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Millennial timescale resolution of rhyolite magma recharge at Tarawera volcano: insights from quartz chemistry and melt inclusions

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Abstract

Most rhyolite eruption episodes of Tarawera volcano have emitted several physiochemically distinct magma batches (∼1–10 km3). These episodes were separated on a millennial timescale. The magma batches were relatively homogeneous in temperature and composition at pumice scale (>4 cm), but experienced isolated crystallisation histories. At the sub-cm scale, matrix glasses have trace element compositions (Sr, Ba, Rb) that vary by factors up to 2.5, indicating incomplete mixing of separate melts. Some quartz-hosted melt inclusions are depleted in compatible trace elements (Sr, Ti, Ba) compared to enclosing matrix glasses. This could reflect re-melting of felsic crystals deeper in the crystal pile. Individual quartz crystals display a variety of cathodoluminescence brightness and Ti zoning patterns including rapid changes in melt chemistry and/or temperature (∼50–100°C), and point to multi-cycle crystallisation histories. The Tarawera magma system consisted of a crystal-rich mass containing waxing and waning melt pockets that were periodically recharged by silicic melts driven by basaltic intrusion.

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Acknowledgments

Funding was provided by FRST contract CO5X0402 (subcontracted from GNS Sciences); Marsden contract UOC0508 (University of Canterbury); and the University of Auckland Research Grants Committee. Smith acknowledges a FRST post-doctoral fellowship. Authors thank the NERC facility, University of Edinburgh for ion probe use. Olivier Bachmann and Wes Hildreth provided valuable comments. Stuart Kearns assisted with EMP work at Bristol.

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Correspondence to Phil Shane.

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Communicated by T.L. Grove.

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Shane, P., Smith, V.C. & Nairn, I. Millennial timescale resolution of rhyolite magma recharge at Tarawera volcano: insights from quartz chemistry and melt inclusions. Contrib Mineral Petrol 156, 397–411 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-008-0292-2

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