Deep degassing and the eruptibility of flood basalt magmas

Abstract:

Individual flood basalt lavas often exceed 10³ km³ in volume, and many such lavas erupt during emplacement of flood basalt provinces. The large volume of individual flood basalt lavas demands correspondingly large magma reservoirs within or at the base of the crust. To erupt, some fraction of this magma must become buoyant and overpressure must be sufficient to encourage failure and dike propagation. Because the overpressure associated with a new injection of magma is inversely proportional to the total reservoir volume, buoyancy overpressure has been proposed as a trigger for flood basalt eruptions. To test this hypothesis, we develop a new one-dimensional model for buoyancy overpressure-driven eruptions that combines volatile exsolution, bubble growth and rise, assimilation, and permeable fluid escape through the surrounding country rocks. Degassing during emplacement of flood basalt provinces may have major environmental repercussions. We investigate the temporal evolution of permeable degassing through the crust and degassing during eruptive episodes. We find that assimilation of volatile-rich country rocks strongly enhances flood basalt eruptibility, implying that the eruptive dynamics of flood basalts may be intertwined with their climatic consequences.