Sources of volatiles for a subduction zone volcano: Mutnovsky volcano,Kamchatka

Mass balance calculations of volatiles were performed for Mutnovsky volcano, Kamchatka, by comparing the chemical and isotopic compositions of gas emissions with the compositions of the main geochemical reservoirs in the subduction zone using a simple mixing model. The predominant deep component (up to 73% in the highest temperature fumaroles) is composed of slab fluid released during dehydration of the Pacific Plate. The mantle component does not exceed 2.1%. The fraction of gases from the continental crust varies from 0.5 to 5% depending on the composition of the crustal endmember that was used in the calculations. In terms of the gas composition, Mutnovsky volcano is a typical subduction volcano, but its fluid system has a complex structure. The observed compositional pattern in the volcanic fumaroles can be explained by degassing of two independent magma bodies.     

Petrogenesis of a voluminous Quaternary adakitic volcano: the case of Baru volcano

The origin of adakite magmas remains controversial because initially the term adakite had petrogenetic significance implying an origin by direct melting of the eclogitized subducting oceanic crust. Many models have been produced for their origin, and until now there has not been a straightforward method to discriminate between these models in a given adakite suite. Here, we use detailed chronological and geochemical studies of selected adakitic edifices that allows for the determination of the magmatic output rate parameter (Qe), which has been correlated with the rates of magma generation deep within subduction zones. By providing temporal and eruption rate estimates, we provide constraints on the possible petrogenetic processes involved in the generation of adakite-like signatures. Adakite magmas derived from the melting of the subducting slab should be volumetrically insignificant when compared to the adakite-like magmas produced by typical arc magma generation processes. In this study, we use this observation and the extraordinary stratigraphic exposure from Miocene to present in an adakitic volcano in Panama and to study the temporal and chemical variation in erupted magmas to estimate rates of magma generation. Detailed chemical and geochronological analyses of Baru volcano indicate that the volcanic edifice was constructed in its entirety during the Quaternary and magmas display adakite-like features such as steep rare earth elements patterns, pronounced depletions in the heavy rare earth elements, low Y, high Sr, and high Sr/Y. The magmatic output rates (Qe) that we have calculated show that compared to other typical adakitic volcanoes, most of the volcanic edifice of Baru volcano was constructed extremely rapidly (<~213 k.a.) and in time frames that are similar to typical arc volcanoes. The observed chemical and mineralogical variation, coupled with the high magma production rates, indicate that Baru volcano is more representative of a typical arc volcano than a small-volume melt of the subducting oceanic crust. The technique we outline may have broader application in determining the petrogenetic conditions of other adakite suites.     

The dilemma of disappearing diatoms: Incorporating diatom dissolution data into palaeoenvironmental modelling and reconstruction

Taphonomic issues pose fundamental challenges for Quaternary scientists to recover environmental signals from biological proxies and make accurate inferences of past environments. The problem of microfossil preservation, specifically diatom dissolution, remains an important, but often overlooked, source of error in both qualitative and quantitative reconstructions of key variables from fossil samples, especially those using relative abundance data. A first step to tackling this complex issue is establishing an objective method of assessing preservation (here, diatom dissolution) that can be applied by different analysts and incorporated into routine counting strategies. Here, we establish a methodology for assessment of diatom dissolution under standard light microscopy (LM) illustrated with morphological criteria for a range of major diatom valve shapes. Dissolution data can be applied to numerical models (transfer functions) from contemporary samples, and to fossil material to aid interpretation of stratigraphic profiles and taphonomic pathways of individual taxa. Using a surface sediment diatom-salinity training set from the Northern Great Plains (NGP) as an example, we explore a variety of approaches to include dissolution data in salinity inference models indirectly and directly. Results show that dissolution data can improve models, with apparent dissolution-adjusted error (RMSE) up to 15% lower than their unadjusted counterparts. Internal validation suggests improvements are more modest, with bootstrapped prediction errors (RMSEP) up to 10% lower. When tested on a short core from Devils Lake, North Dakota, which has a historical record of salinity, dissolution-adjusted models infer higher values compared to unadjusted models during peak salinity of the 1930s–1940s Dust Bowl but nonetheless significantly underestimate peak values. Site-specific factors at Devils Lake associated with effects of lake level change on taphonomy (preservation and re-working, implied by dissolution data) may override model improvements incorporating dissolution. Dissolution-adjusted salinity models are also applied to a 150-year sediment record from Spiritwood Lake, North Dakota, which suggests that this lake has a damped and lagged response to major regional climate forcing of salinity during the Dust Bowl. At this site, dissolution data also suggest different taphonomic behaviour of taxa related to their seasonal patterns of growth and sedimentation. Thus, dissolution data can improve models, and aid interpretation of sedimentary profiles as records of limnological, ecological and environmental change, filtered by taphonomy.     

