The micromechanics of strain localization in partially - molten silicic magma chambers: keys for understanding the origin, and dynamics of "supervolcanic" eruptions

灾难性的火山口形成喷发，在此期间，数千立方公里的非常粘稠和富含晶体的岩浆在几天到几周的时间内爆炸性地喷发，是地球上最令人敬畏的自然现象之一。这样的事件在地球历史上曾间歇性地发生在美国黄石火山口和新西兰陶波火山区等地。 供给这些所谓的“超级火山爆发”的岩浆被认为是从高水平的岩浆房中被驱赶出来的，部分原因是致密的岩浆房顶部随着时间的推移像活塞一样下沉到下面的横向延伸的熔融或部分熔融的低密度岩浆房中。虽然这种喷发的数量可能并不令人惊讶，因为它们预计将继续进行，直到大多数或所有的浮力岩浆被排出，但对极端喷发率的解释仍然是火山学中最引人注目的问题之一。 详细地说，控制喷发速率的物理问题类似于由固体结晶基质和粘性间隙孔隙流体构成的强的、可变形的多孔介质的快速压实和解聚。 破坏和驱逐这种物质的固有机械困难对潜在的岩浆房过程提出了限制性要求。该提案使用了野外观察，实验室流体动力学实验，理论工作和数值模拟的新颖组合，以确定和理解岩浆房动力学，使如此大量的富含晶体的物质能够如此迅速地喷发。

Catastrophic caldera-forming eruptions during which thousands of cubic kilometers of very viscous and crystal-rich magma is erupted explosively over a time scale of days to weeks are among the most awesome natural phenomena on Earth. Such events have occurred intermittently throughout Earth's history in places such as the Yellowstone caldera, USA and in the Taupo volcanic zone, New Zealand. Magmas feeding these so-called "supervolcanic eruptions" are thought to be driven from high-level chambers, in part, by a time-dependent piston-like foundering of a dense chamber roof into an underlying laterally-extensive molten or partially-molten magma chamber of lower density. Whereas the volumes of such eruptions are perhaps not surprising, as they are expected to proceed until most or all buoyant magma is expelled, an explanation for the extreme rate of eruption remains one of the most compelling problems in volcanology. In detail, the physical problem governing the rate of eruption is analogous to the rapid compaction and disaggregation of a strong, deformable porous medium constructed of a solid crystalline matrix and a viscous interstitial pore fluid. The inherent mechanical difficulty with disrupting and expelling such a material places restrictive demands on the underlying magma chamber processes. This proposal uses a novel combination of field observations, laboratory fluid dynamics experiments, theoretical work and numerical simulations to identify and understand the magma chamber dynamics that enable such a large volume of crystal-rich material to be erupted so quickly.