Bull Volcanol (1992) 54:504-520
Vol a ology
A reappraisal of ignimbrite emplacement:
progressive aggradation and changes from particulate to
non-particulate flow during emplacement of high-grade ignimbrite
Michael J Branney and Peter Kokelaar
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Liverpool, P. O. Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX, UK
Received March 11, 1991/Accepted November 11, 1991
Abstract. We propose a mechanism by which massive
ignimbrite and layered ignimbrite sequences - the latter
liable to have been previously interpreted as multiple
flow units - form by progressive aggradation during
sustained passage of a single particulate flow. In the
case of high-temperature eruptive products the mecha-
nism simplifies interpretation of problematic deposits
that exhibit pronounced vertical and lateral variations
in texture, including between non-welded, eutaxitic,
rheomorphic (lineated) and lava-like. Agglutination can
occur within the basal part of a hot density-stratified
flow. During initial incursion of the flow, agglutinate
chills and freezes against the ground. During sustained
passage of the flow, agglutination continues so that the
non-particulate (agglutinate) layer thickens (aggrades)
and becomes mobile, susceptible to both gravity-
induced motion and traction-shear imparted by the
overriding particulate part of the flow. The particulate
to non-particulate (P-NP) transition occurs in and just
beneath a depositional boundary layer, where disrup-
tive collisions of hot viscous droplets give way, via
sticky grain interactions, to fluidal behaviour following
adhesion. Because they have different rheologies, the
particulate and non-particulate flow components travel
at different velocities and respond to topography in dif-
ferent ways. This may cause detachment and formation
of two independent flows. The P-NP transition is con-
trolled by factors that influence the rheological proper-
ties of individual erupted particles (strain rate, temper-
ature, and composition including volatiles), by cooling
and volatile exsolution during transport, and by the
particle-size population and concentration characteris-
tics of the depositional boundary layer. At any one lo-
cation along the flow path one or more of these can
change through time (unsteady flow). Thus the P-NP
transition can develop momentarily or repeatedly dur-
ing the passage of an unsteady flow, or it can occur
continuously during the passage of a quasi-steady flow
supplied by a sustained explosive eruption. Vertical fa-
cies successions developed in the deposit (high-grade
ignimbrite) reflect temporal changes in flow steadiness
and in material supplied at source. The P-NP transition
9 Springer-Verlag 1992
is also influenced by factors that affect flow behaviour,
such as topography. It may occur at any location later-
ally between a proximal site of deflation (e.g. a foun-
tain-fed lava) and a flow's distal limit, but it most com-
monly occurs throughout a considerable length of the
flow path. Up-sequence variations in welding-deforma-
tion fabric (between oblate uniaxial to triaxial and pro-
late) reflect evolving characteristics of the depositional
boundary layer (e.g. fluctuations from direct suspen-
sion-sedimentation to deposition via traction carpets or
traction plugs), as well as possible modifications result-
ing from subsequent, post-depositional hot loading and
slumping. Similar processes can also account for lateral
lithofacies gradations in conduits and vents filled with
welded tuff. Our consideration of high-grade ignim-
brites has implications for ignimbrite emplacement in
general, and draws attention to the limitations of the
widely accepted models of emplacement involving
mainly high-concentration non-turbulent transport and
en masse 'freezing' of high-yield-strength plug flows.
Introduction
in this paper we appraise published and new field ob-
servations of ignimbrites, and suggest new ways of
thinking about deposition from pyroclastic flows. We
concentrate on high-grade ignimbrites (sensu Walker
1983) because the shear fabrics they contain (defined
by agglutinated pumice clasts and matrix) uniquely re-
cord information about the nature of their depositional
regime. A major feature of our thesis is that massive
beds in ignimbrites, and apparently stacked flow units,
can be formed by continuous incremental deposition;
this is in contrast to en masse deposition. In this scen-
ario, welding also can occur incrementally throughout
the depositional history of a flow, rather than only after
deposition of an entire ignimbrite. Thus, distinction be-
tween "primary" and "secondary" welding would be
inappropriate; it denies the possibility of a process con-
tinuum.
 505
EXTREMELY
EXTREMELY ~ lid LOW-GRADE
HIGH-GRADE continuum

Fountain-fad Lava-like Rheomorphlc Non-rheomorphlc Non-weldedignimbrltes

<Z lava-flows Ignimbriles Ignimbdtes welded ignlmbrltes h~gh aspectra'~o 10~
(e.g. Duflield 1990} {e.g. SranneyetaL 199~,; (e.g. Schmincke& Swanson 1967; (e.g. Ross & Smith 196~ ~
Ekren sial 1984) Chapin & Lowell 1979; Ragan & Sheddan 1972; (e.g.Watker1989)
Orsi & Sheridan 1986) Rlehle 1973)

[ increase in eruption column height and consequent cooling

increase in temperature, decrease in particle viscosity and yield strength I

O3

_5
I--
increase in cnystal fragmentation (explosivity) ~ >

coalescence
173
Z
agglutination
O
O
welding
n
z
< non-particulate flow accompanying emplacement
6O non-particulate flowafter deposition

lateral particulate flow important during emplacement

LLI
0
9 syn- and post-emplacement vesiculation
II
droplets transported laterally

blocky or cuspate shards transported

I increase in accidental lithics, eroded from vent and ground surface

O3
O Fig. 1. The ignimbrite grade
increase in fragmentation of crystals continuum, with associated
rr eruption and emplacement
LU pumice imbrication and grain fabrics processes, conditions and prod-
I-- ucts. All gradations can occur,
(5
,<
non-particulate lineatione, rotated lithics and flow folds even within deposits of a single
rr stratified flow, as processes vary
<
"r" lobate flow margins both through time (i.e. vertically
0 through a deposit) and with dis-
I- widespread upper autobreccia tance from source (laterally
0 within a deposit). Solid lines in-
a Iocelised basal and/or internal autobreccia dicate some characteristic fea-
O
rr
tures; dotted lines indicate pos-
angular or cuspate shards preserved in ignimbdte
Q_ sible features. The diagram is
droplet shapes occasionally preserved necessarily a generalisation;
readers may well know of ex-
ceptions