腾冲马鞍山、打鹰山、黑空山火山岩浆来源与演化

本文对马鞍山、打鹰山、黑空山火山岩主微量和Sr、Nd、Pd同位素地球化学研究认为,腾冲火山岩浆源区具有MORB与富集地幔混合之特征,推测为新特提斯俯冲洋壳重新熔融,导致腾冲地区的高钾钙碱性岩浆的火山活动,解释了腾冲在新生代大陆板内构造环境背景下出现岛弧或活动大陆边缘火山岩地球化学特征的现象。马鞍山、打鹰山和黑空山火山高钾钙碱性岩浆经历了岩浆房阶段辉石、钛铁矿的结晶分离作用和岩浆上升过程中斜长石的结晶分离作用,导致岩浆成分从中基性向中酸性演化,火山岩从玄武质粗安岩→粗安岩→粗面质英安岩演化。     

深部流体与岩浆活动:兼论腾冲火山群的深部过程

深部流体强烈影响许多地质过程的发生和发展,然而对其行为的理解却甚少.在所有可能影响岩浆活动的因素中,流体是最重要的.流体的高度活动性及其在熔体中的溶解度随压力减小而降低,暗示岩浆系统必然是开放的动力系统,流体的丢失和获得可戏剧性地影响岩浆系统的整体行为.流体对岩浆系统的影响主要通过改变熔体的黏度来实现,也改变岩浆的平均密度,以及固相线和液相线温度.少量流体的注入即可以导致熔体黏度出现几个数量级的降低,这种戏剧性改变进而导致岩浆柱与通道壁摩擦力的快速减小,因而岩浆上升速度也可以呈现几个数量级的变化.当岩浆上升到流体相分离的深度以后,岩浆系统的行为更加不可预测.反之,流体的丢失将导致岩浆系统的行为向相反方向变化,岩浆将滞留在深部.值得注意的是,丢失到通道中的流体可以弱化上覆岩层的力学性质,改善岩浆上升的通道条件.因此,如果上升岩浆能够得到持续的深部流体补给,其补给量至少等于丢失量,岩浆必将以越来越快的速度上升.据此,岩浆系统是一种复杂性动力系统,岩浆作用是一种非线性过程.这种分析结果与流行的岩石学认识不一致,却与火山学观察和成矿学研究结果相同.腾冲火山岩中的聚斑结构暗示某些岩浆在喷发之前曾经在深部作过停留,它们曾经位于不同的深度水平上.同岩浆交代结构暗示岩浆房的活化有赖于深部流体的注入,因而火山监测过程中关注岩浆房之下的深部流体活动是必须的.将岩浆房上、下两部分的流体活动紧密结合在一起,可能是火山监测的一个新方向.     

The geochemical evolution of the Mt. Somma-Vesuvius volcano

Summary This work integrates new geochemical data with the numerous published analyses on rocks from the Mt. Somma-Vesuvius volcano. New quantitative models for the evolution of magma source regions and magma at different depths are proposed. The origin of the Somma-Vesuvius parental magma is modeled as 0.05–0.1 melt fractions of a MORB-type source composed of 54% olivine, 30% orthopyroxene, 10% clinopyroxene, 1% garnet, and 4% amphibole, and 1–5% sediment introduced through the adjacent arc system. The excess concentrations of Rb, Ba, K, and Sr are attributed to a subduction-related fluid phase. Major and trace element concentrations, coupled with Sr–Nd–Pb isotope signatures suggest that the bulk composition of sediments being subducted below southern Italy is similar to that of the carbonate rich sediment columns described by Plank and Langmuir (1998) and Vroon et al. (1995). Furthermore, it appears that the sediment contribution was introduced as a partial melt, which would account for some geochemical patterns, such as ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd versus Th/Ce. The EC–AFC model (Spera and Bohrson, 2001) is then used to track the evolution of Somma-Vesuvius magmas. The results are consistent with the melting of crustal Hercynian basement at depths of 12 and >20 km (De Natale et al., 2001). Such a model is also consistent with the thermal model of Annen and Sparks (2002) for the evolution of magmatic provinces. Here, magmas from the upper mantle form a melt intrusion and storage zone at 12 to >20 km allowing for crustal melting to take place. At Vesuvius, Plinian eruptions involve the first magma withdrawn from a deep magma reservoir. Interplinian eruptions involve reduced volumes of magma stored over a larger depth range until the volcanic activity stops. This suggests that little magma is left in the melt intrusion and storage zone. A new cycle is started by a Plinian event when new magma rises from the upper mantle and is emplaced in the lower crust.     

