A chemostratigraphic study of the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption (Campi Flegrei, Italy): insights on magma chamber withdrawal and deposit accumulation as revealed by compositionally zoned stratigraphic and facies framework

Petrochemical analyses of juvenile samples from twenty stratigraphic sections of the Campanian Ignimbrite medial deposits, located from 30 to 79 km from the vent, are presented here. Sampling has accurately followed a well-defined stratigraphic framework and the new component facies scheme. The Campanian Ignimbrite succession is formed by a basal plinian pumice fall deposit, overlain by a complex architecture of pyroclastic density current deposits emplaced from a single sustained pyroclastic density current through a mechanism of vertical and lateral accretion. The deposit is broadly zoned, from more evolved trachyte at its base to less evolved trachyte at its top, and is similarly less evolved with increasing distance from the area of emission. Irregular chemical trends are locally observed and interpreted to represent only a limited, “patchy” record of the entire vertical geochemical trend. The petrochemical variation observed horizontally was ascribed to changes in the flow dynamics and interaction between the advancing flow and the underlying topography. The results of this study were used to propose a unified volcanological-petrological model for the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption, taking into account the emplacement of both the proximal (i.e., the “Breccia Museo” formation) and medial deposits.