Changing modes and rates of mafic magma supply at Pantelleria (Sicily Channel, Southern Italy): new perspectives on the volcano factory drawn upon olivine records

Abstract

The island of Pantelleria, located in the Sicily Channel Rift Zone (Italy), has been the site of violent peralkaline silicic magmatism alternating with minor effusive to low-intensity Strombolian erup- tions of basaltic composition. The basaltic rock suites exposed on the island were sampled to in- vestigate the plumbing system dynamics through the study of chemical stratigraphy and temporal records of olivine crystals. Our petrographic and geochemical observations, together with the com- positional variability of olivine, suggest different evolutionary histories for basaltic magmas erupted over two major periods divided by the 􏰃45 ka Green Tuff (GT) eruption. Core-to-rim com- positional traverses across olivine crystals document different types of zoning. We recognized oliv- ine zones affected by Fo oscillations at very fine scales in the inner cores, rims and/or in intermedi- ate portions of crystals and used them to reconstruct the residence and passage of crystals through different magmatic environments, with P–T–ƒO2 and compositional characteristics con- strained by thermodynamic modeling. The sequence of magmatic environments evidenced by oliv- ine zoning indicate that the pre-GT volcanic period was dominated by injection at shallow crustal levels (􏰃300–200 MPa) of primitive melts, initially moving from a deep storage zone at the crust- mantle boundary. Supply of this magma significantly decreased after the GT eruption, while the dy- namics of magma transfer within the upper portion of the plumbing system were greatly enhanced. The diffusive relaxation of olivine zoning provided the timing of storage and migration of a crystal through different environments. For magmas feeding the ancient (>45 ka) basaltic activ- ity we retrieved transfer histories that are much longer (up to 􏰃3 years) if compared with those cal- culated for the post-GT basalts (1–9 months). The compositional and temporal dataset presented in this study supports the idea that the GT eruption and the subsequent collapse of the volcanic edi- fice could have caused major changes to the internal structural setting of Pantelleria, creating more favorable conditions for the migration of magmas in the upper portions of the plumbing system.