Nicotra, Eugenio

The formation and growth mechanisms of Mid-Ocean Ridges (MOR) are relatively well known, whereas those of back-arc spreading ridges are comparatively less known because geophysical, geochemical, and morphological data are scarce and of low density. Here we present a high-resolution bathymetry of the Marsili Seamount (MS; 1Ma 3 ka), which represents the inflated spreading ridge of the 2Ma old Marsili back-arc basin associated to the subduction of the Ionian Sea below the Calabrian Arc and Tyrrhenian Sea. MS is 70 km long, 30 km wide, and its height reaches about 3000 m from surrounding seafloor. Our new digital bathymetric model has a 5 m grid cell size resolution and covers the MS bathymetry from 1670 mbsl to the top at 491 mbsl. We conduct morphometric and morphological analyses of the bathymetry and recognize landforms due to volcanic, tectonic, hydrothermal and gravity processes. MS consists of volcanoes related to fissural and central-type activity, this latter located at the northern and southern tips of the main dike swarms. Dike swarms represent the surface expression of different ridge segments whose strikes are controlled by the larger scale back-arc spreading processes and by the local occurrence of an active hydrothermal field. This latter develops in a flat area between two partly overlapping ridge segments where historical volcanism and extensional processes concentrate. Such ridges represent the embryonic stage of the formation of transform-like faults. Central volcanoes, the northern of which is characterized by a caldera, form at the tips of MS because the decrease in width of the major volcanic fissures promotes vent localization associated with the formation of sill-like reservoirs from which central-type vents may develop. Gravity processes affecting the MS flanks are due to shallow seafloor sliding. Caldera collapses affecting the northernmost central-type polygenic volcano must be included in the evaluation of the hazard related to potential tsunami. Inward dipping faults characterize the MS eastern flank suggesting a moderately asymmetric growth of the spreading ridge possibly associated with the eastward opening of the Marsili back-arc. The Marsili back-arc spreading rate is similar to those of MOR slow spreading ridges. However, the MS morphology resembles that of fast spreading ridges. These two features also characterize more extended back-arc spreading ridges (e.g. the Mariana in Western Pacific). We conclude that, independently from the spatial scale, the increase in the ridge accretion rate is related to the progressive addition of a subduction-related component to a pure spreading mantle source.

Continental rifts result from the simultaneous action of shallow processes such as the thinning of the lithosphere, and deeper processes related to the dynamics of the mantle. The role of these deeper processes may change over time as a function of the type of rifting, e.g., subduction-related rift vs plume-related rifts, and the pre-rift geodynamics. During the Cretaceous, the Songliao Basin (NE China) was affected by continental rifting accompanied by discontinuous stages of volcanism. The relative role of the asthenospheric and lithospheric mantle associated with the Songliao Basin rift volcanism, its evolution with time, and the origin of the felsic rocks are still debated problems due to the lack of comprehensive studies. Here, we present a critical review of the available geochronological and geochemical data (major, trace elements, and Sr-Nd isotopes) and show that the Songliao rift Cretaceous volcanism developed between 133 Ma and 102 Ma in five main stages: Stage I (133–129 Ma), Stage II (124–118 Ma), Stage III (117–113 Ma), Stage IV (115–106 Ma), and Stage V (105–102 Ma). While magmas with an alkaline, intraplate affinity characterize all the Stages, magmas with a subalkaline (calc-alkaline) signature erupted in Stages II and III. Mafic and intermediate rocks are always present, whereas felsic magmas have been found in the last three Stages. Based on the major, trace elements and Nd-Sr isotopic compositions, the general evolution of volcanism is dominated by crystal fractionation processes. Evidence of assimilation of upper crust material is restricted to the more evolved rocks (SiO2 > 57 wt%). The alkaline mafic rocks derived from a veined asthenospheric mantle modified by melts deriving from the sediments of the Paleo- Pacific slab or associated with pre-rifting, Jurassic, collisional subduction processes related to the closing of the Mongol–Okhotsk Ocean. The source of the Songliao rift subalkaline rocks is the sub-continental lithospheric mantle metasomatized by fluids released from the dehydration of the subducting Paleo-Pacific slab. The release of fluids from the sediments subducted during the Jurassic Mongol–Okhotsk collision may also have played a role. The Songliao Basin Cretaceous rift may be classified as a subduction-related rift caused by the eastward rollback of the west-dipping Paleo-Pacific slab, a process initiated after the Jurassic collisional phase in NE China. Within the wider geodynamic frame of the eastern Asian block, the 133–102 Ma volcanism of the Songliao rift suggests a transition from a lithospheric mantle responsible for the pre-140 Ma NE China, Mongolia, and Russia volcanism to an asthenospheric mantle source of the post-107 Ma magmatism. This is also suggested by the fact that the Songliao rift magmatism shows compositional features consistent with the contribution of both the lithospheric and asthenospheric mantle. The Songliao rift volcanism would be therefore associated with a passive rifting process, where the progressive removal of the lithosphere below East Asia, which is due to eastward rollback of the Pacific oceanic plate, caused an upwelling of asthenospheric material, finally involved in the post- 102 Ma magmatism in the NE China block.