Some silicic volcanic successions exhibit a wide vari- 1989), southeastern Arizona (du Bray and Pallister
ety of ignimbrite lithofacies ranging from partly 1991), and Pantelleria (Mahood and Hildreth 1986;
welded, through intensely welded and rheomorphic, to Orsi et al. 1991). This paper gives an explanation of
lava-like. Lithofacies can be particularly difficult to in- how such problematic lithofacies associations can be
terpret in terms of depositional process where apparent generated from a single sustained eruption and attend-
lavas and highly welded tufts pass vertically or laterally ant continuous flow.
into less intensely welded tufts, or nonwelded tufts, at
sharp or sharply gradational contacts. Examples of
Terminology
such associations occur at Gran Canaria (Schmincke
1969, 1990), southeast Korea (Park and Kim 1985; Walker (1983) proposed the term 'grade' to refer to the
Reedman et al. 1987a), southwestern Idaho (Ekren et amount of welding-compation exhibited by ignimbrites.
al. 1984), southwestern New Mexico (Duffield 1990), Although this terminology is not yet widely used it is
southwest USSR (references in Cook 1966), Kenya particularly useful because, in addition to reflecting
(McCall 1965; Leat 1985), the English Lake District cooling history, it embraces the concept of a grade con-
(Branney et al. 1992), Trans-Pecos Texas (Henry et al. tinuum (Fig. 1) that reflects variability of particle vis-
506
cosity and yield strength during ignimbrite emplace-
ment, without implying which of many factors may be
the cause (e.g. eruption temperature, magma chemistry,
volatile content, syn-emplacement cooling). The contin-
uum may be divided into arbitrary categories as fol-
lows: 'extremely high-grade' ignimbrites are intensely
welded even to their upper surfaces, and can include
lithofacies that are 'lava-like' (texturally indistinguisha-
ble from lava: Ekren et al. 1984; Branney et al. 1992);
'high-grade' ignimbrites are predominantly welded and
have intensely welded and rheomorphic zones; 'moder-
ate-grade' ignimbrites have both welded and non-
welded zones; 'low-grade' ignimbrites show little or no
evidence of welding and may range down to ignim-
brites emplaced at ambient temperatures. T h e grade
concept can also be used for tuffs of airfall, pyroclastic
surge, intrusive, or unknown origin.
In this paper we use the term 'aggradation' for de-
posit construction by sedimentation. We use 'non-parti-
culate' to include material Composed of particles that
are stuck together such that they cannot move indepen-
dently of one another. We describe a particulate flow as
'steady' when the rate of deposition at a fixed location
along the flow path remains constant; if the rate and/or
style of deposition at a fixed location change through
time, the flow is 'unsteady'. We use 'imbrication' to de-
scribe clasts that are inclined with respect to the depo-
sitional surface (Bates and Jackson 1980), even where
they are supported by matrix and do not overlap. We
refer to inclined fiamme as imbricated even though this
fabric may reflect a component of non-particulate de-
formation.
Previous ideas
In a seminal paper, Schmincke and Swanson (1967)
presented evidence that flow structures in ignimbrites
at Gran Canaria were formed by welding and laminar
lava-like flow during the final stages of emplacement of
formerly turbulent particulate pyroclastic flows. The
idea of syn-emplacement deformation has been slow to
gain acceptance, despite supporting evidence from
studies of other deposits (e.g. Walker and Swanson
1968; Chapin and Lowell 1979; Mahood 1984; Reed-
man et al. 1987a; Trigilia and Walker 1986; Buesch and
Valentine 1989). A possible factor in this is that, since
the 1960s, the welding profiles of several large-volume
high-silica rhyolitic ignimbrites in the western US have
been interpreted as reflecting the length of time at
which loaded parts of that profile remained at high
temperature. In other words, the welding profiles were
considered to reflect cooling and loading profiles of in
situ ignimbrite sheets (Ross and Smith 1961; Smith
1960; Riehle 1973; Ragan and Sheridan 1972; Peterson
1979). An implication of this view was that structures
reflecting welding-deformation must have formed after
deposition of the entire ignimbrite. Workers apparently
regarded this as 'normal'. Ragan and Sheridan (1972)
even suggested that the structures described by
Schmincke and Swanson (1967), such as rotated lithic
clasts, highly attenuated fiamme, and rotated segments
of broken fiamme, could have been formed by post-
emplacement loading. But some of the structural fea-
tures described by Schmincke and Swanson cbnstitute
classic criteria for rotational shear (see Simpson and
Schmid 1983; Vernon 1987) and, as Schmincke (1974)
recognised, the high-grade ignimbrites of Gran Canaria
are different from lower-grade ignimbrites in that the
viscosity of the magma particles was so low that some
particle deformation occurred before, and therefore in-
dependently of, post-emplacement loading and cool-
ing.
Ideas contrary to those of Schmincke and Swanson
were presented by Wolff and Wright (1981) who inter-
preted the rheomorphic Green Tuff on Pantelleria as an
airfall deposit. According to this interpretation, rheo-
morphism of the Green Tuff must postdate its initial
deposition because airfall does not involve lateral em-
placement. Wolff and Wright (1981) further proposed
that correspondence between deformation structures in
the Green Tuff and those in the Gran Canaria ignim-
brites indicates a common, post-depositional, origin.
Wolff and Wright's definition of 'rheomorphic tuff',
viz. a tuff that has undergone deformation following
emplacement and deposition ("secondary mass flo-
wage"), was founded on the premise that non-particu-
late deformation postdates emplacement and deposi-
tion. We believe this should be reconsidered on two
counts.
Firstly, much of the Green Tuff has since been rein-
terpreted as ignimbrite (Mahood and Hildreth 1986;
Orsi and Sheridan 1984, 1986), as it was originally (Vil-
lari 1969, 1974). The deposit locally exhibits imbricate
fiamme (Orsi and Sheridan 1984), a feature which on
Gran Canaria is considered by both Schmincke and
Swanson (1967) and Wolff and Wright (1981) to form
during initial lateral emplacement. Secondly, Wolff and
Wright's hypothesis of post-depositional slumping of
welded tuff is not the only possible explanation for the
non-particulate deformation structures common in
high-grade tuffs. For example, lineations cited as diag-
nostic of "secondary" flow (Wolff and Wright 1981)
also form during initial deposition (as clearly demon-
strated by Chapin and Lowell 1979; Reedman et al.
1987a).
We do not question the possibility of non-particulate
slumping and gravity sliding (rheomorphism sensu
Wolff and Wright 1981) after emplacement and deposi-
tion; for example, this is demonstrated where a single
fold clearly involves two or more discrete ignimbrites
(Hargrove et al. 1984; Branney 1988). However, we pro-
pose that another non-particulate flow mechanism oc-
curs during deposition of many high-grade tuffs. Our
proposal modifies ideas of Schmincke and Swanson
(1967) and Chapin and Lowell (1979), in the light of
improved understanding of transport (Valentine 1987)
and depositional mechanisms of particulate flows (e.g.
Lowe 1982, 1988; Wilson 1985; Fisher 1990; Druitt
1992).

