The Influence of Crystal Mush on Magmatism Under Arc Volcanoes Recorded in Zircon from the Lassen Volcanic Center, California and Mount Hood, Oregon

Abstract:

Many arc volcanoes are constructed by repeated tapping of complex subvolcanic magmatic plumbing containing new and inherited crystals and liquids that interact in the hours to millennia prior to an eruption. This process is often modulated by long-lived (10-100 k.y.) shallow (<5 km) silicic crystal mush. Constraining the development and growth of mush zones is therefore essential in predicting a volcano’s future behavior. The Lassen Volcanic Center (LVC) in California and Mount Hood (MH) in Oregon are two of the most recently active Cascade volcanoes, with last major eruptions in 1915 and ~1780-81 respectively. We performed U-Th/U-Pb dating of LVC and MH zircon from lavas and tephras erupted between 0.1-825 ka. In the LVC, the Rockland Tephra (611 ka; Ar/Ar) contains zircon from 800-520 ka, spanning the age of the Rockland caldera complex (825-611 ka eruption ages). During the Lassen Domefield (315-0.1 ka eruption ages), zircon ages vary from secular equilibrium to 15 ka, overlapping with the Bumpass Sequence (315-190 ka eruption ages) and an eruptive hiatus (190-90 ka eruption ages). Nine of 116 Lassen Domefield zircon are in secular equilibrium (>350 ka). These data support a model of long-lived zircon-saturated silicic mushes existing under the LVC during the Rockland caldera complex stage and since the end of the Brokeoff Volcano stage (590-385 ka eruption ages). Preliminary zircon data from the Old Maid stage (~0.2 ka eruption age) at MH indicate two broad age groups. Younger zircon (<10 ka) suggest reactivation and/or expansion of mush following Polallie phase (20-12 ka eruption ages), Timberline (~1.5 ka eruption age), and Old Maid eruptions. Older zircon (>100 ka) are generally consistent with U-Th ages from plagioclase (~120 ka U-Th), indicating a long-lived zircon-saturated crystal mush tapped by Timberline and Old Maid lavas. At both of these volcanoes, silicic crystal mushes interact with intruding mafic magma, producing monotonous mixed andesite-dacite compositions at MH and dacitic-rhyodacitic mixed and mingled magmas at the LVC. This difference in lava compositions may be controlled by the volume and duration of basaltic intrusions, the duration of the mafic magma's interaction with the crystal mush along with the geometry, volume and conditions (P-T-x) within the crystal mush.