Silicate glass micro and nanospherules generated in explosive eruptions of ultrabasic magmas: Implications for the origin of pelletal lapilli

The genesis of spherical ash to lapilli-sized clasts with a central phenocryst or lithic fragment, mantled by a rim of fine-grained juvenile material that includes abundant concentrically arranged prismatic crystals, is interpreted as either: (i) the result of the spinning of a magma bleb with a crystalline kernel in a fluidized system, or (ii) the accretion of small melt droplets to a previously crystallized nucleus in a gas jet. We demonstrate that the rims of pelletal lapilli within tephras of the Cabezo Segura volcano (Calatrava, Spain) are clastic and were formed by the progressive welding of juvenile crystals and silicate glass droplets, and, to a lesser extent, filaments (both melt in origin) around a large crystalline nucleus. Our results support the accretion hypothesis and offer explicit and new images of the melt droplets that were so far considered hypothetical particles. These results indicate also that nanometre-scale juvenile pyroclasts (melt droplets and crystals) can be generated in explosive eruptions of ultrabasic magmas. Those pyroclasts can be subsequently welded together inside a dense gas jet generating pelletal lapilli and ash.