Progressive deposition versus en masse deposition: a
preliminary discussion
Ignimbrites (especially 'conventional' high-aspect ratio
ignimbrites; Walker 1983) are commonly regarded as
high concentration non-turbulent particulate (pyroclas-
tic) flows that stopped and deflated en masse (e.g.
Sparks 1976; Wright and Walker 1981; Fisher 1986;
Carey 1991). This interpretation arose since Sparks
(1976) attributed poor sorting in ignimbrites to high
particle concentration in poorly expanded flows, rather
than to turbulence in highly expanded flows. Steep-
sided pumiceous levees and distal lobes of small-vol-
ume ignimbrites were cited (Wilson and Head 1981) as
indications that pyroclastic flows have high yield
strengths. Hence, a pyroclastic flow body was envis-
aged as undergoing laminar or plug flow (Sparks 1976;
Wright and Walker 1981) before stopping en masse, in
a way similar to models of debris flows (Johnson 1970),
to produce a massive unit (layer 2 of Sparks 1976) with
an inverse-graded base (layer 2a).
However, ignimbrites are deposits, not flows, and
their morphology and sorting characteristics incom-
pletely reflect the transport regime. We propose that the
bedding and sorting characters of an ignimbrite reflect
mainly the depositionalprocesses in dense basal parts of
a flow and only to a lesser extent the transport proc-
esses of the entire flow. For example, although a densi-
ty-stratified high-concentration flow might be exten-
sively turbulent, the turbulence would not be directly
involved in forming the resultant poorly sorted deposit
because deposition occurs from basal parts of the flow
where turbulence is suppressed by high particle con-
centration, steep concentration gradients, and lower
velocities due to frictional drag. We envisage that the
lower part of this depositional regime undergoes lami-
nar flow and that material is supplied to it from an
overriding, relatively turbulent part of the flow (the
transport regime), whose particle concentration proba-
bly decreases more or less continuously upwards from
the high-concentration near the base. Thus, irrespective
of welding, vertical variations in many ignimbrites (and
in surge deposits; see Valentine 1987) probably reflect
secular changes in depositional (e.g. boundary layer)
processes, rather than the transport processes (e.g. by
instantaneous en masse deposition). Reasons for our
proposing an alternative model of ignimbrite deposi-
tion are given below.
Problems with en masse deposition
1. Vertical chemical zonation in ignimbrites (e.g. Hil-
dreth 1981; Druitt and Bacon 1986) is most simply in-
terpreted as recording incremental deposition. Multiple
flow units might be invoked to reconcile the zonation
with the model of en masse deposition, but vertical
changes in chemistry commonly do not coincide with
unequivocal flow unit boundaries, and vertical chemi-
cal zonation within individual flow units (layer 2) has
been reported (e.g. Sheridan 1979; Wright and Walker
507
1981; Cas and Wright 1987). Wright and Walker (1981)
suggest that this is incompatible with turbulent em-
placement, but this objection follows only if the mas-
sive part of the ignimbrite (e.g. Wright and Walker's
"flow unit") formed by en masse deflation. We prefer
to interpret the zonation as indicating that ignimbrites,
including massive layers, aggrade progressively at the
base of a flow that is continuously replenished at
source by an eruption whose magma composition
changes with time. Such progressive aggradation (as en-
visaged by Fisher 1966) is supported by the occurrence
of a widely correlated subtle textural stratification, de-
fined by vertical changes in sorting, within the compo-
sitionally zoned upper "flow unit" (massive layer) of
the Acatlan ignimbrite (Wright and Walker 1981). This
stratification is difficult to reconcile with plug flow and
en masse deflation, and we interpret it as reflecting
slight flow unsteadiness during progressive aggrada-
tion.
2. Instantaneous en masse deposition of a massive
poorly sorted ignimbrite layer from a non-cohesive,
poorly sorted and high-concentration particle disper-
sion is unlikely because the necessary displacement of
interparticle fluid (gas and entrained fines) cannot oc-
cur instantaneously. Rapid depositional collapse (defla-
tion) will cause partial fluidisation (fluid-hindered sedi-
mentation) within the concentrated basal part of the
flow, aiding grain support and lowering internal fric-
tion, thus allowing upper parts to flow farther than
lower parts.
3. Without deposition at the flow base there is an unre-
solved three-dimensional space problem inherent in a
flow that passes laterally from laminar behaviour to
form a plug flow as depicted by Wright and Walker
(1981, figure 12).
4. It is difficult to envisage how a sheet-like plug flow
could travel and then stop almost instantaneously
across its entire extent (in many instances several 100s
of km2), irrespective of topographic irregularities, with-
out undergoing local extension and/or compression.
How can proximal parts and distal parts of a plug flow
simultaneously know when to stop? Extensive high-
yield-strength plugs will inevitably develop irregular
upper surfaces, buckles, thrusts (ramps), auto-intru-
sions, and pull-apart structures, yet such structures are
not characteristic of (non-rheomorphic) ignimbrite
sheets (cf complex compressional and extensional
structures of Bingham lava flows, soft-sediment slides
and cohesive debris-flow deposits; Nemec 1991, p 61).
Low aspect-ratio ignimbrites (Walker et al. 1980)
contain facies known as 'ignimbrite veneer deposits'
whose field relations and stratification have already
been recognised as incompatible with an origin by en
masse 'freezing' of an entire pyroclastic flow body
(Walker et al. 1981; Wilson 1986). Such facies have
been interpreted as a "tail" deposit left in the wake of a
highly energetic pyroclastic flow, where a relaxation of
shear stress favoured deposition of the basal part of the
flow (Walker et al. 1980; Walker et al. 1981), and as
"the 'skin' of the pyroclastic flow" (Wilson 1986). In
this paper we suggest that incremental deposition from
508
a passing flow (Fisher 1966) is a general case with most
ignimbrites, including the massive layer 2b deposits, the
'normal ignimbrite' of Walker et al. (1981 p. 416), and
high aspect-ratio ignimbrites. We believe that there is
little evidence that pyroclastic flows stop en masse to
form ignimbrites.
Progressive aggradation from a sustained current
We think an ignimbrite, including massive parts (layer
2), records progressive aggradation from a sustained
current. The current can be anything from a relatively
short-lived, highly unsteady current that rapidly depos-
its a thin ignimbrite as it passes by (in some cases prior
to lofting), to a more steady current that persists for the
duration of a continuous column-collapse eruption
(possibly several hours; e.g. see Sparks et al. 1978) and
which deposits a thick ignimbrite incrementally as it
passes by. In all cases the ignimbrite is deposited by
progressive aggradation; stratification reflects changes
in flow steadiness and in the material supplied at
source. We view the model in which a pyroclastic flow
is a discrete morphological entity (head, body and tail)
that deposits mainly when it stops en masse, producing
a massive layer 2, as representing only an end-member
of extreme flow unsteadiness.
Grain fabric evidence for the progressive aggradation
model
Directional fabrics in ignimbrites, such as lineated and
imbricated crystals, lithics and pumice, and anisotropy
of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) ellipsoids, have often
been used to infer palaeocurrent directions of pyroclas-
tic flows (e.g. Knight et al. 1986; MacDonald and
Palmer 1990, and references therein). However, direc-
tional fabrics in ignimbrites also provide evidence of
progressive aggradation (and of P-NP transitions in a
depositional boundary layer; see section on 'Direc-
tional deformation fabrics formed during agglutination'
below).
Directional fabrics in ignimbrites can be formed by
(1) sedimentary alignment of elongate particles as they
deposit; (2) shear deformation in the depositional
boundary layer and non-particulate part of a flow; and
(3) post-emplacement slumping or sliding. Sedimentary
alignment of particles during deposition is evident from
grain fabrics in nonwelded and incipiently welded tuffs
(e.g. Kamata and Mimura 1983; Mimura 1984; Potter
and Oberthal 1987). The fabrics are analogous to those
in turbidites (Tiara and Scholle 1979; Hiscott and Mid-
dleton 1980) and to those produced in experiments in-
volving sedimenting particulate dispersions (Rees and
Woodall 1975).
Kamata and Mimura (1983) interpret directional
fabrics as recording "late stage laminar flow", but we
interpret them as due to laminar flow within the sus-
tained depositional boundary layer of a stratified flow.
A depositional boundary layer need not always or en-
tirely flow in the same direction as the (overlying)
transport regime. Unlike the less-dense and faster-mov-
ing transport regime, which may surmount slopes, it is
more likely to respond to small topographic irregulari-
ties, for example draining back downslope during ag-
gradation. Furthermore, at any single location, the flow
direction of a depositional boundary layer may change
with time as aggradation modifies topographic irregu-
larities (infills hollows), and as the transport regime's
main stream axis ('talweg') migrates laterally and twists
from side to side during passage of a sustained flow. In
the Upper Bandelier Tuff, New Mexico, flow directions
determined by imbricate AMS ellipsoids at individual
locations change with height in tuff that shows "no vis-
ible lithologic layering or boundaries between layers"
(MacDonald and Palmer 1990). We interpret the
changes, evidently occurring within a single flow unit,
as evidence for progressive aggradation of massive ig-
nimbrite and for deposition from a boundary layer
whose flow direction changed with time during sus-
tained flow. Similarly, AMS ellipsoid orientations vary
with height in the massive layer 2 of the Peach Springs
Tuff near Kingman, Arizona, (Hillhouse and Wells
1991). Valentine et al. (1989) interpret the layer as a sin-
gle flow unit. Such vertical changes in AMS ellipsoid
orientation are akin to grain fabric orientations that
change with height within individual massive (Bouma
A) divisions of turbidites (e.g. Parkash and Middleton
1970), which we also think are deposited by progressive
aggradation. Changes in flow direction during progres-
sive aggradation probably contribute to frequently re-
ported within-site scatter in grain fabric and AMS
orientation in ignimbrites (e.g. Seaman et al. 1991).
With respect to the plug-flow model of emplace-
ment, it seems unlikely that the massive part of an ig-
nimbrite (layer 2b) would contain directional grain fab-
rics indicative of flow at the site of deposition if it trav-
elled and stopped as a non-shearing plug. A plug flow
is unlikely to revert to late-stage laminar flow because
an increase in shear stress is required to shear a pre-
viously non-yielding (Bingham) plug, not a decrease as
occurs during waning flow. However, directional fab-
rics are common in massive (non-rheomorphic) ignim-
brites (Elston and Smith 1970; Ellwood 1982; Knight et
al. 1986; Potter and Oberthal 1987; Ui et al. 1989; Mac-
Donald and Palmer 1990), even within upper pumice-
rich parts of flow units (e.g. figure 14a of Sparks et al.
1985; Mimura 1984). Central portions of some massive
ignimbrite units do have poorly developed or isotropic
fabrics (Mimura 1984), as do some massive turbidite
divisions (Hiscott and Middleton 1980), and this m a y
indicate reorientation of particles by escaping fluid
during static deflation. The intensity of a directional
fabric probably also depends upon the amount of shear
imparted on a body of particles during their deposition.
The amount of shear is controlled by the shear gradient
within the depositional boundary layer, and by the rate
of aggradation, which affects the length of time any
population of particles resides within the depositional
boundary layer; these change during unsteady flow.
Where AMS and grain fabrics are used to infer pal-
aeoflow direction, it is important to note that they
probably record only the last increment of shear (depo-

