The evolution and storage of primitive melts in the Eastern Volcanic Zone of Iceland: the 10 ka Grímsvötn tephra series (i.e. the Saksunarvatn ash)

Major, trace and volatile elements were measured in a suite of primitive macrocrysts and melt inclusions from the thickest layer of the 10 ka Grímsvötn tephra series (i.e. Saksunarvatn ash) at Lake Hvítárvatn in central Iceland. In the absence of primitive tholeiitic eruptions (MgO > 7 wt.%) within the Eastern Volcanic Zone (EVZ) of Iceland, these crystal and inclusion compositions provide an important insight into magmatic processes in this volcanically productive region. Matrix glass compositions show strong similarities with glass compositions from the AD 1783–84 Laki eruption, confirming the affinity of the tephra series with the Grímsvötn volcanic system. Macrocrysts can be divided into a primitive assemblage of zoned macrocryst cores (An_78–An_92, Mg#_cpx = 82–87, Fo_79.5–Fo_87) and an evolved assemblage consisting of unzoned macrocrysts and the rims of zoned macrocrysts (An_60–An_68, Mg#_cpx = 71–78, Fo_70–Fo_76). Although the evolved assemblage is close to being in equilibrium with the matrix glass, trace element disequilibrium between primitive and evolved assemblages indicates that they were derived from different distributions of mantle melt compositions. Juxtaposition of disequilibrium assemblages probably occurred during disaggregation of incompatible trace element-depleted mushes (mean La/Yb_melt = 2.1) into aphyric and incompatible trace element-enriched liquids (La/Yb_melt = 3.6) shortly before the growth of the evolved macrocryst assemblage. Post-entrapment modification of plagioclase-hosted melt inclusions has been minimal and high-Mg# inclusions record differentiation and mixing of compositionally variable mantle melts that are amongst the most primitive liquids known from the EVZ. Coupled high field strength element (HFSE) depletion and incompatible trace element enrichment in a subset of primitive plagioclase-hosted melt inclusions can be accounted for by inclusion formation following plagioclase dissolution driven by interaction with plagioclase-undersaturated melts. Thermobarometric calculations indicate that final crystal-melt equilibration within the evolved assemblage occurred at ~1140°C and 0.0–1.5 kbar. Considering the large volume of the erupted tephra and textural evidence for rapid crystallisation of the evolved assemblage, 0.0–1.5 kbar is considered unlikely to represent a pressure of long-term magma accumulation and storage. Multiple thermometers indicate that the primitive assemblage crystallised at high temperatures of 1240–1300°C. Different barometers, however, return markedly different crystallisation depth estimates. Raw clinopyroxene-melt pressures of 5.5–7.5 kbar conflict with apparent melt inclusion entrapment pressures of 1.4 kbar. After applying a correction derived from published experimental data, clinopyroxene-melt equilibria return mid-crustal pressures of 4±1.5 kbar, which are consistent with pressures estimated from the major element content of primitive melt inclusions. Long-term storage of primitive magmas in the mid-crust implies that low CO_2 concentrations measured in primitive plagioclase-hosted inclusions (262–800 ppm) result from post-entrapment CO_2 loss during transport through the shallow crust. In order to reconstruct basaltic plumbing system geometries from petrological data with greater confidence, mineral-melt equilibrium models require refinement at pressures of magma storage in Iceland. Further basalt phase equilibria experiments are thus needed within the crucial 1–7 kbar range.D.A.N. was supported by a Natural Environment Research Council studentship (NE/1528277/1) at the start of this project. SIMS analyses were supported by Natural Environment Research Council Ion Microprobe Facility award (IMF508/1013).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00410-015-1170-

The Iceland Microcontinent and a continental Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge

The breakup of Laurasia to form the Northeast Atlantic Realm was the culmination of a long period of tectonic unrest extending back to the Late Palaeozoic. Breakup was prolonged and complex and disintegrated an inhomogeneous collage of cratons sutured by cross-cutting orogens. Volcanic rifted margins formed, which are blanketed by lavas and underlain variously by magma-inflated, extended continental crust and mafic high-velocity lower crust of ambiguous and probably partly continental provenance. New rifts formed by diachronous propagation along old zones of weakness. North of the Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge the newly forming rift propagated south along the Caledonian suture. South of the Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge it propagated north through the North Atlantic Craton along an axis displaced ~ 150 km to the west of the northern rift. Both propagators stalled where the confluence of the Nagssugtoqidian and Caledonian orogens formed a transverse barrier. Thereafter, the ~ 400-km-wide latitudinal zone between the stalled rift tips extended in a distributed, unstable manner along multiple axes of extension that frequently migrated or jumped laterally with shearing occurring between them in diffuse transfer zones. This style of deformation continues to the present day. It is the surface expression of underlying magma-assisted stretching of ductile mid- and lower continental crust which comprises the Icelandic-type lower crust that underlies the Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge. This, and probably also one or more full-crustal-thickness microcontinents incorporated in the Ridge, are capped by surface lavas. The Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge thus has a similar structure to some zones of seaward-dipping reflectors. The contemporaneous melt layer corresponds to the 3–10 km thick Icelandic-type upper crust plus magma emplaced in the ~ 10–30-km-thick Icelandic-type lower crust. This model can account for seismic and gravity data that are inconsistent with a gabbroic composition for Icelandic-type lower crust, and petrological data that show no reasonable temperature or source composition could generate the full ~ 40-km thickness of Icelandic-type crust observed. Numerical modeling confirms that extension of the continental crust can continue for many tens of Myr by lower-crustal flow from beneath the adjacent continents. Petrological estimates of the maximum potential temperature of the source of Icelandic lavas are up to 1450 °C, no more than ~ 100 °C hotter than MORB source. The geochemistry is compatible with a source comprising hydrous peridotite/pyroxenite with a component of continental mid- and lower crust. The fusible petrology, high source volatile contents, and frequent formation of new rifts can account for the true ~ 15–20 km melt thickness at the moderate temperatures observed. A continuous swathe of magma-inflated continental material beneath the 1200-km-wide Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge implies that full continental breakup has not yet occurred at this latitude. Ongoing tectonic instability on the Ridge is manifest in long-term tectonic disequilibrium on the adjacent rifted margins and on the Reykjanes Ridge, where southerly migrating propagators that initiate at Iceland are associated with diachronous swathes of unusually thick oceanic crust. Magmatic volumes in the NE Atlantic Realm have likely been overestimated and the concept of a monogenetic North Atlantic Igneous Province needs to be reappraised. A model of complex, piecemeal breakup controlled by pre-existing structures that produces anomalous volcanism at barriers to rift propagation and distributes continental material in the growing oceans fits other oceanic regions including the Davis Strait and the South Atlantic and West Indian oceans

The Cooperative Control of Wildlife Damage

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Melting Phase Relations of Simplified Carbonated Peridotite at 12-26 GPa in the Systems CaO-MgO-SiO2-CO2 and CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-CO2: Highly Calcic Magmas in the Transition Zone of the Earth

International audiencePhase equilibrium data pertaining to melting of simplified carbonated peridotite in the systems CaO-MgO-SiO2-CO2 and CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-CO2 at pressures of 10-26 GPa, corresponding to similar to 300-750 km depths in the Earth, are presented. In both the studied systems, liquid compositions, with changing crystalline phase assemblage, are carbonatitic throughout the studied pressure range. In the system CMS-CO2, melting phase relations are isobarically invariant; liquid is in equilibrium with forsterite + clinoenstatite + clinopyroxene + magnesite, forsterite + majorite + clinopyroxene + magnesite, wadsleyite + majorite + clinopyroxene + magnesite, ringwoodite + majorite + calcium-silicate perovskite + magnesite, magnesium-silicate perovskite + periclase + calcium-silicate perovskite + magnesite at 12, 14, 16, 20, and 26 GPa, respectively. In the system CMAS-CO2, a phase assemblage consisting of forsterite + orthopyroxene + clinopyroxene + magnesite + garnet + melt from 10 to 14 GPa is isobarically invariant. However, owing to the disappearance of orthopyroxene at pressures greater than 14 GPa, from 16 and up to at least 26 GPa, the solidus of simplified carbonated peridotite spans a divariant surface in pressure-temperature space. The liquid coexists with wadsleyite + clinopyroxene + garnet + magnesite, ringwoodite + calcium-silicate perovskite + garnet + magnesite, and magnesium-silicate perovskite + periclase + calcium-silicate perovskite + magnesite at 16, 20, and 26 GPa, respectively. A curious, and as yet unexplained, feature of our study is an abrupt drop in the solidus temperature between 14 and 16 GPa that causes a small amount of melting of carbonated mantle in the Transition Zone of the Earth. In the systems CMS-CO2 and CMAS-CO2 liquid compositions at 16 and 20 GPa are highly calcic bona fide carbonatites; however, these liquids revert to being magnesiocarbonatites at 10-14 and 26 GPa. In the system CMS-CO2, at 16 GPa we locate an isobaric invariant point consisting of wadsleyite + clinopyroxene + anhydrous B + magnesite + melt. The presence of anhydrous B at 16 GPa and 1475 degrees C is interesting, as it lies outside the composition space of the mantle peridotite analog we have studied. However, despite the presence of two highly magnesian silicate crystalline phases, wadsleyite and anhydrous B, at 16 GPa and 1475 degrees C, the liquid composition remains calcic with molar Ca-number [Ca/(Ca + Mg) x 100] of about 63. The melting reactions at 16 and 20 GPa (with or without anhydrous B) show that lime-bearing crystalline silicates play a fairly large part in generating and controlling the composition of the liquids. At 16 GPa, in the system CMS-CO2, we also report an experimental run at 1575 degrees C, in which liquid coexists with only wadsleyite and majorite. The liquid composition is less calcic (Ca-number 54) than that for other runs at lower temperatures, but is still more calcic than liquids at 10-14 and 26 GPa in both the studied systems. At present, the likely cause for these changes in the reported phase relations is not known. For normally assumed mantle temperatures, melting in the Transition Zone of the Earth, owing to the presence of carbonate, is probably unavoidable. The depth range of the drop in the carbonated peridotite solidus closely matches that of commonly observed low seismic velocities at similar to 400-600 km depth in the Earth