Accurate forecasts of lava flow length rely on estimates of eruption andmagma properties and, potentially more challengingly, on an understanding of the relative influence of characteristics such as the apparent viscosity, the yield strength of the flow core, or the strength of the lava’s surface crust. For basaltic lavas, the relatively high frequency of eruptions has resulted in numerous oppo...

Basaltic pyroclastic volcanism takes place over a range of scales and styles, from weak discrete Strombolian explosions (!10–10 kg s) to Plinian eruptions of moderate intensity (10–10 kg s). Recent well-documented historical eruptions from Etna, Kı̄lauea and Stromboli typify this diversity. Etna is Europe’s largest and most voluminously productive volcano with an extraordinary level and diversit...

Rhyolite lavas and xenoliths from the Salton Sea geothermal field (Southern California) provide insights into crustal compositions and processes during continental rupture and incipient formation of oceanic crust. Salton Buttes rhyolite lavas contain xenoliths that include granophyres, fine-grained altered rhyolites (“felsite”), and amphibole-bearing basalts. Zircon is present in lavas and xeno...

We report lead isotopic ratios and concentrations from a basaltic soil chronosequence in Hawaii. Substrate ages at the sites range from 300 years to 4.1 million years. All soils show a net addition of Pb above the contributions made by basaltic weathering, indicating that atmospheric deposition of natural or pollutant sources is important across the sequence. Isotopic ratios from the chronoseqe...

[1] A transect of four boreholes was drilled at ODP Site 855 in Middle Valley, a sedimented spreading center on the northern Juan de Fuca Ridge, near an eastern bounding (normal) fault. Systematic variations in pore water chemical profiles along this transect are consistent with recharge of seawater into basaltic crust along the exposed fault, followed by flow of formation fluid laterally withi...

[1] We have used new compositional information on Martian basaltic rocks from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit and data from new stereo imaging by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on the Mars Express orbiter to constrain an existing analyticalnumerical computer model to assess the potential of Martian lavas to form lava channels by erosion of substrate. The basaltic rocks studied in Gu...

Micrometeorites with diameter approximately 100-200 microm dominate the flux of extraterrestrial matter on Earth. The vast majority of micrometeorites are chemically, mineralogically, and isotopically related to carbonaceous chondrites, which amount to only 2.5% of meteorite falls. Here, we report the discovery of the first basaltic micrometeorite (MM40). This micrometeorite is unlike any other...

A costly search for food in subterranean rodents resulted in various adaptations improving their foraging success under given ecological conditions. In Spalax ehrenbergi superspecies, adaptations to local ecological conditions can promote speciation, which was recently supposed to occur even in sympatry at sites where two soil types of contrasting characteristics abut each other. Quantitative d...

Experiments were conducted to determine CO2 solubilities in alkali basalts from Vesuvius, Etna and Stromboli. The basaltic melts were equilibrated with nearly pure CO2 at 1200°C under oxidizing conditions, and at pressures ranging from 269 to 2060 bars. CO2 solubility was determined by FTIR measurements. The results show that alkalis have a strong effect on the CO2 solubility and confirm and re...