Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 159 (2007) 1 – 3
www.elsevier.com/locate/jvolgeores
Editorial
Introduction: Maar-diatreme volcanism
1. Introduction
This Special Volume on Maar-diatreme volcanism
and associated processes follows from the Second
International Maar Conference held in Lajosmizse-
Kecskemet, Hungary. It was supported by the Interna-
tional Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the
Earth Interior (IAVCEI), the IAVCEI Commission on
Volcanogenic Sediments and the International Associa-
tion of Sedimentologists, and was organized by an
international committee from Hungary, the Slovak
Republic and Germany. A laboratory workshop in
Wuerzburg, Germany and two parallel field trips to
maar-diatreme volcanic fields in the Mio-Pliocene
Pannonian Basin in Hungary and Slovak Republic
accompanied the meeting.
Maar-diatreme volcanoes are commonly considered
the phreatomagmatic equivalent of scoria cones. Where-
as tuff cones form in shallow water bodies and in
groundwater-rich environment maars, many surrounded
by tuff rings, form in rather “normal” groundwater
environments. Maars occur in volcanic fields, on ring
plains surrounding composite cones and inside the
calderas of polygenetic volcanoes. Only a few maars
have erupted in historic times. Maars usually form when
magma rises within a fissure and interacts with
groundwater. If groundwater ceases to interact with
magma at times during the eruption, continued magma
ascent to the surface gives rise to a wide range of
volcanic forms and products associated closely with
maar-diatreme volcanoes. Maar-diatreme volcanoes are
considered to be the second most common volcanic
landforms in subaerial environments in many different
geological settings. They are complex volcanic features
despite their commonly small size and the small volumes
of magma involved in their formation, and produce
complex deposits both within and surrounding their
craters. The records of maar eruptions commonly
indicate switching between magmatic and phreatomag-
matic processes in the conduit, varied transport processes
0377-0273/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2006.06.003
in vertical plumes and lateral currents, and diverse
depositional processes.
Diatremes are the substructures of maar volcanoes,
and consist of inverted-cone-shaped volcanic structures,
up to 2.5 km deep and up to 2 km in upper diameter, that
are cut into pre-eruptive rocks. The structures are filled
with clastic debris derived from the structure walls,
juvenile fragments and subsided larger blocks, and they
are typically cut by intrusive rocks. The volume of the
diatreme fill is about the same as that of the thinly bedded
tephra ring and distal ash deposits, so a diatreme is an
important part of a maar-diatreme volcano in terms of
deposit volume as well as of eruptive processes. The
rather regularly cone-shaped diatremes extend at depth
into root zones. The root zone of a maar-diatreme is
irregular in shape and overlies the magmatic feeder dyke
of the volcano. Maar-diatreme volcanoes may form from
any magma type involved in volcanism, though they
seem less commonly associated with evolved composi-
tions. Depending on magma type and other geological
variables, diatremes may contain diamonds or other
commodities, they may be quarried for road metal, and
may represent aquifers.
The below groundlevel deposits of maar-diatreme
volcanoes also show complex textural features in their
deposits, many of which are characteristic of products of
magma–water interaction. Such features as peperite,
which results from the interaction and mingling of
magma and wet sediment, commonly exhibit a range of
complex textures in association with many maar-
diatreme volcanoes. The occurrence of peperite demon-
strates contemporaneous volcanism and sedimentation;
various peperites can provide insights into aspects of
subsurface magma transport, magma fragmentation,
host-sediment properties and the “pre-mixing” mechan-
isms of FCI (fuel–coolant interaction) explosions.
Outpourings of lava may produce lava lakes in the
maar depressions, and recent studies demonstrate that
peperite commonly occurs at the contact of lava lakes
with the tephra rings of maar and tuff ring/cone
2 Editorial
volcanoes, as well as in the subsurface surrounding these
edifices. When the phreatomagmatic explosions of a
maar-diatreme volcano finally come to an end, the crater
typically fills up with water. Lavas erupted later, into
fully subaqueous environments in lakes impounded
within the maars themselves, are characterized by pillow
lavas, hyaloclastite breccias and/or peperite breccias.
Maar lakes are deep in relation to their diameter and
often isolated from the surroundings by the ejected
material (ejecta-rim wall, or tuff ring). This characteristic
architecture affects the lakes and their sediments, which
often capture the material of an extremely small catch-
ment area. So long as the ring of enclosing ejecta is not
breached by erosion or overtopped by aggrading
sediment in the surrounding area, allochthonous clastic
material reaches the crater floor mainly as turbidity
currents originating from the crater rim (ejected mate-
rial). The autochthonous sediment in maar lakes is often
dominated by algal material. Algal-bloom deposits alter-
nate with background clastic sediment layers to create
well-laminated deposits.
Tephra deposits of maar-diatreme volcanoes are com-
