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Controls on eruption style and magma compositions at Mount Hood, Oregon
This study is an effort to characterize the magma sources, plumbing system, and eruptive behavior of Mount Hood, a low-explosivity recharge-dominated volcano in the Oregon Cascades. The three manuscripts in this dissertation make use of melt inclusion data, phenocryst compositions, and whole rock petrology and geochemistry to build a schematic model of plumbing, mixing, and eruption at Mount Hood.
Volatile contents in melt inclusions were measured by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Secondary Ion Mass Spectometry (SIMS). These measurements indicate that the pre-eruptive volatile contents at Mount Hood are comparable to concentrations in more explosive volcanoes, and do not sufficiently explain the low explosivity of Mount Hood. Measured Hâ‚‚O contents were also used to test the validity of multiple different hygrometers.
Various geothermobarometers were applied to the melt inclusions and phenocrysts from Mount Hood, and demonstrate that pre-eruptive temperatures increase
by 100-150 ĚŠC immediately after mafic recharge, which occurs days to weeks prior to eruption and is accompanied by a 5-10 fold decrease in magma viscosity. Numerical simulations of magma ascent indicate that magma fragmentation is significantly delayed with this magnitude of pre-eruptive heating, which reduces the likelihood of explosive eruption.
Analyses of amphibole demonstrate two markedly different populations, which correspond to different magma compositions, temperatures, and pressures. Pressure and temperature calculations were compared to other geothermobarometers to crosscheck the validity of these results and generally agreed well.
Trace element concentrations in lavas, enclaves, and inclusions from Mount Hood confirm previous models for simple binary mixing at Mount Hood. A linear regression technique for extrapolating the major element contents of the mixing endmembers works acceptably well to characterize the trace element budgets of these endmembers.
Additionally, we observe that the "recharge filter" that is responsible for the compositionally monotonous lavas at Mount Hood is also the likely cause of long-term low explosivity, and is indicative of a two-part magma plumbing system that may be a general model for a number of other recharge-dominated arc volcanoes. The results presented in this dissertation, in concert with previous results by other authors, converge on a generally consistent model for the production, hybridization, and eruption of intermediate lavas at Mount Hood and elsewhere
Submarine Fernandina : magmatism at the leading edge of the Galapagos hot spot
Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2006. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 7 (2006): Q12007, doi:10.1029/2006GC001290.New multibeam and side-scan sonar surveys of Fernandina volcano and the geochemistry of lavas provide clues to the structural and magmatic development of Galápagos volcanoes. Submarine Fernandina has three well-developed rift zones, whereas the subaerial edifice has circumferential fissures associated with a large summit caldera and diffuse radial fissures on the lower slopes. Rift zone development is controlled by changes in deviatoric stresses with increasing distance from the caldera. Large lava flows are present on the gently sloping and deep seafloor west of Fernandina. Fernandina's submarine lavas are petrographically more diverse than the subaerial suite and include picrites. Most submarine glasses are similar in composition to aphyric subaerially erupted lavas, however. These rocks are termed the “normal” series and are believed to result from cooling and crystallization in the subcaldera magma system, which buffers the magmas both thermally and chemically. These normal-series magmas are extruded laterally through the flanks of the volcano, where they scavenge and disaggregate olivine-gabbro mush to produce picritic lavas. A suite of lavas recovered from the terminus of the SW submarine rift and terraces to the south comprises evolved basalts and icelandites with MgO = 3.1 to 5.0 wt.%. This “evolved series” is believed to form by fractional crystallization at 3 to 5 kb, involving extensive crystallization of clinopyroxene and titanomagnetite in addition to plagioclase. “High-K” lavas were recovered from the southwest rift and are attributed to hybridization between normal-series basalt and evolved-series magma. The geochemical and structural findings are used to develop an evolutionary model for the construction of the Galápagos Platform and better understand the petrogenesis of the erupted lavas. The earliest stage is represented by the deep-water lava flows, which over time construct a broad submarine platform. The deep-water lavas originate from the subcaldera plumbing system of the adjacent volcano. After construction of the platform, eruptions focus to a point source, building an island with rift zones extending away from the adjacent, buttressing volcanoes. Most rift zone magmas intrude laterally from the subcaldera magma chamber, although a few evolve by crystallization in the upper mantle and deep crust.This work was supported by the National Science Foundation grants OCE0002818 and EAR0207605 (D.G.), OCE0002461 (D.J.F. and M.K.), OCE9811504 (D.J.F. and M.R.P.), and EAR0207425 (K.H.) and WHOI postdoctoral support for Soule
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Controls on long-term low explosivity at andesitic arc volcanoes: Insights from Mount Hood, Oregon
The factors that control the explosivity of silicic volcanoes are critical for hazard assessment, but are often poorly constrained for specific volcanic systems. Mount Hood, Oregon, is a somewhat atypical arc volcano in that it is characterized by a lack of large explosive eruptions over the entire lifetime of the current edifice (~500,000 years). Erupted Mount Hood lavas are also compositionally homogeneous, with ~95% having SiO₂ contents between 58 and 66wt.%. The last three eruptive periods in particular have produced compositionally homogeneous andesite–dacite lava domes and flows.
In this paper we report major element and volatile (H₂O, CO₂, Cl, S, F) contents of melt inclusions and selected phenocrysts from these three most recent eruptive phases, and use these and other data to consider possible origins for the low explosivity of Mount Hood. Measured volatile concentrations of melt inclusions in plagioclase, pyroxene, and amphibole from pumice indicate that the volatile contents of Mount Hood magmas are comparable to those in more explosive silicic arc volcanoes, including Mount St. Helens, Mount Mazama, and others, suggesting that the lack of explosive activity is unlikely to result solely from low intrinsic volatile concentrations or from substantial degassing prior to magma ascent and eruption. We instead argue that an important control over explosivity is the increased temperature and decreased magma viscosity that results from mafic recharge and magma mixing prior to eruption, similar to a model recently proposed by Ruprecht and Bachmann (2010). Erupted Mount Hood magmas show extensive evidence for mixing between magmas of broadly basaltic and dacitic–rhyolitic compositions, and mineral zoning studies show that mixing occurred immediately prior to eruption. Amphibole chemistry and thermobarometry also reveal the presence of multiple amphibole populations and indicate that the mixed andesites and dacites are at least 100°C hotter than the high-SiO₂ resident magma prior to mixing. Viscosity models suggest that recharge by hot, mafic magma prior to eruption can lower magmatic viscosity by at least a factor of four. Lower viscosity during ascent delays fragmentation and allows volatile escape through degassing, thus lowering the potential for explosive eruptions. These results suggest that low explosivity should be more common in volcanoes where intermediate magmas are produced through mixing of mafic and silicic magmas shortly before eruption.This is the author's peer-reviewed accepted manuscript. The official version is published and copyrighted by Elsevier and can be found at http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-volcanology-and-geothermal-research/#description.Keywords: Explosivity, Mount Hood, Melt inclusions, Recharge, Magma mixin