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Crystalline silica (mostly cristobalite) was produced by vapor-phase crystallization and devitrification in the andesite lava dome of the Soufriere Hills volcano, Montserrat. The sub-10-micrometer fraction of ash generated by pyroclastic flows formed by lava dome collapse contains 10 to 24 weight percent crystalline silica, an enrichment of 2 to 5 relative to the magma caused by selective crushing of the groundmass. The sub-10-micrometer fraction of ash generated by explosive eruptions has much lower contents (3 to 6 percent) of crystalline silica. High levels of cristobalite in respirable ash raise concerns about adverse health effects of long-term human exposure to ash from lava dome eruptions.

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Olivine-hosted melt inclusions within lava retain information regarding the lava"s primary magma compositions and mantle sources. Thus, they can be used to infer the nature of the mantle sources of large igneous provinces, which is still not well known and of the subject of debate. We have analyzed the chemical compositions and Pb isotopic ratios of olivine-hosted melt inclusions in the Dali picrites, Emeishan Large Igneous Province (LIP), SW China. These are the first in-situ Pb isotope data measured for melt inclusions found in the Emeishan picrites and allow new constraints to be placed on the source lithology of the Emeishan LIP. The melt inclusions show chemical compositional variations, spanning low-, intermediate-and high-Ti compositions, while their host whole rocks are restricted to the intermediate-Ti compositions. Together with the relatively constant Pb isotope ratios of the melt inclusions, the compositional variations suggest that the low-, intermediate-and high-Ti melts were derived from compositionally similar sources. The geochemical characteristics of melt inclusions, their host olivines, and whole-rocks from the Emeishan LIP indicate that Ca, Al, Mn, Yb, and Lu behave compatibly, and Ti, Rb, Sr, Zr, and Nb behave incompatibly during partial melting, requiring a pyroxenite source for the Emeishin LIP. The wide range of Ti contents in the melt inclusions and whole-rocks of the Emeishan basalts reflects different degrees of partial melting in the pyroxenite source at different depths in the melting column. The Pb isotope compositions of the melt inclusions and the OIB-like trace element compositions of the Emeishan basalts imply that mixing of a recycled ancient oceanic crust (EM1-like) component with a peridotite component from the lower mantle (FOZO-like component) could have underwent solid-state reaction, producing a secondary pyroxenite source that was subsequently partially melted to form the basalts. This new model of pyroxenite melting could explain the geochemical variations among the low-, intermediate-and high-Ti basalts for the Emeishan LIP and challenges the prevailing belief that the source of the Emeishan basalts is peridotite- .