The Pyroclastic deposits of Mount Etna volcano,Sicily

Throughout most of its geological evolution Etna has been characterized by the eruption of lava flows of a predominantly hawaiitic composition, but within the stratigraphical record there are four major sequences of pyroclastic materials: the Acireale tephra and lahars (˜100000 B.P.); the ‘lower tephra’ and Milo lahars (both ˜26000 B.P.); the Biancavilla ignimbrites (15–15500 B.P.) and the ‘upper tephra’ (˜5000–6000 B.P.). This paper reports investigations carried out on these deposits in order to determine their stratigraphy, petrology, sedimentology, and likely origins. Whereas the Biancavilla ignimbrites were generated when a more evolved, gas-charged magma (benmoreite) was being produced by the volcano, the other suites of pyroclastic deposits were erupted from hawaiitic magmas—similar to those that have characterized the volcano during historical times. These deposits resulted from two processes: violent strombolian activity producing lapilli-rich. coarse, but well-sorted sediments, and hydrovolcanism when the mixing of water and magma in the conduit, brought about more violently explosive activity, giving rise to highly fragmented, poorly sorted, airfall tephra and lahars. Conditions favouring hydrovolcanism occurred at times in the volcano's history when palaeoenvironment and palaeogeography were conducive to the retention of large amounts of surface and subsurface water. Although climates favouring the retention of water at high levels on the volcano have occurred on many occasions in the history of the volcano, at ˜26.000 and ˜5000-6000 B.P. these occurred in conjunction with a construct of sufficient height and suitable configuration to allow storage of water and give rise to hydrovolcanic activity. The nature of the mechanisms responsible for the emplacement of these hydrovolcanic deposits is considered and it is concluded that airfall is the most probable process. Finally, the implications of this research for the assessment of hazard are reviewed.     

长白山火山最新监测信息

长白山火山最新监测结果显示,自2010年5月份开始,聚龙温泉2个泉点水温同步上升了3℃;2010年长白山北坡垂直位移量打破了火山锥体每年升高4mm左右的规律:与2009年相比,火山锥体的位移在垂向上发生逆转,海拔最高的水准点在1年内突降12.72mm.本文针对上述2个最新的火山监测信息进行了报道,并对造成这种变化的可能原因进行了讨论.火山活动进入活跃时段的标志是大量火山地震、震群的发生,以及幔源岩浆气体He含量的大幅度上升.然而,现阶段长白山火山区并未出现这2种现象.因此,本文讨论的2个异常还不足以作为长白山火山已经进入新的活跃时段的证据,准确的预测应该密切关注火山地震和幔源气体含量的变化.最后通过N2-He-CO2三角图解初步研究了天池火山气体来源,结果显示:2002～2005年火山出现“初始扰动”,深部气体He含量升高,三角图解中气体向He角运移;2005年后火山转入平静状态,气体组份又开始向N2角运移.He浓度的变化特征反应了岩浆房内岩浆成分的变化过程.     

Glacier Peak,Washington: A potentially hazardous cascade volcano

Recent field studies of postglacial volcanic deposits at Glacier Peak indicate the volcano has erupted more often, more voluminously, and more recently than previously thought. These past eruptions produced pyroclastic flows, extensive lahars, and widely distributed tephra falls. Analysis of the magnitude of past eruptions and the distribution of volcanic sediments indicates that future eruptions at Glacier Peak as large as those of the last several thousand years would dramatically affect people and property downstream and downwind from the volcano. Pyroclastic flows and lateral blasts would primarily affect uninhabited valleys within a few tens of kilometers of the volcano. Lahars and floods constitute the major hazard to populated areas from future eruptions, and could affect areas at low elevation along valley floors and in the Puget lowland as far as 100 km downvalley west of the volcano. Air-fall tephra from future eruptions will probably be deposited primarily east of Glacier Peak because of prevailing westerly winds.     