The peninsular and insular Italy are punctuated by Quaternary volcanoes and their rocks constitute an important aliquot of the Italian Quaternary sedimentary successions. Also away from volcanoes itself, volcanic ash layers are a common and frequent feature of the Quaternary records, which provide us with potential relevant stratigraphic and chronological markers at service of a wide array of the Quaternary science issues. In this paper, a broad representation of the Italian volcanological community has joined to provide an updated comprehensive state of art of the Italian Quaternary volcanism. The eruptive history, style and dynamics and, in some cases, the hazard assessment of about thirty Quaternary volcanoes, from the northernmost Mt. Amiata, in Tuscany, to the southernmost Pantelleria, in Sicily Channel, are here reviewed in the light of the substantial improving of the conceptual models, methodological approaches and the overall knowledge made in the last decades in the volcanological field study. We hope that the prest review can represent an useful and agile document summarising the knowledege on the Italian volcanism at the service of the Quaternary community operating in central Mediterranean area.

Magmatism accompanies rifting along divergent plate boundaries, although its role before continental breakup remains poorly understood. For example, the magma-assisted Northern Main Ethiopian Rift (NMER) lacks current volcanism and clear tectono-magmatic relationships with its contiguous rift portions. Here we define its magmatic behaviour, identifying the most recent eruptive fissures (EF) whose aphyric basalts have a higher Ti content than those of older monogenetic scoria cones (MSC), which are porphyritic and plagioclase-dominated. Despite these differences, calculations highlight a similar parental melt for EF and MSC products, suggesting only a different evolutionary history after melt generation. While MSC magmas underwent a further step of storage at intermediate crustal levels, EF magmas rose directly from the base of the crust without contamination, even below older polygenetic volcanoes, suggesting rapid propagation of transcrustal dikes across solidified magma chambers. Whether this recent condition in the NMER is stable or transient, it indicates a transition from central polygenetic to linear fissure volcanism, indicative of increased tensile conditions and volcanism directly fed from the base of the crust, suggesting transition towards mature rifting.

Open conduit basaltic volcanoes can be potentially hazardous as the eruptive activity may turn suddenly from a steady state to highly explosive. Unexpected changes in explosion intensity are recurrent at Stromboli volcano, where major explosions and large-scale paroxysms sometimes break off the ordinary, Strombolian activity with little or no warning. Two powerful paroxysmal eruptions took place at Stromboli volcano during the summer 2019, causing widespread fires, consistent damages across the island, injuries and one fatality. Prediction of similar events is really challenging for the modern volcanology, though models propaedeutic to early-warning monitoring systems are not properly assessed yet in many volcanoes worldwide. Here, we present a multi-parametric study that combines petrological and geophysical data to investigate processes generating the two paroxysms. The time information derived by Li enrichments in plagioclase crystals correlates with tilt time series derived by seismometers installed on the island, highlighting the dominant role of shallow conduit processes in triggering the 2019 paroxysmal activity. Our dataset conceives a mechanism of gas slug formation and fast upward migration that finally triggered the eruptions in very limited times. The proposed model questions our capability to forecast such kind of paroxysms in times that are rapid enough to allow mitigation of the associated risk.

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.

An integrated petrological and geochemical study on plagioclase crystals erupted at Vulcano Island (Aeolian Islands, Southern Italy) over the past 1000 years allowed us to draw a detailed model of the internal structure of the volcanic system, in which modes of magma interaction and timescales of storage at crustal depth are shown. The integration of compositional, textural and temporal record preserved in plagioclase crystals provides evidence for an articulated plumbing system constituted by several reservoirs connected at the crust-mantle boundary. Here, a basaltic-shoshonitic magma resides and is thought to feed the shallow magma reservoir of both La Fossa and Vulcanello centers, finally triggering eruptions throughout injections from depth. Textural and micro-compositional data on plagioclase crystals suggest the presence of three main magma levels located between ca. 17 and 2 km of depth beneath La Fossa Cone, which were intermittently reactivated over the whole period of activity considered. Plagioclase textures and compositional zoning indicate that the shallow (b11 km bsl) portions of the La Fossa plumbing system were particularly active over the last 1000 years, as crystals record the ascent and continuous episodes of magma recharge and mixing that affect the shallower reservoirs. The first stage of activity at Vulcanello (i.e. Vulcanello I eruption) was fed by slightly differentiated melts that directly rose from the deep basaltic-shoshonitic reservoir, residing for a short period of time into the crust before the eruption. Indeed, diffusion modeling calculations on Sr zoning in plagioclase indicate shorter timescales of residence (b2 years) for crystals erupted at Vulcanello compared to those of the La Fossa Cone eruptions (ca. 2–10 years). If compared with the time span between eruptions occurred at La Fossa, our time estimations may suggest that magma feeding the activity at La Fossa resides most of the time in reservoirs located below the plagioclase nucleation depth (~11 km of depth), finally rising up only few years before the eruption onset. According to our model, magmatic eruptions at Vulcano Island are related to the ascent of deep basic (basaltic/shoshonitic) magmas that trigger a sort of “reaction chain” through subsequent episodes of recharge and mixing toward the upper magmatic reservoirs.

