Bamber, Emily C;
Arzilli, Fabio;
Cipiccia, Silvia;
Batey, Darren J;
La Spina, Giuseppe;
Polacci, Margherita;
Gholinia, Ali;
... Burton, Mike R; + view all
(2025)
3D quantification of nanolites using X-ray ptychography reveals syn-eruptive nanocrystallisation impacts magma rheology.
Nature Communications
, 16
(1)
, Article 7083. 10.1038/s41467-025-62444-z.
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Abstract
Nanoscale crystals are becoming increasingly recognised in the products of volcanic eruptions, spanning a range of magma compositions. The crystallisation of nanolites impacts magma rheology, ascent dynamics, and eruptive style. Their impact can be enhanced due to their capacity to aggregate and develop neighbouring chemically differentiated boundary layers. However, their 3D interaction, spatial distribution, and morphology is not currently understood. Here we present a cutting-edge, 3D nanometre-scale visualisation and quantification of nanolites in scoriae of the Las Sierras-Masaya basaltic Plinian eruptions, acquired using X-ray ptychography. We find that Ti-magnetite nanolites aggregate, forming elongate, irregular structures in 3D. Their crystallisation extracts Fe and Ti from the melt, resulting in differentiated boundary layers with higher viscosity. Syn-eruptive crystallisation of nanolites and their interaction is estimated to have increased magma viscosity by 2–3 orders of magnitude, therefore, they likely had a strong control on magma rheology, increasing the potential of magma fragmentation.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | 3D quantification of nanolites using X-ray ptychography reveals syn-eruptive nanocrystallisation impacts magma rheology |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41467-025-62444-z |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-62444-z |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Med Phys and Biomedical Eng |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10212024 |
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