1

The geometric difference between non-feeders and feeder dikes

Nobuo Geshia, Shigekazu Kusumotob, Agust Gudmundssonc
a

Geological Survey of Japan, AIST, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8567, Japan

Graduate School of Science and Engineering for Research, University of Toyama,

3190 Gofuku, Toyama-shi, Toyama, 930-8555, Japan
c

Department of Earth Sciences, Queen's Building, Royal Holloway University of

London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK
ABSTRACT
Feeder-dikes bring magma to the surface; non-feeders become arrested and never
reach the surface. The differences, if any, between these dike types remain largely
unexplored because, in the field, it is normally unknown if a particular dike is a
feeder or non-feeder. Here present measurements of feeder and non-feeder dikes
exposed from depths of more than 200 m to the surface in the walls of the AD 2000
caldera collapse of the Miyakejima Volcano, Japan. A typical feeder thickness
reaches a maximum of 2-4 m at the surface, decreases rapidly to about 1 m at
depth of 20 - 40 m, and then remains constant to the bottom of the exposure. By
contrast, a typical non-feeder thickness reaches a maximum of 1.5-2 m at 15 - 45 m
below the tip, and then decreases slowly with depth to 0.5-1 m at the bottom of the
exposure. We propose that free-surface effects and magmatic overpressure (driving
pressure) changes during the eruption cause the overall shape of a feeder to differ
from that of a non-feeder.

Keywords: dike emplacement, magma pressure, rock properties, crustal stresses,

surface deformation, volcanic hazard

Geology, 38, 195198, 2010

INTRODUCTION
Most volcanic unrest periods do not result in an eruption (Newhall and Dzurisin,
1988). Even those unrest periods where a magma-filled fracture, a dike, is known to
have been injected from a magma chamber do not normally result in an eruption
1

(Pollard et al., 1983; Bonafede and Rivalta, 1999; Gudmundsson, 2003). Since dikes
(including inclined sheets) supply magma to all fissure eruptions, understanding the
conditions that either stop (arrest) the dike tip or allow it to reach the surface are of
fundamental importance for understanding unrest periods and for assessing volcanic
hazards and risks.
There have been some geometric studies of feeder dikes close to craters
(Gudmundsson, 2003; Gudmundsson et al., 1999), but no systematic studies of
thickness variations of feeders and non-feeders in highly active volcanoes, primarily
because the most active parts of volcanic edifices lack suitable outcrops of dikes. The
Miyakejima Volcano is probably unique because the caldera collapse in A.D. 2000
(Geshi et al., 2002) generated a 200-450 m high, subvertical outcrop that is ideal for
detailed geometric measurements of non-feeders and feeders.
Here we report the first results on the dikes in this outcrop. The focus is on (1)
detailed measurements of the thickness variation of feeders and non-feeders as a
function of depth and host-rock properties, (2) the overall geometric difference between
the feeders and non-feeders, and (3) a general conceptual model to explain the
difference.

DIKES IN THE CALDERA WALL

The Miyakejima Volcano, a basaltic - andesitic stratovolcano on the volcanic front of
Izu - Mariana subduction zone (Fig. 1A), is one of the most active volcanoes in Japan.
There have been repeated flank fissure eruptions through a radial dike system in the
volcano, with smaller summit eruptions, for at least the past 10 ka (Fig. 1B) (Tsukui et
al., 2005). The summit, a basaltic stratocone built primarily between 10-3 ka, collapsed
at around 2.5 ka. The resulting caldera was subsequently buried by an intracaldera cone
until about 1 ka. The A.D. 2000 caldera, 1.7 km across and about 450 m deep, dissects
both the earlier stratocone and the later intracaldera cone (Fig. 1B; Geshi et al., 2002;
Geshi, 2009).
We observed165 dikes in the caldera wall, some of which can be traced vertically for
up to 350 m (Fig. 2). The average dike thickness from all the measurements is 1.3 m,
whereas the maximum measured dike thickness is 9.9 m. Some dikes in the caldera wall

show en echelon arrangement of segments, but most are offset in an irregular manner
(Fig. 2). Most of the dikes strike radially from the central vent area which was destroyed
during the caldera formation. The dike frequency is highest in the northwestern sector of
the caldera walls, where the 10-2.5 ka deposits are exposed.
The dikes in the caldera wall are of two types; feeders and non-feeders (Fig. 2). All
the non-feeders terminate either by tapering away inside layers or ending bluntly at
layer contacts, indicating that the dike segments seen in the caldera wall did not reach to
the surface. Some 95% of dike-segments in the caldera wall are non-feeders although it
is impossible to know if segments of the non-feeders reached the ground surface away
from outcrop. The number of non-feeders exposed in the caldera wall (>100), however,
is much greater than that of surface eruption fissures (<30; Tsukui et al, 2005),
suggesting that most of the non-feeder dikes did not reach the surface. This conclusion
is supported by statistical studies elsewhere indicating that in dike swarms exposed at
depths of 0.2-1.5 km, only about 10% of the dikes reached the surface (Gudmundsson et
al., 1999). The feeder-dikes observed in the outcrop connect directly to the bottoms of
spatter cones, indicating that the dikes reached the ground surface and fed eruptions.

