Directional fabric measurements: an investigative approach to transport and depositional mechanisms in pyroclastic flows

Computer-assisted image analysis data of rock fabrics from two quaternary ignimbrites in the Vulsini and Cimini Volcanic Districts of Central Italy are interpreted in terms of transport and depositional mechanisms. Samples were collected vertically at m spaces up two sections through each deposit. The Orvieto–Bagnoregio ignimbrite (OBI) is a non-welded ignimbrite that shows both fluctuations in the mean particle orientation values of up to approximately ±60°, and large variations in the strength of particle iso-orientation with height. The circular frequency distributions of particle orientations are almost always anisotropic and unimodal, in line with a theoretical Von Mises distribution (the circular equivalent of a unimodal, log–normal distribution). In contrast, the welded Cimina ignimbrite (CI) shows vertical homogeneities in mean orientation values with height, and generally lower degrees of anisotropy. Such differences are interpreted as being the results of different depositional mechanisms: incremental deposition at the base of a density-stratified, partially turbulent flow for the OBI; deposition of a laminar mass flow for the CI. In the former case, during transport particles under solidus temperature are subjected to a frictional regime, particles gliding and dispersive pressures, which finally produce size-inverse grading and variable fabric development, depending on the residence time of particles at the basal shear conditions. In the latter case, elongated particles, supported in a laminar flowing viscous matrix, undergo periodic motions which tend to develop parallel-to-flow iso-orientation. Fabric data in the deposit suggest vertical constancy in the rheological properties of the flow, absence of rheological decoupling and (shearing pervasively during transport) a minor importance of plug horizons.