sition), and they may not represent the transport direc-
tion of the main flow body. Because flow of the deposi-
tional regime is substantially influenced by gravity, one
can expect the last increment of movement commonly
to be downslope, even though the actual distance of
transport in this direction have be extremely limited
(Suzuki and Ui 1982 p 431).
Grain sorting and grading in the depositional regime
We propose that the sorting character of ignimbrites re-
flects high particle concentrations within near-deposit-
ing basal parts of a stratified particulate gravity flow
(Fisher 1966; Lowe 1982) and the effects of a velocity
gradient where this concentrated basal dispersion is
sheared due to drag against substrate. Irrespectlve of
whether the higher parts of a high-concentration flow
are laminar, turbulent, expanded, homogeneous or den-
sity-stratified, the basal (depositional) part is likely to
undergo laminar flow.
In our scenario, ignimbrites are analogous to mas-
sive or normal-graded poorly sorted sedimentary units
with inverse-graded bases deposited from the base of
high-density turbidity currents ($3 and $2 of Lowe
1982). Poor sorting reflects rapid deposition from a
high-concentration depositional boundary layer. In
massive parts of ignimbrites, inverse coarse-tail graded
pumice records pumice buoyancy within the dense dep-
ositional boundary layer. Normal (coarse-tail) grading
of lithics records changing lithic supply to the deposi-
tional boundary layer, due to waning flow (with conse-
quent upstream migration of lithic transport limits) and
possibly also due to decreased lithic supply from a con-
duit in which wall-rock erosion diminishes and from a
landscape that is progressively buried by aggrading
tuff. We believe that large and dense lithics can be
transported considerable distances by combinations of
buoyancy-aided saltation, rolling, and partial entrain-
ment in the top of the depositional boundary layer, be-
fore they finally become trapped and stop at the base of
the depositional boundary layer. Inverse-graded ('bas-
al') layers record dispersive forces mostly affecting
larger clasts within shortlived, poorly sorted carpets of
ash and lapilli driven along the substrate surface by
traction (cf $2 of Lowe 1982). Unsteady flow can pro-
duce a variety of grading patterns, by fluctuation of
concentration and velocity gradients in the depositional
boundary layer. In our experience, the majority of ig-
nimbrite flow units show departures from smooth
coarse-tail grading profiles; stratiform clast concentra-
tions or grade-trend reversals, which may be localised
or laterally persistent, are very commonly present (e.g.
Fisher and Schmincke 1984 figure 8-18). Details of
depositional mechanisms in stratified flows will be dis-
cussed further in another paper (Druitt, Valentine and
Branney).
Stepwise and gradual types of progressive aggradation
Deposition within the laminar boundary layer may oc-
cur in two main ways (Fig. 2):
509
Y
0
(].)
_r- "0
i--
time J, time D,
A: stepwise aggradation B: gradual aggradation
Fig. 2. Two types of aggradation at the base of a particulate flow.
Stepwise aggradation (A) results from successiveen masse freez-
ing of traction carpets or traction plugs. Gradual aggradation (B)
results from direct suspension sedimentation. Stepwiseand grad-
ual aggradation may occur in both hot and cold particulate flows.
No relative scales are implied
1. Stepwise aggradation, by successive en masse depo-
sition of successively formed traction carpets or trac-
tion plugs. Each carpet or plug develops as the basal
part of the flow acquires yield strength due to friction
and/or adhesion between particles. Each aggradational
step will tend to produce an inverse-graded layer (layer
2a of Sparks 1976), analogous to the $2 division of
high-density turbidity current deposits (Lowe 1982) de-
spite the fluids being different.
2. Gradual aggradation, by rapid suspension sedimen-
tation of individual grains to form a massive deposit
(layer 2b of Sporks 1976) analogous to the $3 division
of high-density turbidity current deposits (Lowe 1982).
Gradual aggradation of a massive layer occurs during
fairly steady flow in which the base of the flow is suffi-
ciently concentrated to develop a zone of fluid-hin-
dered deposition adjacent to the substrate surface. Be-
cause turbulence is suppressed in this zone, grains at
the flow base (immediately above the substrate) will de-
posit, there being insufficient underlying fluid (gas)
source to provide lift or to prevent frictional deposi-
tion. This mechanism of deposition, gradually up from
the base, is similar to that envisaged for deflating lique-
fied and fluidized sediment gravity flows (Lowe 1976
p 78).
Fluctuating input to the depositional regime from
the overriding part of the flow is likely to cause alterna-
tion between gradual and stepwise progressive aggrada-
tion and produce a deposit comprising several layers.
Each layer might conventionally have been interpreted
as a layer 2 of Sparks (1976) (for example, see Wilson
1986) but they all accumulated during the passage of a
single flow (see Fig. 3).
Particle agglutination and coalescence during
emplacement of silicic tufts
If particles are sufficiently hot and fluidal they weld al-
most immediately on contact, prior to, and therefore ir-
respective of, post-emplacement cooling and loading
(Mahood 1984). In this paper we use the term aggluti-
510
nation to refer to virtually immediate welding. This is
distinct from post-deposition, post-emplacement weld-
ing of higher-viscosity shards under the influence of a
deposit's in situ cooling rate and load pressure. Our use
of the term 'agglutination' does not imply any particu-
lar mode of emplacement (such as by airfall). If par-
ticles are even more fluidal (droplets) they may rapidly
form a homogeneous liquid in which remnant particle
outlines are obliterated; we refer to this as coalescence
(see also Bristow 1962; Ekren et al. 1984). Thus, spat-
ter-fed lavas form through coalescence. Coalescence,
agglutination and post-emplacement welding are inter-
gradational processes in a continuous spectrum of de-
creasing welding rate and effectiveness. The termino-
logy applies equally well to deposits of airfall, flow,
surge, and intrusive origin. The spectrum occurs be-
cause, as temperatures decrease and volatiles exsolve,
the viscosity and strength of hot glass change gradually
rather than sharply (Shaw 1963; Ryan and Blevins
1987).
Agglutination upon initial contact requires low par-
ticle viscosity and yield strength. Silicic magmas are
generally more viscous than basic magmas, but field
studies show clearly that many peralkaline silicic mag-
mas (Bonnichsen and Kauffman 1987; Hausback 1987;
Mahood 1984) had much lower viscosities during erup-
tion and emplacement than is perceived as typical for
silicic lavas. Furthermore, some non-peralkaline silicic
high-grade and extremely high-grade tuffs similarly ex-
hibit lithofacies indicative of 'unusually' low magmatic
viscosities, e.g. the Wall Mountain Tuff (Chapin and
Lowell 1979), the Pitts Head Tuff (Reedman et al.
1987b), the Crinkle Tuffs (Branney et al. 1992), the
Weolseong Tuff (Reedman et al. 1987a), the Buckshot
ignimbrite (Henry et al. 1989), the Moat rhydite (du
Bray and Pallister 1991), and tuffs in the Owyhee
Mountains (Ekren et al. 1984). Even though the
Fig. 3. Multiple flow units or the prod-
uct of progressive aggradation at the
base of a single (unsteady) flow? Layer-
ing in the Minoan ignimbrite (Bond and
Sparks 1976), south of Acrotiri, Santo-
rini
cause(s) for such low viscosity (such as possible high
eruption temperature, strongly peralkaline chemistry,
high halogen content, eruptive volatile contents far
higher than those preserved in the tuff) may not be
known, the field evidence suggests that when interpret-
ing high-grade and extremely high-grade tuffs it is
inappropriate to think in terms of rheologies similar to
those of 'typical' obsidian lavas and domes that were
erupted in an entirely different manner, i.e. at low rates,
and after considerable degassing (Jaupart and All~gre
1991). For example, globule-shaped particles that rep-
resent droplets whose viscosity and yield strength were
overcome by surface tension effects during a brief pe-
riod of transport occur in high-grade silicic ignimbrites,
e.g. at Menengai (Bristow 1962; Schmincke 1972; Leat
1985), Mt Suswa (Johnson 1968; Schmincke 1974; Hay
et al. 1979), Longonot (Scott 1980), Pantelleria and
Gran Canaria (Schmincke 1969, 1974), and they occur
in rhyolitic sheets interpreted as high-temperature lava
flows (Bonnichsen 1982, p. 310). Droplet-shaped par-
ticles are not characteristic of low-grade silicic tuffs or
vent-fed viscous obsidian lavas, but droplets do charac-
terise Hawaiian magmatic fountaining of basalt (e.g.
MacDonald 1972). On Hawaii, most erupted fluidal
basalt particles agglutinate to form spatter or coalesce
to form fountain-fed lavas, but some chill and solidify
in the air to be preserved as droplet-shaped particles of
glass ('achneliths' of Walker and Croasdale 1972). The
similarity of the basaltic droplet particles to those asso-
ciated with high-grade silicic ignimbrites indicates simi-
lar viscosities during eruption: i.e. we can infer that ir-
respective of their chemistry, eruptions that form high-
grade and extremely high-grade ignimbrites produce
particles sufficiently fluidal to agglutinate or coalesce
on impact. This contention is supported by occurrences
of high-grade silicic tuffs that rest upon slopes steeper
than 34-38 ~ response angles for loose particles. For ex-

