Basaltic volcanism represents the most common form of volcanic activity on Earth. Although the mafic magmas involved in this activity are of much lower viscosity than their silicic counterparts, they are nonetheless capable of erupting equally explosively. Mafic magmas however also span a wide range of eruption intensities, from discrete Strombolian explosions at the lower end of the scale, to sustained lava fountaining and rare Plinian style eruptions at the upper end. Despite the relative frequency of basaltic volcanism, research into how these magmas fragment within the various eruption intensities has so far been limited. Combination of empirical data deriving from well-studied eruptions and the assessment of the physical conditions suggest that a multidisciplinary approach should be applied to progress the understanding of fragmentation dynamics for eruption style forecasting, and volcanic hazard assessment purposes.

This research aims to produce a model for mafic magma fragmentation through fluid dynamic experiments and real-world eruption studies, and by drawing on the knowledge obtained from the previous fragmentation studies. For the real-world eruptions, Mount Etna (Italy; with the May 2016 eruption) and Piton de La Fournaise (Reunion Island, France; with the July-August 2015 eruption) were chosen as the volcanoes of focus due to a high frequency of eruptions, suitable magma composition and wide range of eruptive styles. A multidisciplinary approach to this work allowed the combination of volcanological and petrological data in a way that is not usually displayed. Fluid dynamics experiments were aimed to observe fragmentation of glucose syrup mixtures, which has properties similar to basaltic magma.

All of the research results are compared and discussed. A general, dimensionless scheme for mafic magma fragmentation is proposed and its validity is discussed based on the available dataset.