Southern Italy is a most active tectonic and volcanic setting comprising active (Stromboli, Vulcano) or dormant (Lipari) volcanic islands in the Aeolian Arc, and the majestic Etna volcano (together with the Campanian volcanoes). They have attracted the attention of a great number of volcanologists and can be rightfully considered the cradle of the scientific discipline of Volcanology. In the Aeolian Arc, the main features are the incessant and rhythmic Strombolian exlosive activity of Stromboli and the Sciara del Fuoco collapse, together with the deposits of historical Vulcanian eruptions of Vulcano and its present-day intense fumarolic activity. The well-known Rocche Rosse obsidian lava flow and Mt. Pilato pumice are the traces of the Middle Ages activity of Lipari. On Etna, the geology of the valle del Bove depression and the summit craters and NE-Rift, and the 2001, 2002-03 and the 2011-2017 eruptive fissures and lava flow fields give an idea of the variability of its eruptive scenarios. The spectacular geology of these volcanoes and the INGV real-time monitoring network are the bases to discuss the main aspects of volcanic hazard and risk mitigation in case of future eruptions in a highly-urbanized territory characterized by intense tourism exploitation during the summer.

Multiphase magma rheological properties play a fundamental role on lava flow transport, emplacement and morphology. To date, however, the three-phase (melt + crystals + bubbles) rheology of natural magma remains relatively understudied. We present here a series of high-temperature experiments designed to investigate the multiphase rheology of a mugearitic megacryst-bearing lava from Mt. Etna. A peculiar textural feature of this magma is the abundance of cm-size plagioclase crystals (megacrysts) together with smaller size crystals (phenocrysts and microlites), yielding a very wide crystal size distribution. We combined different experimental techniques (rotational and compressional rheometry) to investigate the rheology of this natural lava under different degrees of partial melting at subliquidus conditions. Results indicate that natural megacryst-bearing mugearite magmas from Mt. Etna display a wide range of behaviors as a function of temperature (T = 1000–1200 °C) and crystal content (ϕX = 0.2–0.7). In the investigated T range, the deformation mechanism of these magmas varies from mainly brittle (T < 1050 °C) to mainly ductile (T > 1085 °C). At T = 1075 °C, both ductile and brittle behavior have been observed. In the ductile regime, these magmas behave as non-Newtonian fluids (at least up to T = 1100 °C) showing marked apparent shear thinning behavior. The observed rheological behavior is due to a complex response related to a non-homogenous deformation of the natural sample (e.g. viscous and/or brittle shear localization), favored by the presence of bubbles. Consequently, the obtained flow parameters can be considered as representative of the bulk rheology of natural magmas, commonly characterized by similar non-homogeneous deformation styles. We applied the obtained data to discuss the flow and emplacement conditions of these peculiar lava flows. We demonstrated that at eruptive temperatures, the presence of a pre-eruptive crystal cargo and bubbles facilitates the achievement of critical crystal content during flow and cooling, ultimately controlling lava transport and emplacement. Flow conditions can be maintained in the presence of an efficient insulation and, importantly, of deformable vesicles promoting and enhancing shear localization.

The elemental and isotopic compositions of noble gases (He, Ne, and Ar) in olivine- and clinopyroxene-hosted fluid inclusions have been measured for rocks at various degrees of evolution and belonging to high-K calcalkaline–shoshonitic and shoshonitic–potassic series in order to cover the entire volcanological history of Vulcano Island (Italy). The major- and trace-element concentrations and the Sr- and Pb-isotope compositions forwhole rockswere integratedwith data obtained fromthe fluid inclusions. 3He/4He in fluid inclusions iswithin the range of 3.30 and 5.94 R/Ra, being lower than the theoretical value for the deepmagmatic source expected for Vulcano Island (6.0–6.2 R/Ra). 3He/4He of themagmatic source is almost constant throughout the volcanic history of Vulcano. Integration of the He- and Sr-isotope systematics leads to the conclusion that a decrease in the Heisotope ratio of the rocks is mainly due to the assimilation of 10–25% of a crustal component similar to the Calabrian basement. 3He/4He shows a negative correlationwith Sr isotopes except for the last-erupted Vulcanello latites (Punta del Roveto),which have anomalously high He isotope ratios. This anomaly has been attributed to a flushing process by fluids coming from the deepest reservoirs, since an input of deep magmatic volatiles with high 3He/4He values increases the He-isotope ratio without changing 87Sr/86Sr. A comparison of the He-isotope ratios between fluid inclusions and fumarolic gases shows that only the basalts of La Sommata and the latites of Vulcanello have comparable values. Taking into account that the latites of Vulcanello relate to one of the most-recent eruptions at Vulcano (in the 17th century), we infer that the most probable magma which actually feeds the fumarolic emissions is a latitic body that ponded at about 3–3.5 km of depth and is flushed by fluids coming from a deeper and basic magma.