A subaqueous welded tuff from the Ordovician of County Waterford, Ireland

Abstract The Metal Man Tuff (MMT) from the Ordovician of County Waterford, Ireland was emplaced and welded in water depths greater than the thickness of the pyroclastic flow. The MMT is the basal member of the Middle Tramore Volcanic Formation (MTVF) of the 5-km-thick Tramore Group. The MMT consists of a 10-m-thick basal graded zone that represents a pyroclastic flow consisting of angular clasts of black mudstone, pumice, gray flow banded rhyolite, and pink massive rhyolite set in a matrix of non-deformed ash shards and pumice. Maximum grain size grades from large cobbles and small boulders to pebbles. The basal 10–30 cm is depleted with respect to the largest boulders resulting in an inversely graded basal layer. The basal graded zone passes upward into a transition zone with a strong eutaxitic foliation defined by elongated fiamme of mudstone and flattened pumice. Overlying this is an upper welded zone with a pronounced eutaxitic foliation, columnar jointing, flattened ash shards and shards deformed around phenocrysts and spheroids. The presence of these features indicate that the deposit is welded, was hot, and was in motion as the shards deformed. The MMT represents a pyroclastic flow that was a hot primary product of an eruption rather than re-mobilized cold pyroclastic debris. The MMT is bounded by suspension deposited fine-grained tuff, tuffaceous mudstone and terrigenous mudstone deposited below storm wave base. Many of the mudstone horizons contain brachipod faunas from shelf-depth water. Nowhere in the 5-km-thick Tramore Group is there terrigenous sandstone, evidence of unidirectional flowing water, nor any indication of shoreline, alluvial environments, or subaerial exposure. It thus seems reasonable to conclude that the MMT was emplaced and welded subaqueously. The geochemistry of the MMT is typical of other high-silica (70–78 wt.% SiO 2 ) rhyolite from the Ordovician of Ireland. The chemistry of the MMT is consistent from top to bottom allowing it to be distinguished from associated syndepositional intrusive rock and fine-grained tuffs.