Oxidation-induced nanolite crystallization triggered the 2021 eruption of Fukutoku-Oka-no-Ba, Japan

Abstract

Nanometer-sized crystals (nanolites) play an important role in controlling eruptions by affecting the viscosity of magmas and inducing bubble nucleation. We present detailed microscopic and nanoscopic petrographic analyses of nanolite-bearing and nanolite-free pumice from the 2021 eruption of Fukutoku-Oka-no-Ba, Japan. The nanolite mineral assemblage includes biotite, which is absent from the phenocryst mineral assemblage, and magnetite and clinopyroxene, which are observed as phenocrysts. The boundary between the nanolite-bearing brown glass and nanolite-free colorless glass is either sharp or gradational, and the sharp boundaries also appear sharp under the transmitted electron microscope. X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) analysis of the volcanic glass revealed that the nanolite-free colorless glass records an oxygen fugacity of QFM + 0.98 (log units), whereas the nanolite-bearing brown glass records a higher apparent oxygen fugacity (~ QFM + 2). Thermodynamic modelling using MELTS indicates that higher oxygen fugacities increase the liquidus temperature and thus induced the crystallization of magnetite nanolites. The hydrous nanolite mineral assemblage and glass oxygen fugacity estimates suggest that an oxidizing fluid supplied by a hot mafic magma induced nanolite crystallization in the magma reservoir, before the magma fragmentation. The oxidation-induced nanolite crystallization then enhanced heterogeneous bubble nucleation, resulting in convection in the magma reservoir and triggering the eruption.