ample, the Green Tuff of Pantellefia is plastered onto
near-vertical slopes (Orsi and Sheridan 1984), and the
Egoshura Tuff in Kenya locally occurs on 70 ~ topo-
graphic slopes (Leat 1985). The virtually immediate
welding that occurs in agglutination is also indicated by
rapid and complex vertical variations in degree of
welding, slope-parallel rather than horizontal welding
zones, welding right to the upper surface of a deposit,
and occurrences of spiracles (Chapin and Lowell 1979)
that resemble gas pipes in flood basalts. These are typ-
ical features of high-grade silicic tuffs as well as of near-
vent deposits o f basaltic magmatic explosive eruptions.
Mahood (1984) presented field observations and vis-
cosity calculations of high-grade tuffs to suggest that
agglutination can occur in pyroclastic flows as soon as
deflation allows significant contact between pyroclasts.
It is perhaps worth noting that the presence of lithic
and crystal-enriched elutriation pipes in a welded ig-
nimbrite indicates that welding was mostly post-deposi-
tional at the point in the deposit where they occur.
However, high-temperature defluidisation experiments
with sticky particles show that 'gas chimneys' are pro-
duced when a fluidised suspension collapses at initial
sintering temperatures (Gluckman et al. 1976). Elutria-
tion pipes should not be confused with steam spiracles
(Chapin and Lowell 1979) which are hollow and form
when agglutinated tuff has assumed the rheological
properties of a lava.
Coalescence of silicic particles is recorded by spat-
ter-fed silicic lavas (Baker 1976; Duffield 1990).
Agglutination at and near the base of
high-concentration particulate flows
If agglutination occurs in a stratified particulate flow, it
is least likely in higher turbulent parts, because high-
velocity impacts do not favour agglutination (Freundt
and Schmincke 1990) but cause disruption and/or
bouncing, and because fewer particle collisions occur
where particle concentration is lower. Statistically, a
few collisions will inevitably result in some agglutina-
tion above the depositional regime, but this will not be
the dominant agglutination site. Any resultant particle
aggregates will have higher settling velocities than indi-
vidual particles and thus tend to settle towards the dep-
ositional regime relatively rapidly. If particles are so
hot and fluidal that they do agglutinate or coalesce
readily in high parts of a particulate flow, the flow is
liable to collapse (cf agglomeration in high-temperature
fluidisation experiments of Gluckman et al. 1976), pos-
sibly forming a spatter-fed lava.
In comparison with cuspate shards of similar size,
the droplet shape of particles enhances agglutination or
coalescence, because droplets are both slower to cool
(minimum surface/volume) and more difficult to sup-
port during transport (larger settling velocity) (Wilson
1980).
Agglutination is most likely to occur around the base
of a flow, where particle concentration is highest,
where particle collisions are non-disruptive (low-veloc-
511
ity impacts), where particles remain in contact for
longer intervals, and where there is minimal cooling by
ambient fluid. Agglutination at the flow base will be en-
hanced by the insulating effects of the first-deposited
hot tuff and the overriding hot particulate flow, and by
the load exerted by the overriding flow. In a low-con-
centration flow (pyroclastic surge), conditions most fa-
vourable for agglutination occur at the aggradation sur-
face, in any traction carpet immediately above it, or just
below the aggradation surface. In a flow of higher con-
centration (pyroclastic flow) agglutination may occur in
four situations: (1) within the depositional boundary
layer during gradual aggradation of a massive bed; (2)
within either a plug-like dense particulate layer (trac-
tion plug) separated from the aggradation surface by a
shear layer, or within a shearing dense carpet, during
stepwise aggradation; (3) at the aggradation surface;
and (4) just below the aggradation surface.
Agglutination or coalescence, therefore, may occur
in the presence or in the absence of laminar (simple)
shear. In the presence of laminar shear, sticky grain in-
teractions between hot viscous particles give way to
shear within viscous agglutinated particles. Any load
exerted on the sheafing layer by the overriding flow
will aid agglutination of coalescence as sticky p o i n t
contacts of neighbouring particles are driven into one
another, increasing contact ares. The resultant deposit,
including any vesicles that grew during shear, will be
either lineated (prolate uniaxial fabrics) or, more com-
monly, lineated and foliated (triaxial strain fabrics).
Where agglutination of coalescence occurs in the ab-
sence of laminar shear (as within a traction plug or in
some circumstances below the aggradation surface) it
happens in much the same way as for agglutinated air-
fall deposits (Sparks and Wright 1979; Mahood 1984)
and the resultant deposit on a horizontal surface will
tend to have a purely compactional (pure shear) flatten-
ing fabric (oblate uniaxial ellipsoid) and no lineation at
this stage. Where agglutination or coalescence occurs
within a moving particulate plug, the plug may con-
tinue to move as a non-particulate plug before finally
freezing to the substrate (causing the aggradation sur-
face to step upwards).
Thus, a lineated or non-lineated basal deposit of
welded tuff can form well before the bulk of the flow
comes to rest; this is evident in basal eutaxitic zones of
lava-like tuffs (e.g. Schmincke 1969; Henry et al. 1989;
Branney et al. 1992), sheared basal deposits with imbri-
cate fiamme in rheomorphic ignimbrites (e.g. on Gran
Canaria; Schmincke and Swanson 1967), and eutaxitic
vitrophyres with or without lineations or flow folds at
the base of rheomorphic ignimbrites. A thin basal zone
of lower-grade tuff may result from syn-emplacement
cooling within the head of a flow or beneath the front
part of a flow if cool air is overriden, or from initial
syn-depositional cooling at the base of a flow due to
cold substrate. Such lower-grade tuff will pass upwards
into agglutinate.
512
Directional deformation fabrics formed during
agglutination
For sub-horizontal ignimbrites, sedimentary grain fab-
rics subject to loading-compaction (pure shear) will ro-
tate towards the horizontal. Imbrication of attenuated
fiamme has long been recognised as forming during
emplacement (Schmincke and Swanson 1967, Wolff
and Wright 1981; Orsi and Sheridan 1984). Loading-
compaction subsequently imposed on the fabric will
lower the angle of imbrication until the fiamme become
sub-parallel to bedding. Continued rheomorphism
(simple shear) will also tend to shear out any early
formed imbrication. Therefore,/f welding was entirely
post-emplacement, imbrication would be less obvious
in intensely welded ignimbrites than in non-welded ig-
nimbrites. However, imbrication is generally more ob-
vious with 'flattened' fiamme in welded ignimbrites
(e.g. Figs. 4 and 5) than it is with pumice clasts in non-
welded ignimbrites. Indeed, imbrication in ignimbrites
was first described from thin fiamme in high-grade ig-
nimbrites (Schmincke and Swanson 1967). Long axes of
fiamme clearly dip upflow even where axial ratios (X~/
X3) greatly exceed those characteristic of undeformed
pumice clasts. In addition to a (loading-modified) sedi-
mentary alignment of solid particles, such imbrication
clearly indicates a component of syn-depositional shear
deformation of viscous ellipsoidal particles in a viscous
fluid (non-particulate flow), where long axes of par-
ticles deform and rotate towards the shearing direction
(Gay 1968) and assume an orientation oblique to bed-
ding at low strains. Hillhouse and Wells (1991) demon-
strate that imbrication angles of AMS ellipsoids in the
Peach Springs Tuff, Arizona, are not significantly re-
duced by welding-compaction, and infer that laminar
flow and compaction were simultaneous. As MacDon-
ald and Palmer (1990) point out, what has commonly
been regarded as a compaction foliation is really a
compaction-transposed flow foliation.
Thus fiamme imbrication must record rather low
(momentary?) shear strain in a body of agglutinating
particles either within the depositional boundary layer
or just below it. We propose that during hot progressive
aggradation a zone of shear-deformation passes up-
wards with the aggradation surface (Fig. 6), in some
cases only affecting an individual layer of agglutinating
particles momentarily. This model predicts that imbri-
cation of attenuated fiamme (as with sedimentary par-
ticle alignment) should occur in massive ignimbrite well
above the basal layer. Although apparently not pre-
viously documented, many high-grade ignimbrites do
show imbrication of attenuated fiamme well above
their bases. For example, several high-grade ignimbrites
on Gran Canaraia (e.g. units C and D of the Mogfin
Formation; Schmincke 1990) and in the English Lake
District (Crinkle Tuffs at Langdale; Branney et al.
1992) show imbrication throughout most of their thick-
ness, even where they lie on sub-horizontal surfaces
(Fig. 4A). Of course, in massive units imbrication far
above the base can be difficult to see. However, within
some cooling units, pervasive imbrication fabrics lo-
A
9
I -'~ -" ~ " ~ ~-~_~"
B $ ~ " ~~- ~--~.,-'~..-',..~'-~-"
Fig. 4A, B. Imbrication of attenuated fiamme (A) throughout a
cooling unit, e.g. units C and D, Mogfin Formation (Schmincke
1990), Crinkle Tufts (Branney et al. 1992), and (B) persisting
through grain-size layers, e.g. TL, Mogfin Formation. Lower im-
brication angles towards the base of a record higher shear strain
than higher up in the unit; the attitude of fiamme should not be
confused with ramp structure defined by flow layering in lava
flows
cally persist upwards from one massive layer to the
next, right across inverse-graded fine-grained layers
(Figs. 4B and 5) and other sedimentary layering (e.g.
lithic-rich layers).
Our notion of syn-agglutination imbrication during
progressive aggradation is very similar to models pro-
posed for spatter-rich pyroclastic flow deposits at Vul-
sini (Onano Pyroclastic Formation, Trigilia and Walker
1986; Marsella et al. 1987) and on Santorini (Mellors
and Sparks 1991). Like Trigilia and Walker (1986), we
suppose it to be common. However, we believe that
fluidal clasts and agglutination are not essential to pro-
gressive aggradation from a depositional boundary
layer, but that they simply record rather well, via non-
particulate deformation structures, a process that oc-
curs during emplacement of most ignimbrites.
Evolution of the non-particulate flow component
Wolff and Wright (1981, p. 31) considered that pyro-
clastic flows stop suddenly en masse, and thus argued
that non-particulate flow structures would be unlikely
to form during initial ignimbrite emplacement. Our
model involves continuous agglutination to form a non-
particulate flow component that progressively aggrades
beneath a sustained particulate flow (Fig. 6). Boundary
layer agglutination and deposition may continue as
long as the transport regime of the flow supplies hot
particulate material to the depositional regime. As the
non-particulate layer thickens (aggrades), such that it is
no longer chilled by the ground surface, the zone in