DIKE-THICKNESS VARIATIONS
Dike thicknesses were calculated from dike widths on photo-images, using the
distance between the dike and the camera and the focal length of the lens. The
photographs for the analysis, with 3872 x 2592 pixels, were taken from the opposite
sides of the caldera rim with a telephoto lens of 300-mm focal length. The typical
resolution of these images is about 3 cm/pixel. The images were taken in a direction
subparallel to (within 10 of) the dike strike to minimize the parallax effect. To
minimize the effect of lens distortion, the marginal 40% of each image was excluded
from the analysis. We also checked the accuracy of the measurements using objects of
known size on the caldera rim. Outcrop roughness and local irregularities in dike
attitudes (possibly within 30 for each) are the most likely sources for measurement
error, which we estimate at less than 20%.
For the present analysis, we selected 21 non-feeder dikes and 6 feeder dikes, all of
which can be traced more than 100 meters vertically. These dikes are little affected by

dike segmentation, cross-cutting younger dikes, hydrothermal alteration, brecciation by

the caldera collapse, and debris cover. The representative five non-feeder dikes and
three feeder dikes are shown in Figure 3.
For a typical non-feeder, the thickness increases from the tip to a maximum of 1.5-2.1
m at 15-45 m below the tip, and then decreases slowly with depth to 0.5-1 m at the
bottom of the exposure (Fig. 3). Below the maximum, the rate of decrease of dike
thickness is typically about 0.5 m/100 m. For example, the non-feeder dike 90-04 (Fig.
3) increases its thickness to 2.1 m at 45 m below the tip, and then decreases its thickness
to 0.8 m at a depth of 180 m. The thickness of segmented dikes locally changes at the
segment boundary but generally decreases with the depth (Fig. 3).
For feeder-dikes, the thickness distribution is very different (Fig. 3). Typically, the
thickness reaches a maximum of 2-4 m at the surface, decreases rapidly to about 1 m at
depth of 20-40 m, and then remains constant to the bottom of the exposure. For example,
the thickness of the feeder to the 1535 fissure eruption (Fig. 3) peaks at 3.5 m at the
base of its spatter cone. Then it first decreases rapidly to about 1.0 m at a depth of 30 m
and then remains essentially constant to the bottom of the exposure at 100 m.

FACTORS CONTROLLING DIKE THICKNESS

One remarkable feature of the non-feeder dikes is the general and gradual thickness
decrease below the maximum at a few tens of meters below the tip. We suggest that this
thickness decrease is primarily related to the decreasing magmatic overpressure (driving
pressure) and increasing host-rock Youngs modulus with depth. This follows, in a
simple way, from the following equation (Sneddon and Lowengrub, 1969):

2 Po 1 v 2 L
E

(1)

where b is the thickness (strictly, the maximum thickness) of the dike, Po is the
magmatic overpressure (the pressure in excess of the normal stress on the dike at the
point of thickness measurement), is Poisson's ratio and E Young's modulus of the host
rock at the point of measurement. L is the dike controlling dimension, that is, the
smaller of the dip and strike dimensions of the dike.
4

Eq. (1) has been used by many workers as a simple model for dikes and sills
(Delaney and Pollard, 1981; Gudmundsson, 1990; Poland et al., 2008). For E = 1GPa
(compliant, near-surface rocks) and = 0.25 (Bell, 2000), the average magmatic
overpressures of the non-feeders 90-01, 90-02, 90-03, and 90-04 are 7-12 MPa. These
values are similar to those obtained by many other workers (Delaney and Pollard, 1981;
Gudmundsson, 1990; Poland et al., 2008).
The magmatic overpressure or driving pressure is given by (Gudmundsson, 1990):
Po r m gh pe d

(2)

where r is the density of the host rock, m is the density of the magma, g is the

acceleration due to gravity, h is the dip dimension or height of the dike (positive upward
from the source chamber) at the point of thickness measurement, pe is the excess
magmatic pressure in the source chamber before rupture and dike injection (normally
equal to the in situ tensile strength of the rock), and d is the stress difference between
the vertical and the horizontal compressive stress at the point of dike-thickness
measurement. Since most dikes are pure extension fractures, d is generally equal to the
difference between the minimum and maximum principal compressive stresses at the
point of measurement.
From Eqs. (1,2) it follows that the overpressure of a propagating dike increases with
increasing dip dimension (height) of the dike above its source chamber so long as the
average density of the host rock layers is greater than the magma density. When Po
increases, it follows from Eq. (1) that, other things being equal, the dike thickness
increases. Thus, the thickness of a dike normally decreases, and its strike dimension
increases, that is, the dike becomes thinner and longer along strike, with increasing
depth below the point of maximum overpressure (Gudmundsson, 1990), in agreement
with the present measurements (Fig. 3).
Gas expansion may decrease the density of basaltic magma at very shallow levels in
the volcano. Initial water contents of the basaltic magmas of Miyakejima are estimated
at 2 wt% (Kuritani et al., 2003) and the magmas already contained bubbles when they
intruded into the volcanic edifice. Thus, even if the density of the rock layers through