monly very similar texturally to subaerial tephras depos-
ited from emergent Surtseyan-style eruptions, which are
characterized by interaction of a fluid erupting magma
with abundant external water. Surtseyan deposits, how-
ever, typically consist almost entirely of glassy frag-
ments formed by fragmentation of the erupting magma
and lack the significant country-rock component char-
acteristic of deposits from maar-forming eruptions. This
an important difference, and it indicates that in Surtseyan
eruptions fragmentation occurs at very shallow levels in
the edifice or/and as the magma emerges from it. If or
when the erupting magma no longer encounters water
(for instance if tephra encloses an emergent vent, or
groundwater supplies to a maar-diatreme vent are de-
pleted), both Surtseyan and maar-forming eruptions may
transform to Strombolian or Hawaiian ones.
Volcanic activity in terrestrial settings does not
always result in formation of a single volcanic edifice,
and volcanic fields, especially basaltic ones, are common
volcanic systems on Earth. Monogenetic volcanic fields
are those in which individual volcanoes (mainly basaltic)
commonly form during single episodes of volcanic
activity, without subsequent eruptions; the volcanic field
as a whole, however, may be active for millions of years.
Fundamental aspects of volcanic fields that are the focus
of current research include (1) the number, type and
eruption history of individual vents; (2) the timing and
recurrence rates of the volcanic eruptions in a given
volcanic field; (3) the distribution of vents and volcanic
complexes; and (4) the relationship of volcanic fields and
the volcanoes within them to tectonic features such as
basins, faults and rift zones.
In general, there are four major considerations in
analysis of the ascent and emplacement of magma either
on Earth or other planets, which are: (1) magma gener-
ation, (2) magma buoyancy, (3) rheological boundaries
in the lithosphere and (4) density boundaries in the lith-
osphere. In addition to these factors, the stress field (local
and regional) plays an important role in controlling
magma ascent, with rising magmas generally exploiting
favorable pathways related to the structural features of
the lithosphere, such as fractures, thinned lithospheric
domains, or zones and orientations of least compression.
In this volume, 18 papers are presented that demon-
strate the variety of research on maar-diatreme volcanism
today. The volume has been organised to first introduce
the reader to the key concept of root zones as the “engine
rooms” for maar-diatreme volcanoes, and their potential
role in development of diamondiferous kimberlites. In this
respect, it is among the first scientific works to present on
equal footing papers from the two major research groups,
one arguing for phreatomagmatism and the other a
magmatic eruption style for diamond-bearing kimberlite
maar-diatreme volcanism. Subsequent contributions suc-
cessively address the origin of magmas involved in
genesis of volcanic fields with maar-diatreme volcanoes,
diatreme deposits and evolution of the diatreme struc-
tures, peperite formed by magma interacting with tephra
and sediment in diatreme and crater environments, and
features of tephra rings of maar ejecta and their depo-
sitional setting. Overall, the progression is from the sub-
surface to the surface, from an eruption's “engine room”
to the surficial expression of activity there and its
aftermath.
Specific contributions in the volume include field-
based papers that analyze dyke and sill complexes as
potential representatives of the shallow subsurface
architecture of a maar-diatreme volcano, results from
geophysical analysis that takes advantage of the low-
density volcaniclastic infilling of diatremes to determine
their scale and characteristics in the subsurface. New
research into complex maar-diatreme volcanoes from
Hungary, Israel, Mexico, Spain and Turkey is reported
that reminds us that maar volcanoes can develop in many
different geological and geographical settings. The link
between maar-diatreme volcanism and shallow subaque-
ous eruptions is illustrated by a contribution concerning a
Surtseyan eruption in Iceland that shows in its formation,
depositional processes and resulting sedimentary record
similarities with products of terrestrial maar-diatreme
eruptions. Geochemical studies of boron concentration,
and xenolith studies of maar-diatreme deposits help link
 Editorial 3

the themes in this volume with those of other, more Ulrike Martin*
geochemically oriented, works. The volume closes with Károly Németh
a review paper addressing the potential volcanic hazards Volker Lorenz
posed by maar-diatreme volcanic fields and their con- James D.L. White
stituent volcanoes. Institut fur Geologie, Universitat Wurzburg,
We as Guest Editors wish to dedicate this volume to Wurzburg, Germany
Alexander McBirney and Grant Heiken, each of whom *Corresponding author.
has had a significant impact on our understanding of the E-mail address: ceboruco@web.de.
evolution of volcanic fields, many of which host large
numbers of maar-diatreme volcanoes. Each was also an 1 May 2006
early and influential proponent of phreatomagmatic
eruptive processes in the origin of tuff rings, cones and
maar-diatreme volcanoes.

28th February 2006

Wuerzburg (Germany), Palmerston North (New Zealand)

and Budapest (Hungary), Dunedin (New Zealand)