Physical and chemical interactions between coexisting acid and basic magmas at Elizabeth Castle, Jersey, Channel Islands
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Complex subvolcanic magma plumbing system of an alkali basaltic maar-diatreme volcano (Elie Ness, Fife, Scotland)Alkali basaltic diatremes such as Elie Ness (Fife, Scotland) expose a range of volcanic lithofacies that points to a complex, multi-stage emplacement history. Here, basanites contain phenocrysts including pyrope garnet and sub-calcic augites from depths of ~60km. Volcanic rocks from all units, pyroclastic and hypabyssal, are characterised by rare earth element (REE) patterns that show continuous enrichment from heavy REE (HREE) to light REE (LREE), and high Zr/Y that are consistent with retention of garnet in the mantle source during melting of peridotite in a garnet lherzolite facies. Erupted garnets are euhedral and unresorbed, signifying rapid ascent through the lithosphere. The magmas also transported abundant pyroxenitic clasts, cognate with the basanite host, from shallower depths (~35–40km). These clasts exhibit wide variation in texture, mode and mineralogy, consistent with growth from a range of compositionally diverse melts. Further, clinopyroxene phenocrysts from both the hypabyssal and pyroclastic units exhibit a very wide compositional range, indicative of polybaric fractionation and magma mixing. This is attributed to stalling of earlier magmas in the lower crust — principally from ~22 to 28km — as indicated by pyroxene thermobarometry. Many clinopyroxenes display chemical zoning profiles, occasionally with mantles and rims of higher magnesium number (Mg#) suggesting the magmas were mobilised by juvenile basanite magma. The tuffs also contain alkali feldspar megacrysts together with Fe-clinopyroxene, zircon and related salic xenoliths, of the ‘anorthoclasite suite’ — inferred to have crystallised at upper mantle to lower crustal depths from salic magma in advance of the mafic host magmas. Despite evidence for entrainment of heterogeneous crystal mushes, the rapidly ascending melts experienced negligible crustal contamination. The complex association of phenocrysts, megacrysts and autoliths at Elie Ness indicates thorough mixing in a dynamic system immediately prior to explosive diatreme-forming eruptions.
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Rapid assembly of high-Mg andesites and dacites by magma mixing at a continental arc stratovolcanoStudies of pre-eruptive processes at active volcanoes require precise petrochronological constraints if they are to contribute to hazard assessment during future eruption events. We present petrological and geochemical data, and orthopyroxene diffusion timescales for samples from late Pleistocene high-Mg andesite dacite lavas (Mg#53–69) at Ruapehu volcano, New Zealand, as a case study of rapid magma genesis and eruption at a continental arc stratovolcano. Assembly of Ruapehu high-Mg magmas involved the mixing of primitive magmas plus entrained mantle equilibrated olivines with mid-crustal felsic mush bodies, yielding hybridized magmas with ubiquitous pyroxene reverse-zoning patterns. Orthopyroxene Fe-Mg interdiffusion timescales linked to quantitative crystal orientation data show that most lavas erupted <10 days after resumption of crystal growth following magma mixing events. The eruption of lavas within days of mixing events implies that pre-eruptive warnings may be correspondingly short.
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Micro-analytical perspectives on the Bishop Tuff and its magma chamber.New in situ major and trace element analytical data are presented for crystals (sanidine, plagioclase, biotite, orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene) and matrix glasses from juvenile materials representing the full Bishop Tuff sequence from the earliest fall unit (F1) to the latest ignimbrite package (Ig2Nc). These data are combined with published information to investigate the nature and zonation of the pre-eruptive Bishop magma chamber. Our data confirm that this magma chamber was a single unitary body that was thermally and compositionally zoned. The zonation was largely established prior to the growth of crystals, and also prior to mixing in the lower parts of the chamber induced by late-stage intrusion of a magma of contrasting composition and slightly higher temperature (the ‘bright-rim’ magma). Sparse mixed swirly and dacitic pumices show enrichments in Ba, Sr and Ti that identify these pumices as possible representatives of the ‘bright-rim’ magma. A model (revised from previously published work) for the pre-eruptive magma chamber comprises three main parts: (1) an upper, volumetrically dominant (∼2/3), relatively unzoned region that was the source of the earlier, eastern-erupted ignimbrite units and their coeval fall units; (2) a volumetrically minor transition zone that shows evidence for minor degrees of mixing and was the dominant source for the latest, eastern-erupted part of Ig1Eb (Sherwin subunit) and the earlier part of the northern-erupted ignimbrite (Ig 2Na); (3) a lower, volumetrically subordinate (∼1/3) region that was affected by mixing with the ‘bright-rim’ invasive magma in the lead-up to the eruption, and fed later northern-erupted units. Ingress of the ‘bright-rim’ magma introduced orthopyroxene and bright-rimmed zircon crystals, and induced partial resorption then overgrowth of rims enriched in Ti, Sr and Ba on sanidine and quartz, and development of zoning in clinopyroxene. Based on pumice proportions and associated crystal and glass chemistries through the eruptive sequence, we infer that the roof and floor of the magma chamber were stepped down to the north, such that the transition zone magma formed the floor of the southern part of the melt-dominant chamber and the roof of the northern part. Our data reinforce the previous concept of a single compositionally and thermally zoned Bishop magma chamber and additionally support a temporally constrained role for pre-eruptive magma mixing and the introduction of melts and minerals with contrasting compositions to the resident Bishop magma.
