Application of the Plagioclase-Liquid Hygrometer to the Bishop Tuff: Consistency with Melt Inclusion H2O Contents

Abstract:

High-silica (74-77 wt% SiO₂) rhyolites are the most evolved magmas on Earth and constitute some of the largest eruptions (1000s of km³). Of these, one classic example is the Bishop Tuff, a 760 ka eruption of >670 km³ of high-silica rhyolite erupted from Long Valley caldera, CA. Documenting dissolved H₂O contents is crucial for understanding its origin and evolution. Analyses of water contents measured in quartz-hosted melt inclusions from the Bishop Tuff (Wallace et al. 1999; Anderson et al. 2000) show that the Early and Middle Bishop Tuff (Ig1Eb, Ig2Ea) have higher water contents (≤ 6.3 wt% H₂O) than the Late Bishop Tuff (Ig2NWa; ≤ 5.2 wt%). Our work utilizes the revised plagioclase-liquid hygrometer (Waters & Lange, 2015), which is applicable to rhyolite, to evaluate internal consistency between Fe-Ti oxide temperatures, the plagioclase hygrometer, and melt inclusion H₂O analyses. Two-oxide thermometry (Ghiorso & Evans, 2008), using all possible Fe-Ti oxide pairs (between 56 and 1500 pairs for individual samples), was carried out on 2-3 pumice clasts for each sampled eruptive unit. Resulting temperatures (°C ± 1σ) for individual clasts are: 705 ± 12, 728 ± 10 for unit Ig1Eb; 710 ± 12, 728 ± 11 for unit Ig2Ea; 752 ±10, 776 ± 8, 778 ± 7 for unit Ig2NWa; 791 ± 7, 795 ± 8 for unit Ig2Nb. The compositions of the most calcic plagioclase phenocrysts in the Early and Middle units are An_17-19, whereas in the Late units they are An_29-30. When the Fe-Ti oxide temperatures, whole rock analyses, and plagioclase compositions are incorporated into the plagioclase hygrometer, they give water contents at the onset of plagioclase crystallization of 6.6-6.9 wt% for the Early and Middle units and 4.8-4.9 wt % for the Late units. These results show internal consistency between melt inclusion analyses of water, Fe-Ti oxide thermometry, and the plagioclase-liquid hygrometer; they further support a temperature gradient across the Early, Middle, and Late Bishop Tuff units.