Submarine pyroclastic deposits in Tertiary basins, NE Slovenia

Abstract

In Tertiary basins of NE Slovenia, Upper Oligocene volcanic activity occurred in a submarine environment that experienced contemporaneous clastic Sedimentation. Pyroclastic deposits are essentially related to gas- and water-supported eruption-fed density currents. At Trobni Dol, the Laško Basin, an over 100 m thick deposit formed by a sigle sustained volcanic explosion that fed gas-supported pyroclastic flow. Diagnostic features are large matrixshard content, normal grading of pumice lapilli, collapsed pumice lapilli and the presence of charcoal. In the Smrekovec Volcanic Complex, several but only up to 5 m thick deposits related to eruption-fed gas-supported pyroclastic flows occur. Deposits settled from water-supported eruption-fed density currents form fining- and thinning-upward sedimentary units which resemble the units of volcaniclastic turbidites. Pyroclastic deposits related to gas- and water-supported density currents occur in an up to 1000 m thick succession composed of coherent volcanics, autoclastic, pyroclastic, reworked volcaniclastic and mixed volcaniclastic-siliciclastic deposits that indicate a complex explosive and depositional history of the Smrekovec Volcanic Complex.