Rheology of bubble-bearing magmas

The physical effects of air or argon bubbles on the rheology of a calcium aluminosilicate melt have been measured at temperatures ranging from 830° to 960°C, at 1 bar pressure. The melt composition is SiO2:64, Al2O3:23, and CaO:13 (wt%), while bubble volume fractions are: 0, 0.06, 0.13, 0.32, 0.41 and 0.47. Measured Newtonian viscosities range from 1010 to 1014 dPa s. Melts with bubble fractions of 0.06 and 0.13 show with increasing temperature (T) an increasing relative viscosity for T < 850°C. However at T > 850°C, for all bubble fractions the viscosity decreases markedly with temperature. The observed maximum decrease of the relative viscosity is 75% for a bubble fraction of 0.47 at 907°C. At all bubble fractions the viscosity is independent of the applied stress, which ranged from 11 to 677 bars. No clear indications were observed of non-Newtonian rheological behavior. Under our experimental conditions the relative viscosity of the two phase liquid depends primarily on the bubble fraction. Physical and volcanological implications of these measurements are discussed.