbrite-substrate interface, especially at convex corners such as on the edges of a buried valley. The boiling zones at the top and bottom of a cooling ignimbrite involve the development of a heat-pipe, which provides an efficient means of transporting heat from the superheated tephra out tens of meters into the ambient environment. The predicted temporal evolution of temperature, pressure, and vapor flow in a 40-m ignimbrite support the conceptual model of degassing, welding and compaction, devitrification, and alteration occurring concomitantly in the first several years after emplacement and driven in part by production and migration of meteoric steam. This vapor flowing through the ignimbrite matrix at 5×10−5 kg s−1 in the first 10 years enhances devitrification in any part of the ignimbrite above the base in nonwelded deposits. In the case where welding occurs, lower permeability limits the diffuse flow of gas upward through the ignimbrite from the region of boiling and pore pressurization at the base, and enhanced devitrification in the basal parts of the ignimbrite may occur where pore vapors circulate in abundance. Immediately above the welded zone, a devitrified horizon may develop where the upper boiling/condensation zone and perched meteoric infiltration results in enhanced saturations.