Vlastélic, I.

Volcanic eruptions of intermediary and silica-rich magmas (andesites, dacites and rhyolites) in convergent arc settings generate voluminous and explosive eruptions that can strongly affect human activity and have significant environmental impacts. It is therefore crucial to understand how these magmas are generated in order to anticipate their potential impact. At convergent margins, primitive magmas (primitive basalts and/or andesites) are derived from the mantle wedge and they are progressively modified by physical and chemical processes operating between the melting zone and the surface to produce silica-rich magmas. In order to elucidate the relationship between andesites and dacites, we focus on Tungurahua volcano, located in the Ecuadorian Andes. We collected a set of samples comprising such lithologies that were erupted during the last 3000 year BP. This relatively short period of time allows us to assume that the geodynamic parameters remain constant. Petrology and major-trace element compositions of these lavas have already been examined, and so we performed a complementary Pb-Sr isotope study in order to determine the nature and origin of the components involved in andesite and dacite genesis. Sr isotopes range from 0.70417 to 0.70431, and Pb isotope compositions range from 18.889 to 19.154 for 206Pb/204Pb, from 15.658 to 15.696 for 207Pb/204Pb, and from 38.752 to 38.918 for 208Pb/204Pb. Dacites display a remarkably homogeneous Pb isotopic composition, with higher 206Pb/204Pb values for a given 207-208Pb/204Pb compared to andesites. Andesites show notable 207Pb/206Pb variations for a given SiO2 content, whereas dacites have lower and homogenous 207Pb/206Pb values. Andesite and dacite altogether plot in a roughly triangular distribution, with dacitic magmas systematically plotting at the high SiO2 and 87Sr/86Sr and low 207Pb/206Pb fields. Based on our new dataset, we show that at least 3 different components are required to explain the Tungurahua compositional and isotope variation: one corresponds to the mantle, the second has a deep origin (slab component or lower crust), and a mixture between these two components explains andesite heterogeneity. The third component is derived from the underlying upper continental crust. While andesites are derived fromdeep components, dacites are derived from the andesitic magmas that underwent an assimilation-fractional crystallization (AFC) process with incorporation of the local metamorphic basement. Finally,we used the geochemical and isotopic data to produce a model of the magmatic plumbing system beneath Tungurahua, consistent with geophysical and experimental petrology constraints. We conclude that melt migration and storage in the upper crust appears to be a key parameter for controlling volcanic behavior though time.

Basaltic magma chambers are often characterized by emptying and refilling cycles that influence their evolution in space and time, and the associated eruptive activity. During April 2007, the largest historical eruption of Piton de la Fournaise (Île de La Réunion, France) drained the shallow plumbing system () and resulted in collapse of the 1-km-wide summit crater. Following these major events, Piton de la Fournaise entered a seven-year long period of near-continuous deflation interrupted, in June 2014, by a new phase of significant inflation. By integrating multiple datasets (lava discharge rates, deformation, seismicity, gas flux, gas composition, and lava chemistry), we here show that the progressive migration of magma from a deeper (below sea level) storage zone gradually rejuvenated and pressurized the above-sea-level portion of the magmatic system consisting of a vertically-zoned network of relatively small-volume magma pockets. Continuous inflation provoked four small () eruptions from vents located close to the summit cone and culminated, during August–October 2015, with a chemically zoned eruption that erupted of lava. This two-month-long eruption evolved through (i) an initial phase of waning discharge, associated to the withdrawal of differentiated magma from the shallow system, into (ii) a month-long phase of increasing lava and SO2 fluxes at the effusive vent, coupled with CO2 enrichment of summit fumaroles, and involving emission of less differentiated lavas, to end with, (iii) three short-lived (∼2 day-long) pulses in lava and gas flux, coupled with arrival of cumulative olivine at the surface and deflation. The activity observed at Piton de la Fournaise in 2014 and 2015 points to a new model of shallow system rejuvenation and discharge, whereby continuous magma supply causes eruptions from increasingly deeper and larger magma storage zones. Downward depressurization continues until unloading of the deepest, least differentiated magma triggers pulses in lava and gas flux, accompanied by rapid contraction of the volcano edifice, that empties the main shallow reservoir and terminates the cycle. Such an unloading process may characterize the evolution of shallow magmatic systems at other persistently active effusive centers.