which the dike propagates decreases toward the surface, so does the magma density.
Consequently, the buoyancy term in Eq. (2) results in the dike overpressure and, from
Eq. (1), thickness may increase down to a few tens of meters below the surface. Below
this depth, however, the overpressure generally decreases as the dike height h above its
source chamber decreases. Also, as a result of compaction of the porous and
poorly-consolidated pyroclastics in the volcano, Youngs modulus generally increases
with the depth. Thus, from Eq. (1), an average increase in Young's modulus and
decrease in overpressure results in the dike thickness decreasing with depth below its
maximum.
In addition to the general thickness trends, there are irregular, local thickness
variations in both dike types (Fig. 3). There is, for example, an abrupt thickness increase
in dike 110-01, a local "bulge", at 75-85 m below the dike tip where the dike dissects
poorly-consolidated scoriaceous tuff. Similar dike-thickness variations have been
observed, for example, in layered sedimentary rocks (Baer, 1991).
This irregularity in thickness is, we propose, primarily related to abrupt changes in
the physical properties, primarily Young's modulus, of the rock layers that the dikes
dissect. Although Young's modulus generally increases with depth, as explained above,
it may vary abruptly between compliant or soft poorly-consolidated pyroclastic layers
and stiff lava flows and welded layers. The difference in stiffness between these layers
may easily reach a factor of ten, and occasionally a factor of 100 (Bell, 2000).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The essentially constant thickness of a typical feeder dike, except for its near-surface
part, suggests the buoyancy of the magmas was gradually lost during the eruption, and
that the magma reached a stress-equilibrium with the host rock at the end of eruption.
We attribute the rapid dike-thickness increase toward the surface in the uppermost 20-40
m to two factors. One is the elastic free-surface effect (Isida, 1955; Pollard et al., 1983;
Gray, 1992), which effectively means that due to lack of constraints at the free surface
(as half the elastic space is "removed"), on meeting the surface the fracture (here the
dike) tends to open up. The second factor is erosion of the dike walls due to thermal and
dynamic effects (Bruce and Huppert, 1989).

Feeders propagate and grow as non-feeders before they reach the surface. Therefore,
the geometric difference between these types of dike, as described above, is primarily a
reflection of the feeders reaching the surface. A non-feeder largely keeps its original
emplacement geometry, whereas once a feeder reaches the surface its magmatic
overpressure gradually falls, during the course of the eruption, and its thickness
decreases to balance the horizontal stress in the host rock.
In conclusion, this study shows that there are significant differences between the
overall geometries of feeder-dikes and non-feeders, indicating that the non-feeders
reflect the overall shapes of magma-filled fracture before eruption whereas the feeders
reflect the overall shapes at the end of eruptions. The magmatic pressure within a
typical feeder seems to equilibrate with the host rock during the eruption so that, except
in the near-surface part, its thickness becomes relatively constant. Thus, the feeder
thickness does not reflect the emplacement conditions, but rather the conditions at the
end of the eruption. This is in stark contrast with a typical non-feeder which largely
keeps its original thickness. Thus, the geometry of an exposed non-feeder is an
indication of its magmatic overpressure, a controlling factor in the mechanics of dike
emplacement.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors thank Hiroshi Shinohara and Teruki Oikawa for helpful suggestions,
Valerio Acocella, Mike Poland, Alessandro Tibaldi, and Sandra J Wyld for helpful
review comments, and the Japan Meteorological Agency (Miyake Observatory) and the
local government of Miyake Village for support during the field surveys.

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Figure 1. A) Locality map of Miyakejima Volcano. B) Outline of the caldera formed

during the 2000 eruption and the radial trends of major eruption fissures (broken lines).

Figure 2. A) Part of the dike swarm in the northwestern part of the caldera wall (a.s.l.
means "above sea level"). The blue arrows indicate dike 90-01 and pink arrows indicate
dike 90-04. B) Feeder dike to the AD 1535 scoria cone, with a thick tip indicated by the
upper arrow and its thin lowermost exposed part by the lower arrow. The thickness
variations of these dikes are presented in Fig. 3..

Figure 3. Variation in thicknesses of 5 non-feeders and 3 feeder-dykes. Notice the

widely different overall geometries of the dikes, as well as the abrupt local thickness
changes in many of them. Horizontal broken lines show segment boundaries (S.B.).
Host-rock lithology is shown in the diagram for dike 110-01, showing a local bulge in
tuff layer.