- ~ . . s ...: -,-~..
, 99 _Z_ . . . _ ~ . - - r = - - - - . - ~ . - _~ -_-
- - " ' " ' ": "
Fig. 5. Left: A spatter-rich pyroclastic flow deposit, Onano Pyro-
clastic Formation (Marsella et al. 1987); NB: top and base not
shown. Right: Unit D, Moghn Formation (Schmincke 1990). Each
deposit shows imbrication of fiamme, both within massive layers
(which we do not interpret as individual flow units) and where
stratification (S) occurs. Arrows indicate inferred palaeoflow di-
which non-particulate deformation occurs may move in
a laminar (and possibly plug-like) fashion, due to inher-
itance of momentum, frictional coupling with the over-
riding particulate part of the flow, and gravity-induced
shear. The stratified flow then may be considered to
have developed into two main components: a non-par-
ticulate component and an overriding particulate com-
ponent. The proportion of accumulated non-particulate
material that flows at any one time depends on rheo-
logy and shear stress, and probably varies from a thin
zone (mm-cm) near the aggradation surface in cases o f
moderate to high-grade ignimbrites, to the entire thick-
ness of aggraded non-particulate material (several
metres) in some extremely high-grade ignimbrites. Our
model is similar to that of Chapin and Lowell (1979),
but it differs from that o f Schmincke and Swanson
(1967) in which agglutination occurs throughout the
body of an extremely unsteady flow as it deflates and
stops en masse.
513
~ F
.__~'- ~ '-~- :'>." ".:.
: .~__.-__--'--- ~
;- " I/Ji/
rection of the depositional regime. In the Onano case the fiamme
are clasts transported as poorly inflated flattish rags or ribbons.
Although clast shape generally was modified by shear during dep-
osition, the fiat clasts also occur with a sedimentary imbrication in
local non-welded facies of the deposit, showing that fiamme do
not necessarily reflect in situ compaction or shear
Where the particulate to non-particulate (P-NP)
transition involves agglutination as opposed to coales-
cence, clast outlines will still be discernible in the non-
particulate flow, although they may be highly atte-
nuated. Many flow-folded, lineated and foliated high-
grade tufts (e.g. those figured in Schmincke and Swan-
son 1967; Chapin and Lowell 1979; Wolff and Wright
1981; Branney et al. 1992 figure 5a and 5b) may be o f
this origin. Where the P-NP transition involves coales-
cence, the non-particulate part of the flow forms a rock
identical to that of a lava flow; it will not exhibit rem-
nant shard textures and it may develop vesicles and
even a trachytic texture. Similarly, fountain-fed basalt
lavas widely do not record their particulate origin in t h e
form of vitroclastic textures, and obsidian lavas infer-:
red by some workers to have formed from silicic foam
that collapsed during ascent and extrusion (Eichel-
berger et al. 1986; Manley and Fink 1987) generally do
not record origin from a foam in the form of remnant
514
i:
'
,
=
~ '
~
~
o
o DENSTY_GRADI~D.
PARTICULATE '
' o
m'~ .'~ m'~ ~ i~'** ~ : "~.'o~ "'~ ~" *~ *'~
..... ~ . . . . . . . ~"~~ ~ ~*"~'*~ . . . . .
9 ~, ~,~g'~.*,t,,*~'..e~o~,o~e~
AGGRADATION . . . . . NON.PARTIOULATE~'~Z.~ ~
SURFACE m'~ ~ " ~ ~" FLOW'COMPONEN'F~..~
~ ~ ' . ~ " ~ - ;~'~_~
CHILLED
BASAL VITROPHYRE
Fig. 6. A schematic cross-section showing emplacement and pro-
gressive aggradation of an extremely high-grade ignimbrite. No
relative scales are implied. Hot particles (viscous droplets) agglu-
tinate and/or coalesce within and just below a depositional
boundary layer that migrates progressively upwards from on the
substrate to a position between non-particulate and particulate
flow components. The thickness of the non-particulate flow com-
ponent at any instant may vary from 0-100% of the thickness of
the aggraded non-particulate material. The asterisk indicates the
boundary between the non-particulate flow component and un-
derlying stationary tuff at an instant in time; its vertical position
will vary with time
pumiceous textures. However, because emplacement of
the non-particulate flow component initially involves
particulate lateral transport, its aspect ratio (thickness/
flow length) is not purely a function of its rheological
properties, slope and eruption rate, as is the case with a
flow that erupted as a lava directly from the vent. The
non-particulate flow component may derive much of its
momentum from the overriding particulate component
of the flow via new additions and frictional coupling,
but as it thickens it will become increasingly indepen-
dent of the particulate part of the flow.
Rheology of the non-particulate flow component
From the conclusion that agglutination and coales-
cence require lower magma viscosities than are charac-
teristic of conduit-fed rhyolite lavas and domes erupted
slowly in a considerably degassed state (e.g. Fink and
Manley 1987; Jaupart and All6gre 1991), it follows that
a non-particulate part of a stratified flow will, at least
initially, have viscosity considerably less than such
rhyolite lavas. We envisage rheologies closer to those of
spatter-fed basalt lava flows.
Subspherical vesicles are abundant in flattened pu-
mice, spatter and matrix of high-grade ignimbrites
(Gibson 1970; Schmincke 1974, 1990; Henry et al.
1989). They indicate that agglutinate was still degassing
after non-particulate flow ceased. Sites of vesiculation
and the effects of volatile-induced reduction in magma
viscosity are considered further in a later section (see
'Sites of volatile exsolution'). Large lenticular gas cavi-
ties and highly pumiceous shear planes are also com-
mon in high-grade ignimbrites (Schmincke 1974;
Chapin and Lowell 1979; Reedman et al. 1987a), and
'
~ ~
" ~
9 ~
*
" -
L
"~
,'.',
~.
'
suggest that the competence of shearing non-particulate
parts of the flow can be affected by preferential volatile
exsolution along shear surfaces. Gas-filled, gas-lubri-
cated shear planes or laminae may form in which the
gas is at a pressure sufficient to support the weight of
the overlying flow (Noble 1968). Competent lenses can
form where depletion of dissolved gas (by shear-in-
o'~'. ~176
~ '~176 ~*:~'2-*:
ZONE O F duced exsolution?) and associated formation of fine
:Ve~176176176 ~%~AGGLUTINATION
~' o ~ ~ '~.:.~'~. AND/OR foam locally increase viscosity and yield strength.
Where the weight of the overlying flow is great, gas-
\
lubricated shear laminae may compact to form parallel
t > partings (Branney et al. 1992). In many high-grade tufts
SUBSTRATE
it is impossible to determine whether a highly lenticular
fiamme represents a flattened pumice clast, a flattened
non-vesicular spatter lump, a rag whose pre-deposition
shape was ribbon-like, or a zone in which welded ma-
trix material has undergone vesiculation (with or with-
out collapse) during shear. For this reason, profiles of
fiamme aspect ratio and density profiles in many high-
grade ignimbrites do not simply record welding intensity,
and they should be interpreted with caution. Unfortu-
nately, high-grade ignimbrites are particularly difficult
subjects for strain analysis because the variously col-
lapsing and revesiculating clasts and matrix cause the
nature and degree of competence inhomogeneity to
vary irregularly through time and along with the vol-
ume of any potential strain markers can change in vol-
ume.
The non-particulate layer is liable to autobrecciate
like a lava flow during its emplacement. Rigid pumi-
ceous lenses, formed by continued vesiculation in
shearing layers, may crumble during shear to form sec-
ond-generation shards (cf Lentia rhyolites, Vulcano;
Pichler 1981). Movement of the non-particulate layer
stops through ponding or when its yield strength ex-
ceeds the applied shear stress. This can arise from topo-
graphic effects, volatile exsolution (itself possibly en-
hanced by shear), or cooling.
Lithofacies associations resulting from flow detachment
Detachment of the particulate and non-particulate flow
components, or stopping of one component before the
other, will inevitably result from developing differences
in rheology. Some ways in which a stratified flow with
a non-particulate component might evolve are shown in
Fig. 7. Actual developments will be influenced by par-
ticle supply rate to the depositional boundary layer, to-
pography, cooling rate, and volatile exsolution rate.
Detailed consideration of the roles and interdepen-
dence of such factors is beyond the scope of this paper,
but it is important to recognise that diverse lithofacies
associations will result from differing and divergent
flow behaviour. Associations that might otherwise have
been ascribed to multiple eruptive phenomena may
thus be interpreted more simply.
Figure 7 depicts only 'snapshot' scenarios. Consider
how each (Figs. 7A-C) would develop during an erup-
tion that produces a sustained two-component flow. In
the case of Fig. 7A, for example, massive or layered

