Michael O Garcia | Search USGS

USGS2019

A high carbon content of the Hawaiian mantle from olivine-hosted melt inclusions

The deep mantle carbon content and flux are fundamental quantities in understanding global volatile cycles and distributions. Here, we present CO2 concentrations measured in 407 olivine-hosted melt inclusions from Hualalai, Kilauea, Koolau, Loihi, and Mauna Loa to constrain the Hawaiian mantle CO2 content and flux. Quantification of melt inclusion CO2 is complicated by the ubiquitous presence of vapor or “shrinkage” bubbles. The contribution from exsolved shrinkage bubble CO2 was determined from the measured bubble size and a CO2 equation of state, and added to the dissolved CO2 to reconstruct total melt inclusion CO2 concentrations. Bubbles typically contain ~90% of melt inclusion C, much of which may be sequestered in precipitated phases on bubble walls, and thus not amenable to measurement by Raman spectroscopy. Based on our dataset of total (dissolved + bubble) CO2 concentrations, we estimate that parental melts from the five Hawaiian volcanoes have CO2 concentrations ranging from 3900 to 10,000 ppm CO2. Among the active volcanoes, CO2 concentrations decrease to the northwest, likely reflecting mantle source heterogeneity, although differences in the depths of the magma chambers may also play a role. Mantle sources of the Hawaiian volcanoes range from 380 to 480 ppm CO2 suggesting that the Hawaiian plume is at least a factor of ~4 more C-rich than the MORB mantle. This enrichment is likely due to the presence of recycled surficial C and/or C-rich primitive material in the Hawaiian mantle.

Hawaii↗

USGS2019

Explosive summit collapse of Kīlauea Volcano in 1924 preceded by a decade of crustal contamination and anomalous Pb isotope ratios

A geochemical time-series analysis of lavas from frequently active basaltic volcanoes has the potential to reveal the enigmatic mantle controls on volcanic behavior and hazards. In May 1924, the century-long lava lake within Halemaʻumaʻu pit crater at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano drained and the floor of Halemaʻumaʻu collapsed, triggering ∼3 weeks of phreatic explosions due to the interaction of groundwater with hot rock. For the next three decades, eruptions at Kīlauea were sporadic (the longest hiatus was from 1934 to 1952), small in volume, and short (typically <1 month long). Here, we show that the Pb isotope ratios of Kīlauea lava groundmass and tephra glass samples erupted from 1912 to 1954 are anomalous and unusually variable. Many of the samples have elevated 207 Pb/ 204 Pb ratios (at a given 206 Pb/ 204 Pb), ranging up to ∼0.05 higher than is typical for Kīlauea lavas. The variations in 206 Pb/ 204 Pb for samples from 1912–1913 (∼0.055), 1917–1921 (∼0.120), 1923 (∼0.065), and 1952–1954 (∼0.037) are larger over short time periods (∼1–4 yr) than observed during the Puʻu ʻŌʻō rift eruption (only ∼0.031 from 1986 to 2012). These Pb isotopic signatures resulted from variable amounts of crustal contamination (most likely by Pb-rich hydrothermal sulfide minerals with high 207 Pb/ 204 Pb ratios) as the parental magmas transited the ∼110 Ma Pacific oceanic crust. This crustal contamination was not directly related to the shallow volcanic events of 1924. Instead, mantle-driven processes at Kīlauea during the previous century—a factor of ∼2 decrease in the degree of partial melting of an increasingly refractory source—led to a decline in the magma supply rate, a major disruption of the magmatic plumbing system, and, for at least a decade prior to 1924, crustal contamination at or below the base of the volcanic edifice (>10 km). The Pb isotopic heterogeneity of the samples on short length (hand specimen to lava flow) and time (∼1–4 yr) scales can be explained by inefficient mixing as small batches of contaminated magma were delivered to the remnants of Kīlauea’s summit magma storage reservoir. Our results confirm that the Pb isotope ratios of basalts from ocean-island volcanoes may be significantly modified by assimilation of materials from the underlying oceanic crust. In particular, the 207 Pb/ 204 Pb ratio may be a sensitive tracer of such crustal contamination at Hawaiian shield volcanoes. Mauna Loa lavas display a factor of ∼5 more scatter towards higher 207 Pb/ 204 Pb at a given 206 Pb/ 204 Pb ratio than most Kīlauea lavas (excluding the samples from 1912 to 1954). This might be caused by more pervasive crustal contamination at Mauna Loa due to its lower magma supply rate over the last ∼4 kyr.

Hawaii↗