Crystallization and partial melting of rhyolite and felsite rocks at Krafla volcano: A comparative approach based on mineral and glass chemistry of natural and experimental products

Abstract

Rhyolite and felsite cuttings were collected at Krafla volcano during the perforation of the Iceland Deep Drilling Project Well 1 (IDDP-1). The perforation was stopped at a depth of 2100m due to intersection with a rhyolite magma that intruded the felsite host rock. Rhyolite cuttings are vitrophiric (glass ~95%, RHL) and exhibit a mineral assemblage made of plagioclase+augite+pigeonite+titanomagnetite. Felsite cuttings display evidences of partial melting, responding to variable degrees of quartz+plagioclase+alkali feldspar+augite+ titanomagnetite dissolution. The interstitial glass analyzed close to (i.e., FLS1) and far from (i.e., FLS2) the reaction surface of pyroxene from felsite cuttings shows continuous changes between the two end-members. FLS1 is compositionally similar to RHL, showing Na2O+K2O+REE depletions, counterbalanced by MgO+CaO enrichments. Conversely, FLS2 exhibits opposite chemical features. REE-exchange thermobarometric calculations reveal that plagioclase and augite cores from rhyolite and felsite formed under identical conditions, along a thermal path of 940–960 °C. However, in terms of major and trace element concentrations, plagioclase and augite crystal cores are not in equilibrium with the rhyolite magma, suggesting the incorporation of these minerals directly from the host felsite. To better understand the petrogenetic relationship between rhyolite and felsite, two sets of crystallization and partial melting experiments have been carried out at P=150 MPa and T=700–950 °C. Rhyolite crystallization experiments (RCE) reproduce the two-pyroxene assemblage of IDDP-1 rhyolite cuttings only at T≤800 °C, when the crystal content (≥19%) is higher than that observed in the natural rhyolite (~5%). Under such conditions, the RCE glass is much more differentiated (i.e., marked CaO depletion and Eu anomaly) than RHL. On the other hand, felsite partial melting (FPM) experiments show interstitial glass with a bimodal composition (i.e., FPM1 and FPM2) comparable to FLS1 (≈RHL) and to FLS2, only at T=950 °C. This effect has been quantified by fractional crystallization and batch melting modeling, denoting that FLS1 (≈RHL) and FLS2 reflect high (≥70%) and low (≤8%) degrees of felsite partialmelting, respectively. In contrast, modeling RHL by crystal fractionation requires the removal of an amount (~22%) of solid material that is inconsistent with the low crystal content of the natural IDDP-1 rhyolite. It is therefore concluded that natural rhyolite and felsite represent, respectively, the near-liquidus and sub-solidus states of a virtually identical silicic magma, either feeding aphyric to subaphiric rhyolitic eruptions, or solidifying at depth as phaneritic quartzofeldspathic rocks. Felsite lenses from the Krafla substrate may explore variable degrees of remelting and remobilization processes. The intrusion into felsite of a fresh silicic magma from depth may lead to low degrees of partial melting, whereas the persistent heat release from intense basaltic intrusive events at Krafla may be the source of high degrees of felsite partial melting and consequent rejuvenation of the previously solidified silicic magma.