A: NON-PARTICULATECOMPONENTSTOPSFIRST
:~'.. ,i'~..;~,~!:.':.')'i sedimentatian
i!.iii ~"a.: ....
B: PARTICULATECOMPONENTCOLLAPSESBEFORE
NON-PARTICULATECOMPONENTSTOPS
-::< ...........::.............::: ~:; ......... ....
"-1-:;~:~~.~.,...-..... 0 "
-_~-~: -~-- ~ . ...... ." 9 9 .
.- ...~-.;. .... ;,,-_. ..........
. .- " ~
C: PARTICULATEFLOWCOMPONENTDEPOSITSDENSE
MATERIALAND REMAINDERLOFTS
Fig. 7. Three hypothetical 'snapshot' scenarios producing diverse
lithofacies associations following particulate to non-particulate
transitions in a stratified flow. No relative scales are implied. A
Topographic effects (blocking or ponding: Valentine 1987; Fisher
1990) or increase in yield strength with distance from source cause
the non-particulate component of a flow to stop so that the over-
lying particulate component detaches. The detached particulate
flow surmounts topographic highs and leaves a veneer of tuff of
lower grade than the non-particulate component. If increasing
yield strength is the cause, the non-particulate lithofacies passes
abruptly downflow into a non-agglutinated tuff across a steep au-
tobrecciated lobate toe. B The particulate component of a flow
becomes unsteady and collapses before the non-particulate com-
ponent comes to rest. This produces a layer of lower-grade (non-
agglutinated) ignimbrite, which becomes deformed as it rides
along on the top of the non-particulate flow. C The overriding
flow component becomes sufficiently dilute by expansion of en-
trained air and particle sedimentation such that the residual tur-
bulent component undergoes wholesale lofting. The high-grade
deposit does not pass gradationally (vertically or laterally) into
lower-grade ignimbrite, although it autobrecciates in a manner
similar to lava flows, and forms steep lobate margins. The lofted
ash component forms a widely dispersed, cold co-ignimbrite ash-
fall deposit, and some falls onto the high-grade tuff forming a thin
(easily eroded) ash mantle with a sharp base. If airfall ash is de-
posited before the non-particulate flow stops, the mantle may be
deformed or mixed-in with blocks of autobreccia (cf Branney et
al. 1992; Henry et al. 1990)
rheomorphic or lava-like tuff can continue to accumu-
late, attaining great thicknesses proximally or in topo-
graphic lows. However, flow is likely to evolve during a
protracted eruption, so these scenarios may evolve from
one type to another. As the particle population sup-
plied at source varies, and as the particle supply rate to
the depositional regime fluctuates (flow unsteadiness),
agglutinate layers can become interstratified with coal-
515
esced, compaction-welded, and non-welded layers. De-
posits formed in this way would resemble c o m p o u n d
cooling units (Smith 1960) with highly irregular weld-
ing-compaction profiles. They can include lava-like
layers, viscous shear layers, erosion surfaces, layers of
autobreccia, poorly welded layers, layers with imbri-
cated fiamme, and layers fused (sensu Christiansen and
Lipman 1966) by hotter adjacent tufts (Fig. 8) (cf
Walker and Swanson 1968; M a h o o d 1984; Henry et al.
1989). It is wrong to assume that sharp contacts in such
a sequence necessarily represent flow-unit or cooling
~disturbed beds unit boundaries; they may reflect changes in deposi-
, [.... , ~ ~ autobreccia
tional mechanism due to flow unsteadiness, density in-
terfaces in the parent flow, or plug-bounding shear sur-
faces.
Rapidly stacked hot layers of different density and
competence will be particularly prone to soft-state
loading and auto-intrusion, and to development o f
pressure ridges, ramps, attenuation, extensional fractur-
ing or boudinage, lateral spreading, slumping, and
downslope gravity sliding (not indicated on Fig. 8).
l"'"al i " These will be especially p r o n o u n c e d if the hot tufts lie
=~-4-~--~-~- -..
" v .
9 " ' on an irregular topography. Even these 'secondary'
processes probably start whilst the ignirnbrite is being de-
posited, as aggradation increases the load on the first-
deposited tuff. Layered ignimbrite formed in this way
from a single flow might be mistaken for interstratified
thin lavas and tufts, or interstratified agglutinated fall
and flow deposits (see discussion in M a h o o d 1984).
Many ignimbrite eruptions change composition with
time. Such changing inevitably affects viscosity, volatile
content, grain size, and density of particles in the pyro-
clastic flow, and thus alters their welding behaviour, so
that vertical successions of contrasting lithofacies result
(e.g. Onano Pyroclastic Formation; Marsella et al.
1987; Ignimbrite P1, Gran Canaria; Freundt, in
Schmincke 1990).
Welded pyroclastic surge deposits?
It is noticeable to us that there are few literature refer-
ences concerning welded pyroclastic surge deposits re-
lative to those on welded fall and flow deposits. This
could be taken to indicate that cooling in surges is so
rapid as to prevent welding. But agglutination or coal-
escence in a pyroclastic surge will prevent particulate
traction, so typical sedimentary traction structures and
sorting characteristics will not form, and the beds
would resemble fall or flow deposits. A corollary o f this
is that (like the occurrence of elutriation pipes in
welded ignimbrites) the presence of typical surge bed-
forms and sorting in a welded deposit implies that
welding was post-depositional at that stratigraphic ho-
rizon.
Agglutination and coalescence on steep surfaces and in
vents
A close resemblance between the sorting, stratification,
and shape fabrics of subhorizontal ignimbrites and
those of tufts deposited onto steep to vertical surfaces
516
co-ignimbrite ash (non-welded fall and surge deposit)
disrupted non-lineated agglutinate
gradational contact (slumped)
lava-like tuff
sharp contact
tuff fused by overlying coalesced tuff
poorly welded tuff
weeded tuff (oblate fiamme)
autobreccia
auto-intrusion of lava-like tulf
loaded sharp contact
foad ball (pseudonodule)
lava-like tuff
necking and boudinage
Ienticular zones of secondary vesiculation
prolate fiamme
imbrication across a sharp bed contact
with inverse graded basal layer
lithic-rich layer
shear (slide) surface
highly attenuated gas cavities
imbricate fiamme
basal vitrophyre (may be ]ineated or non-lineated)
substrate
Fig. 8. A hypothetical high-grade ignimbrite, showing a vertical
succession of lithofacies that could be produced by a single, long-
lived stratified flow with a variously changing depositional
boundary layer (see text for explanation). In reality, ignimbrites
do not exhibit this entire range of lithofacies at one location. No
relative scales or ideal vertical sequence are implied. Brittle slid-
ing or ductile slumping (not indicated) may subsequently affect
individual layers or the entire thickness of the ignimbrite. The
layers could easily be mistaken for the deposits of separate flows,
surges and falls (and lavas), especially where sharp contacts and
vertical changes in chemical composition occur
suggests that similar depositional mechanisms occur in
both situations. Intrusive tufts (Almond 1971; Wolff et
al. 1989; Davis 1989; Hwasan Caldera ring dyke, Ko-
rea, MJB work in progress) and ignimbrites on steep
surfaces (e.g. the Upper Bandelier Tuff at Paliza Ca-
nyon and Pueblo Mesa: Self and Lipman 1989; the
Cape Riva lag breccia: Druitt and Sparks 1982) com-
monly exhibit thin contact-parallel inverse-graded (2a)
layers between massive poorly sorted (2b) deposits and
the substrate surface. Wolff et al. (1989) describe a
triaxial shape fabric (anisotropy of magnetic suscepti-
bility, and locally visible fiamme), that is consistently
imbricated with respect to a dyke wall throughout the
thickness of an intrusive tuff dyke in Trans-Pecos Tex-
as. This indicates progressive deposition and agglutina-
tion within a steep laminar depositional boundary
layer.
During lateral emplacement of the Wall Mountain
Tuff in the Gribbles Run palaeovalley (Chapin and
Lowell 1979), tuff was agglutinated against steep to ver-
tical walls and developed non-particulate lineations
that generally point along the palaeovalley (alongflow).
The degree of plunge of the non-particulate lineations
fluctuates with increasing distance inwards from a
point on the palaeovalley wall (our observation), which
indicates that non-particulate parts of the flow accreted
successively during passage of the particulate flow. The
variety of (shear) lineation plunge-angles presumably
reflects temporally varying resolutions of vectors due to
stream sloshing or surging in the particulate part of the
flow, with those due to gravity acting on the non-parti-
culate part of the flow. Other geometric features of
welding-deformation in the Wall Mountain Tuff that
are incompatible with an origin entirely by post-em-
placement loading compaction followed by gravity
slumping include a pervasive foliation that is com-
monly not compacted around rigid equant lithic clasts
(in contrast to the 'wrapped' lithics that characterise
tuffs in which loading compaction was the dominant
welding deformation), common occurrence of uniaxial
prolate (X1 > / > X2 = X3) welding-deformation fabrics,
and lineations within the rapidly chilled marginal vitro-
phyre (Chapin and Lowell 1979).
Progressive aggradation involving agglutination
from a continuous particulate flow also can account for
occurrences of steeply lineated and/or foliated high-
grade tufts in volcanic conduits (e.g. Almond 1971;
Baker 1976; Reedman et al. 1987a). Thus planar com-
paction and attenuation fabrics in tuff dykes do not
necessarily indicate compression by closing wall rocks,
as advocated by Wolff (1986). Progressive aggradation
also explains how high-grade tuff intrusions develop a
broadly concentric stratigraphy. For example, high-
grade tufts in an elliptical plug at Weolseong, S. Korea
(Park and Kim 1985; Reedman et al. 1987a) vary from
lava-like at the margins, through highly lineated (rods)
and eutaxitic, to little-deformed at the centre. Similar
associations between high-grade and poorly welded
tuffs occur in dykes in South Kenya (Baker 1976), and
between high-grade, brecciated, and poorly welded
tufts in the 1-km-wide ring dyke along the 15-km-diam-
eter ring fault of Hwasan Caldera, Korea (MJB re-
search in progress).
The field evidence cited above suggests that progres-
sive (stepwise and gradual) aggradation and boundary
layer agglutination can accompany hot particulate flow
irrespective of gravitational settling. Gradual progres-
sive aggradation to produce massive layers analogous
to layer 2b of Sparks (1976) and the $3 divison of Lowe
(1982), on sub-vertical surfaces, suggests the occurrence
of fluid-hindered deposition that is not directly driven
by gravity. One possible explanation is that flow en-
tirely parallel to steep (and probably irregular) surfaces
is unlikely, so that the particulate flow is locally di-
rected obliquely onto the surface, inertially driving par-
ticles onto it so they displace less-dense fluid away
from the surface. This model predicts that massive im-
bricated tuff should not occur symmetrically deposited

