Mantle ingredients for making the fingerprint of Etna alkaline magmas: implications for shallow partial melting within the complex geodynamic framework of Eastern Sicily

Abstract

Mantle ingredients responsible for the signature of Etnean Na- and K-alkaline magmas and their relationships with short-term geochemical changes of the erupted volcanic rocks have been constrained through a partial melting model that considers major, trace elements and water contents in the produced liquids. Characteristics of the Etnean source for alkaline magmas have been supposed similar to those of the mantle accessible at a regional scale, namely below the Hyblean Plateau. The assumption that the Etnean mantle resembles the one beneath the Hyblean Plateau is justified by the large geochemical affinities of the Etnean hawaiites/K-trachybasalts and the Hyblean hawaiites/alkali basalts for what concerns both trace elements and isotope systematics. We have modeled partial melting of a composite source constituted by two rock types, inferred by lithological and geochemical features of the Hyblean xenoliths: 1) a spinel lherzolite bearing metasomatic, hydrous phases and 2) a garnet pyroxenite in form of veins intruded into the spinel lherzolite. The partial melting modeling has been applied to each rock type and the resulting primary liquids have been then mixed in various proportions. These compositions have been compared with some Etnean alkaline magmas of the post ∼60 ka activity, which were firstly re-equilibrated to mantle conditions through mass balance calculations. Our results put into evidence that concentrations of major and trace elements along with the water obtained from the modeling are remarkably comparable with those of Etnean melts re-equilibrated at primary conditions.

Different proportions of the spinel lherzolite with variable modal contents of metasomatic phases and of the garnet pyroxenite can therefore account for the signature of a large spectrum of Etnean alkaline magmas and for their geochemical variability through time, emphasizing the crucial role played by compositional small-scale heterogeneity of the source. These heterogeneities are able to produce magmas with variable compositions and volatile contents, which can then undergo distinct histories of ascent and evolution, leading to the wide range of eruptive styles observed at Mt. Etna volcano. Being partial melting confined in the spinel facies of the mantle, our model implies that the source of Mt. Etna magmas might be rather shallow (<2 GPa; i.e., lesser than ca. 60 km), excluding the presence of deep, plume-like mantle structures responsible for magma generation. Partial melting should occur consequently as a response of mantle decompression within the framework of regional tectonics affecting the Eastern Sicily, which could be triggered by extensional tectonics and/or subduction-induced mantle upwelling.