Heumann, Arnd

Assessing the residence times of phonolite magmas in the shallow crust contributes to the understanding of explosive volcanic systems. Estimations of that by dating the residence time of a mineral in a melt was difficult in the past, because e.g. of the lack of evidence for the co-genetic character of the crystals dated. Here we present an estimate for the residence time of a phonolite magma feeding the Pomici di Mercato Plinian eruption (8890±90 cal years BP) of Mt. Somma-Vesuvius (Southern Italy), employing U–Th disequilibrium dating of unzoned Ca-rich phenocrystic magmatic garnets. Based on combined textural, geochemical, and Sr- O isotope evidence, these garnets can be identified as co-genetic with their host phonolites. Furthermore, experimental and petrological data suggest that Ca-garnets can be a liquidus phase in highly differentiated phonolite magmas of Mercato. A whole-rock–glass–garnet U–Th isochron gives a crystallisation age for the Ca-rich garnets of 14,400±1100 a (2σ). This implies a Ca-garnet residence time of 5510±1100 years (2σ) in the Mercato phonolite melt prior to eruption and provides one of the first robust estimates of how long explosive phonolite magma has resided in the shallow crust before eruption. Calculations of magma cooling rates and settling velocities of the Ca-garnets confirm that garnet-bearing phonolite can remain liquid and the garnets remain suspended in a magma chamber for as long as 5510 years before the time of eruption. Processes which may have disturbed the U–Th isotope systematic of the samples, such as assimilation, recharge or surface alteration can be ruled out.

The Campi Flegrei caldera collapsed 39 ka in the Neapolitan area (southern Italy) after the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption. This eruption, recognized as the largest and the most cataclysmic volcanic event in the Mediterranean area over the past 200 ka, extruded not less than 300 km3 of trachytic magma. Controversy exists over the timescales required to assemble a such large volume of silicic melt and thus whether large magmatic reservoirs can actually persist below active volcanic systems over prolonged periods of time. Uranium-series analyses have been performed on Campanian Ignimbrite whole-rocks, glass matrixes and separated minerals, and the obtained results have been interpreted in combination with data on Sr, Nd, Pb isotopes from literature. The compositionally most evolved sample which is most radiogenic with respect to Sr isotopes records a reference age of 71 ka. By contrast, U-Th internal isochrones of the three compositionally least evolved samples give identical initial Th isotope ratios and yield consistent ages predating the eruption by up to 6.4 ka. The highest Pb and Nd isotopic ratios and 230Th/232Th activity ratios together with the oldest reference age of the most evolved samples suggest the existence of a resident magma body possibly related to a magmatic system that is known to have fed earlier magmatic activity in the Campi Flegrei area. Conversely, the younger age of the least evolved and least radiogenic magma dates the crystallization/differentiation event of a chemically and isotopically new magma batch entering the reservoir of the resident magma some few thousand years before the cataclysmic eruption. Therefore, the time preceding this large caldera-forming eruption during which the large volume of Campanian Ignimbrite magma assembled and mixed is 6.4 ± 2.1 ka.

The active volcano of Ischia, an island off-shore the city of Naples, Southern Italy, has a discontinuous volcanic activity characterized by caldera-forming paroxysmal eruptions, lava flows, and lava domes, and thus offers the opportunity to study the complexity of magma storage, differentiation, and extraction mechanisms in a long-lived magma reservoir. The overall geochemical composition of erupted magmas varies from shoshonite to latite and trachyte/trachyphonolite. Their Sr and Nd, isotope composition variation is typical of subduction-related magmas, akin to other potassic magmas of the Neapolitan District, and there is a complete overlap of radiogenic isotope composition among shoshonite, latite, and trachyte/trachyphonolite. The lack of systematic radiogenic isotope covariation during differentiation suggests that the radiogenic isotope variability could be a signature of each magma pulse that subsequently evolved in a closed-system environment. Erupted magmas record a recurrent evolutionary process consisting of two-step fractional crystallization along similar liquid lines of descent for each magma pulse, suggesting near steady-state magma chamber conditions with balanced alternating periods of replenishment, differentiation, and eruption. The dominant role of fractionating feldspars determines a significant depletion of Sr (<10 ppm) coupled with high Rb/Sr (>200) in the residual trachyte magma. Several more-evolved trachytes have anomalous radiogenic 87Sr/86Sri (>0.707) coupled with high 87Rb/86Sr (>50), all other geochemical and isotopic characteristics being similar to normal 87Sr/86Sri trachytes at the same degree of evolution. This radiogenic Sr isotope signature is not consistent with assimilation of crustal material and demands for a time-related in-growth of 87Sr during storage within the magma chamber. Rb-Sr isochrons on separated mineral-groundmass pairs provide robust constraints on a prolonged pre-eruptive history ranging from a few tens to hundreds of thousands of years at relatively low temperature (~750 °C). Remarkably, also normal trachytes with high 87Rb/86Sr (>200) yield a magma residence time from some 4 to 27 kyr, implying that the long-lived history of Ischia magmas is not limited to the anomalous 87Sr/86Sri trachytes. This long-lived history could be a characteristic feature of the magma chamber reservoir of this active volcano, which other volcanic products (i.e., shoshonite and latite) cannot disclose due to their lower Rb/Sr (i.e., low 87Sr in-growth rate) and higher magma storage temperature (>900 °C) (i.e., rapid Sr isotope homogenization via diffusion). The magma chamber dynamics of the active volcano of Ischia, probed on the basis of geochemical and radiogenic isotope tools, is consistent with recent models of complex magma chamber reservoirs made up of multiple discrete melt pockets, isolated by largely crystalline mush portions, maintained in a steady-state thermal flux regime with no mass exchange, and with reactivation shortly before eruption.