The 2011 eruption of Nabro volcano,Eritrea: perspectives on magmatic processes from melt inclusions

The 2011 eruption of Nabro volcano, Eritrea, produced one of the largest volcanic sulphur inputs to the atmosphere since the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, yet has received comparatively little scientific attention. Nabro forms part of an off-axis alignment, broadly perpendicular to the Afar Rift, and has a history of large-magnitude explosive silicic eruptions, as well as smaller more mafic ones. Here, we present and analyse extensive petrological data obtained from samples of trachybasaltic tephra erupted during the 2011 eruption to assess the pre-eruptive magma storage system and explain the large sulphur emission. We show that the eruption involved two texturally distinct batches of magma, one of which was more primitive and richer in sulphur than the other, which was higher in water (up to 2.5 wt%). Modelling of the degassing and crystallisation histories demonstrates that the more primitive magma rose rapidly from depth and experienced degassing crystallisation, while the other experienced isobaric cooling in the crust at around 5 km depth. Interaction between the two batches occurred shortly before the eruption. The eruption itself was likely triggered by recharge-induced destabilisation of vertically extensive mush zone under the volcano. This could potentially account for the large volume of sulphur released. Some of the melt inclusions are volatile undersaturated, and suggest that the original water content of the magma was around 1.3 wt%, which is relatively high for an intraplate setting, but consistent with seismic studies of the Afar plume. This eruption was smaller than some geological eruptions at Nabro, but provides important insights into the plumbing systems and dynamics of off-axis volcanoes in Afar.     

Extensional tectonics and volcano lateral collapses: insights from Ollagüe volcano (Chile‐Bolivia) and analogue modelling

Understanding the process of volcanic lateral collapse, which may be governed by numerous possible factors, can be significantly improved by identifying the role of each factor. Here we test the perturbation induced in a volcano by tectonic normal faulting in the basement, magma inflation and multiple flank deformation, based on fieldwork and analogue experiments. Ollagüe Volcano (Chile‐Bolivia) provides a good example of a sector collapse with exposed substrate extensional tectonics, and our experiments have been done with conditions consistent with field data. Results show that none of the possible tectonic conditions led to complete lateral failure; in agreement also with the field data, sector collapse of the model cone occurred only when a shallow magmatic intrusion within the volcano was reproduced. We also found out that volcano flank deformation is enhanced if a previous flank destabilization occurred, interleaved by new cone growth. Terra Nova, 18, 282–289, 2006     

The Somma–Vesuvius volcano (Southern Italy): Structure,dynamics and hazard evaluation

