Textural, thermal, and topographic constraints on lava flow system structure: the December 2010 eruption of Piton de la Fournaise

co-auteur étranger; International audience; In this study, we examine the channel-fed ‘a‘ā lava flow system that was emplaced during a very short (less than 15 h long) eruptionat Piton de la Fournaise (La Réunion) in December 2010. The system had four branches, the longest of which was 1100 m long.Three brancheswere emplaced over a smooth-surfaced pāhoehoe flow fieldwith a vertical relief of 1–2mand did not undergo burialby subsequent events. The fourth branch erupted from the same vent as the 1957 eruption and re-used the pre-existing channels ofthat eruption. In the proximal–medial sections of the three systems that were unconfined, we identified channelized flow sectionsthat were characterized by the presence of either a single channel or multiple braided channels. These fed short (30–260 m long)zones of dispersed flow in the distal sections. We subsequently investigated the role of lava rheology (as controlled by downflowvariations in crystal and bubble content) and pre-existing topography in triggering the transitions between single-channel andbraided channel flow sections. Crystal content was 10 to 70 vol% and vesicle content was 18 to 55 vol%; cooling rates overdistance (derived from glass chemistry) were 11 °C/km to 27 °C/km. However, downflow textural and thermal evolution appearedto neither affect, nor be affected by, whether the channel was single or braided. Instead, the channel network architecture could berelated to even modest underlying slope variations. Here, a slope increase resulted in channel confluence, and a slope decreaseresulted in channel bifurcation. This process was reversible, in that downflow slope variation could drive the channel networkarchitecture to switch back and forth between a single channel and multiple braided channels several times along its length.Dispersed flow is always present immediately behind the flow front, irrespective of underlying topography. Three previous studiesof basaltic lava flows found that steeper slopes favored braided channels, the opposite of what was observed here.We suggest thatthe underlying substrate and lava type may exert a control on this behavior, but further studies remain necessary.