USGS Denver Microbeam Laboratory
These particles, or microspheres, from the plume of the Kilauea volcano, Hawaii, display previously unrecognized structural and compositional features indicating that the spheres are at least partially crystalline rather than glass. Distinctive prismatic and dendritic structures on the surfaces of the microspheres are remarkably consistant through the population and indicate that the spheres have crystalline outer shells. The structures and compositions of the microspheres suggest that they differentiated and then solidified during rapid cooling, as they passed through the gradients of temperature and chemical composition in the plume as air diluted the gaseous phases evolved from the magma.
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Content information: Greg Meeker
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Page Last Modified: Tuesday, 16-Oct-2007 13:05:46 MDT
