Nature Communications: Pyroclastic passage zones in glaciovolcanic sequences

Kelly Russell, Ben Edwards and Lucy Porritrecently published the first description of a passage zone (stratigraphic surfaces marking major transitions in depositional environments) preserved entirely within pyroclastic deposits (in Nature Communications; see http://science.ubc.ca/news/702). Their discovery requires extension of the passage zone concept to accommodate explosive volcanism and guides future studies of hundreds of glaciovolcanic edifices on Earth and Mars.