Textural effects of steady state behaviour of the Stromboli feeding system

Abstract

The exceptionally persistent activity of Stromboli volcano has lasted for at least 1400 years. The normal strombolian activity is periodically interrupted by more energetic explosions (1–2 per year) and by sporadic effusive episodes (every 10–20 years). Normal activity and effusive episodes are characterized by crystal-rich high-K to shoshonitic basalts issuing from a volatile-poor shallow system. Crystal-poor pumice are emitted only during more violent explosions, and are thought to derive from deep pulses of volatile-rich magma. Shallow level degassing induces massive crystallization of deep pulses of feeding magma that, continuously mixing with the resident one, produces the crystal-rich shoshonite of the persistent activity. We examined the crystallization history of the crystal-rich, shallow reservoir using plagioclase Crystal Size Distribution (CSD) analysis of scoriae and lavas emitted in the past twenty years. CSDs show a linear dependence from crystal size in the size interval 0.06–1.2 mm; number density of larger crystals is biased by right hand truncation effects. CSDs slopes and intercepts are quite constant during the whole considered time span revealing a system that is close to the equilibrium also from a kinetic point of view. The linear crystal size distribution are reached by the system through episodes of growth and resorption, respectively occurring in the degassed and undegassed magma during the continuous mixing in the feeding system. Plagioclase net growth rate (2 × 10− 11 cm/s) results from a balance of growth (10− 10 cm/s) and resorption episodes which induce spectacular zoning and resorption textures in crystals larger than 200 μm. CSDs of mafic phases cannot be accurately acquired on each single sample due to poor counting statistics; the evaluation of pyroxene and olivine CSD on the whole data set, however, confirms the conclusions acquired from plagioclase CSDs.