onto both walls of a narrow dyke, because at any single
location the flow is unlikely to be directed obliquely
onto both walls simultaneously. The prediction is ful-
filled in the case of the tuff dyke described by Wolff et
al. (1989); intrusive tuff agglutinated only onto one
wall, with asymmetric imbrication.
Sites of volatile exsolution
Magmatic volatiles play an important role in determin-
ing the grade of tuffs. Two apparently opposing effects
result from an increased content of magmatic volatiles;
enhanced magmatic explosivity can promote develop-
ment of a high convective eruption column, which pro-
motes cooling during emplacement (Sparks et al. 1978),
yet volatiles dissolved in pyroclastic particles can lower
their viscosity and yield strength (Schmincke 1974; Ma-
hood 1984), and thus promote coalescence, agglutina-
tion, or post-depositional welding.
Viscous silicic lava flows form if slowly ascending
magma degasses slowly at depth (Jaupart and Allrgre
1991). In contrast, very rapid exsolution of volatiles in a
conduit may drive a vigorous explosive eruption with
attendant tall column and quenched glass shards. How-
ever, consider an eruption in which rapid magma as-
cent is primarily and largely hydraulic (for example
when the collapse of a magma chamber roof is trig-
gered tectonically; Kokelaar and Busby research in
progress) as opposed to mainly pneumatic (driven by
volatile expansion), and in which exsolution is far from
complete by the time magmatic fragmentation occurs.
(This may depend on which volatile species are present
because solubilities of different species vary differently
with depth, e.g. Holloway and Jakobsson 1986.) If the
magmatic particles retained sufficient dissolved vola-
tiles to remain fiuidal during ejection, they would be-
come droplet-shaped, which would minimise cooling
during emplacement because low surface-area to vol-
ume ratios and minimal air resistance do not favour
formation of high convective eruption columns (Wilson
and Huang 1979). Such particles would be liable to ag-
glutinate or coalesce. That particles do retain volatiles
is widely indicated by occurrences of abundant vesicles
that formed in both clasts and matrix of extremely
high-grade tuffs during and after non-particulate flow
(Noble 1968; Gibson 1970; Schmincke 1974, 1990;
Chapin and Lowell 1979; Mahood 1984). Schmincke
(1974) described juvenile pumice clasts whose primary
vesicles collapsed entirely prior to growth of new,
cross-cutting vesicles. However, we do not favour the
term 'secondary vesiculation' because it cannot be as-
sumed that such revesiculation is a single event: a flui-
dal clast (or agglutinated matrix material) might vesicu-
late and collapse several times during emplacement, on
each occasion losing a proportion of its dissolved vola-
tiles, before finally freezing in either a vesicular or non-
vesicular state. Thus the preserved vesicularity and dis-
solved volatile content of the glass are not representative
of the volatile content during eruption and emplace-
ment.
We infer that an important factor determining the
517
grade of tuffs is the rate at which exsolution of various
volatiles occurs relative to eruption ascent. Therefore,
the nature of the plumbing system and the (possibly
changing) geometry of the conduit and vent may be as
important as eruption temperature.
Conclusions
The continuum of ignimbrite grade reflects a spectrum
of emplacement conditions and mechanisms (Fig. 1).
Therefore, when interpreting the origin of an extensive
lava-like sheet, for example, consideration of the spec-
trum is a better approach to understanding and classifi-
cation than simplistic drawing of comparisons with li-
thofacies of low-grade (unequivocal) ignimbrites and of
stubby silicic lavas. Rare crystal breakage, absence of
remnant cuspate shards, and lack of cooling unit pro-
files have been used to infer that some sheets are lava
flows, but the eruption and emplacement mechanisms
of lava-like ignimbrites are inherently different to those
of lower-grade ignimbrites. It should be recognised that
(1) fragmentation of very fluidal magma involves less
crystal breakage than does brittle fragmentation of a
high-yield strength explosive magma; (2) cuspate
shards and pumice may not form or may revert during
transport to droplet-shapes and non-vesicular spatter
lumps (Gibson 1970; Schmincke 1974; Henry et al.
1989); and (3) fluidal particles may coalesce where
there is no load, right to the top of the sheet. In addi-
tion, abundances of accidental lithics in lava-like ig-
nimbrites should more closely resemble those of foun-
tain-fed basalt lavas than those of low-grade ignim-
brites. Basal autobreccias have been used to infer lava-
flow origin, but if the first-formed non-particulate com-
ponent of a hot stratified flow is autobrecciated early in
the aggradation history, the resultant extremely high-
grade ignimbrite will have autobreccia along its base.
Basal autobreccia has been recorded from an unambi-
guous ignimbrite on Gran Canaria (TL2 Mog/m Forma-
tion, Gran Canaria: J Sumner personal communication,
1991) and from rheomorphic ignimbrites in Arizona (du
Bray and Pallister 1991).
Complex vertical (as well as lateral) lithofacies
changes in ignimbrites can form during single eruptions
and can record successive modes of deposition in a
boundary layer that evolves during passage of a single
flow. Sharp contacts in the deposit, and inverse-graded
fine-grained layers, do not necessarily reflect intervals
between successive flows. Determination of flow-unit
boundaries requires evidence for a time interval.
Avoiding straitjacket terms
The concept of distinction between "primary" and
"secondary" welding and flowage (sensu Wolff and
Wright 1981) is difficult to apply because rarely can it
be established that a high-grade ignimbrite formed by
an ashflow stopping en masse, then deflating, then
welding, and then undergoing non-particulate flow, in
distinct stages. It seems that in many cases agglutina-
tion occurs during progressive aggradation, and non-
particulate flow can then continue until well after ag-
518
gradation has ceased. Also, the "primary" versus "sec-
ondary" concept does not allow for the likelihood of
non-particulate flow structures developing whilst dense
basal parts of flows locally drain back downslope be-
fore coming to rest, as occurs within dense parts of cold
particulate flows both during and after initial emplace-
ment (e.g. Fisher 1990). The presence of lineations is
not diagnostic of post-emplacement flow (hot slump-
ing) as suggested by Wolff and Wright (1981), because
lineations f o r m during deposition of non-welded ig-
nimbrites, and because all gradations occur between li-
neations f o r m e d by sedimentary grain alignment, those
formed during agglutination, and those formed during
hot slumping. Because ignimbrite fabrics reflect the
depositional regime rather than the transport regime,
both particulate and non-particulate lineations can in-
dicate depositional b o u n d a r y layer flow either down lo-
cal t o p o g r a p h i c slopes or away from source. Thus li-
neation orientation alone cannot be taken to indicate
remobilisation after stopping and deflating en masse.
We conclude that with high-grade tufts the term "rheo-
morphic' is best retained for any non-particulate flow
structure that formed prior to lithification (Bates and
Jackson 1980; Branney et al. 1992). Terms such as hot
gravity sliding, slumping, and loading-compaction de-
formation adequately describe various forms of post-
e m p l a c e m e n t r h e o m o r p h i c remobilisation, where these
can be demonstrated specifically. The expressions 'par-
ticulate flow' and 'non-particulate flow' better describe
the nature of flow than " p r i m a r y laminar viscous flow",
"viscous mass f l o w a g e ' , and 'secondary viscous flow'
(Schmincke and Swanson 1967; Wolff and Wright
1981), because both particulate flow and non-particu-
late flow can be laminar and viscous. However, we sug-
gest that the terms 'agglutination' and 'coalescence', as
used in this paper, are useful to distinguish welding
that occurs rapidly on contact from p o s t - e m p l a c e m e n t
welding in which in situ cooling rate and lithostatic
load are important controls.
The terms " p r i m a r y vesiculation" and "secondary
vesiculation" also inappropriately imply two stages of
vesiculation whereas, in high-grade ignimbrites, vesicu-
lation, vesicle collapse, and revesiculation can occur at
any point, and possibly m a n y times, throughout the
m a g m a ' s cooling history. Vesiculation m a y occur be-
fore fragmentation in a conduit, and continue during
fragmentation, ejection, particulate flow, agglutona-
tion, non-particulate flow, and after, until the in situ ig-
nimbrite finally lithifies.
Acknowledgements. This work would have been impossible without
the numerous documented case studies of ignimbrites by many
different workers over the last 25 years. Encouraging and construc-
tive criticism by Dick Fisher, Phil Leat, Chuck Cbapin, Hans
Schmincke, Gustav Kobberger, Wendell Duffield, and Greg Val-
entine was greatly appreciated and led to a much improved final
version of the manuscript. Thanks are due also to Tony Reedman,
Harry Pinkerton, Lionel Wilson and Tim Druitt for discussions on
various aspects covered in our paper. Thanks to Janet Sumner for
showing MJB some ignimbrite localities on Gran Canaria, and to
Donatella De Rita and Danilo Palladino for showing MJB spatter-
rich ignimbrites at Vulsini. MJB was funded by a NERC Research
Fellowship (GT5/F/89/GS/2).
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