We review the main results, with several new analyses, obtained in recent times about the structure, present dynamics and hazard evaluation at Somma–Vesuvius volcanic complex. We present a global review and interpretation of structural features, both at local and regional scale, constrained both by seismic and petrological data. The local structure of Somma–Vesuvius is reviewed in three depth ranges, shallow, intermediate and deep. The shallow velocity structure is inferred by the joint inversion of shot and local earthquake arrival time data. The main feature pointed out at shallow depth is a high velocity anomaly at the crater axis, extending down to about 5 km of depth. Such an anomaly, first observed at Vesuvius, seems to be common to many other volcanoes. It can be interpreted in terms of the presence of solidified residual magma in the shallow conduits, accumulated in last eruptive cycles. The local seismicity is strongly clustered around this anomaly, due to the focusing effect of the rigidity contrast. The seismic occurrence appears as a result of the superposition of a background level, mainly due to gravitational instability of the Vesuvius cone, and of intense activity episodes, which possibly reflect episodic internal activity. Two main zones of magma accumulation in the upper crust are evidenced by the joint interpretation of seismic and petrological data. The first one, located in the depth range 4–6 km, is mainly constrained by the crystallisation depth of phonolitic magmas which fed Plinian and sub-Plinian eruptions; the second one, around 11–15 km of depth, is mainly constrained by reflected–converted seismic waves, and in agreement with crystallization depths inferred for the moderate eruptions. The study of the deep structure, performed by regional tomography with teleseisms, further points out magma roots at higher depths (15–30 km). An additional result for the deep structure, studied at regional scale and very important for geodynamic interpretations of the Tyrrhenian volcanisms, has been the evidence for a subducting slab under the Apennines, in an area where previous models hypothesised a slab window.New original studies of crystal growth (phenocrystals and microlites) on the eruptive products allow to infer typical times of magma rising from such reservoirs, which appear very low, on the order of minutes to tens of minutes. Static deformation at this volcano, in the last 30 yr, has been detected by the joint use of levelling, GPS and DIFSAR techniques. It indicates subsidence, very concentrated in the crater area and in a narrow strip all around the volcanic edifice, with maximum rates less than 0.01 m/yr. Static deformation in the crater area appears in agreement with the mechanism of gravitational instability generating local volcano-tectonic seismicity, while the peculiar pattern around the volcanic edifice is probably due to the combination of extensional stress and volcanic loading, generating a ring normal fault-like structure. While the key results about structure and dynamics help to define pre-eruptive scenarios, a new probabilistic procedure to combine volcanological data and computer simulations has been used, in this paper, to build hazard maps giving the probability, at each location in the area, to be hit by a pyroclastic flow or to experience a destructive fall-out deposit. The review and new results of this work give then the first complete picture of the state of the art in our knowledge about Somma–Vesuvius volcano.     

Geochemical constraints on magma processes in a peralkaline system: The Paisano volcano,west Texas

Major and trace element data for a sequence of peralkaline silicic lavas and pyroclastic flows, exposed in the caldera wall of the Paisano volcano, west Texas, document systematic fractional crystallization during magmatic evolution and an open system, magma mixing event in the upper parts of the sequence. Stratigraphically lowest flows are comendite and comenditic quartz trachyte lavas and ash flow tufts. Overlying these units is a trachyte with compositional, textural and mineralogical features indicating that it is the product of magma-mixing; similar flows occur in other parts of the volcano at the same stratigraphic level. This composite trachyte is considered to be a mixture of mugearitic or mafic trachytic magma, derived from a similar source region which yielded the earlier caldera wall flows. Trace element concentrations of the post-trachyte comenditic quartz trachyte lavas suggest they were erupted from a chamber whose magma was diluted by an influx of mugearitic or mafic trachytic magma during a magma mixing event.Rayleigh fractionation calculations show that the comendites and comenditic quartz trachytes can be derived from a parental mugearite magma by 88% to 93% fractionation of dominantly plagioclase and alkali feldspar, with lesser amounts of clinopyroxene, magnetite and apatite. Zircon was not a significant fractionating phase. The composition, mineralogy and depth of the source region(s) which generated these magmas cannot be constrained from the present data set.     

A volcano under China's Great Wall

Cone sheets are rare in China but are found in the Houshihushan sub‐volcanic Ring Complex (HRC) near the town of Shanhaiguan, Hebei Province. The HRC rises above a narrow coastal plain as the Houshihushan mountain massif (Fig. 1 ) in a scenic region about 400 km ENE of Beijing by the Bohai Gulf, where the Great Wall reaches the sea. It has a discontinuous outer ring‐dyke of porphyritic quartz syenite, separated from an inner stock of alkaline granite by a discontinuous screen of pyroclastic rocks down‐faulted to the present erosion level by caldera subsidence. The pyroclastic rocks, which have similar petrographic and geochemical characteristics to intrusive rocks of the ring‐dyke, cone‐sheets and central stock, were erupted from the same volcano and subsequently foundered during caldera subsidence.     

黑龙江省莲花山第四纪火山

本文论述了黑龙江省莲花山火山的火山景观、喷发时代、岩石学和岩石化学、构造和经济地质。根据莲花山火山石龙岩同位素测年和第四纪地层层序资料,其喷发时代属早更新世。新取得的岩石的稀土元素、微量元素、幔源包体和巨晶资料表明其岩性和五大连池相似,又略有差别。作者认为莲花山和尖山为五大连池火山往-西南的延伸。广义的五大连池火山群包括五大连池、莲花山和尖山,共21座火山锥。