Magma storage depths in the Eastern Volcanic Zone of Iceland: disentangling disequilibrium and tuning thermobarometers

Abstract:

The Eastern Volcanic Zone (EVZ) is the most volcanically productive of Iceland's neovolcanic zones. In addition to being the source of numerous small but disruptive eruptions, such Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 and Grímsvötn in 2011, the EVZ is notable for generating very large eruptions such as the environmentally impacting Laki eruption in 1783–84 and the widely dispersed Saksunarvatn Ash. Thus, investigating the plumbing systems of volcanoes in the EVZ not only reveals information about magma reservoir behaviour and crustal structure, but also has important implications for hazard management. However, in order to obtain reliable estimates of pre-eruptive magma storage conditions and depths from minerals a number of conditions need to be met first. Firstly, all estimates of pre-eruptive conditions need to be placed into petrogenetic frameworks that consider the extensive disequilibrium that results not only from fractionation, but also from magma mixing and crystal mush entrainment. Secondly, it is important to verify that the mineral-melt equilibrium, i.e. thermobarometeric, models used are well calibrated at the expected conditions of magma storage. Using a range of techniques including QEMSCAN imaging, textural analysis and geochemical microanalysis of crystals, glasses and melt inclusions, we present internally consistent models of magma evolution and storage for a number of eruptions in the EVZ, including Laki and the 10ka Grímsvötn tephra series (i.e. Saksunarvatn Ash). All eruptions studied preserve evidence of mixing and crystallisation of primitive melts in the mid-crust (8–20 km) followed by crystallisation of evolved and, in general, more incompatible element-enriched melts in the shallow crust (0–8 km) shortly before eruption. Substantial uncertainties in storage depths nevertheless remain because of incomplete calibration of clinopyroxene-melt equilibria at mid-crustal pressures. As part of an ongoing experimental campaign on Icelandic magma compositions at moderate pressures (1-5 kbar) we seek to improve the calibration of barometers in basaltic systems.