skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Rapid onset of mafic magmatism facilitated by volcanic edifice collapse

Journal Article · · Geophysical Research Letters
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL064519· OSTI ID:1512134
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [3];  [6];  [7];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [4];  [4];  [8];  [9];  [10];  [9];  [11];  [12];  [13] more »;  [9];  [14];  [15];  [16];  [17];  [18];  [19] « less
  1. Univ. of Southampton, Southampton (United Kingdom); Johannes Gutenberg Univ., Mainz (Germany)
  2. Univ. of Southampton, Southampton (United Kingdom); Univ. of Birmingham, Birmingham (United Kingdom)
  3. National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (United Kingdom)
  4. Univ. of Southampton, Southampton (United Kingdom)
  5. Univ. of Cambridge, Cambridge (United Kingdom)
  6. Plymouth Univ., Plymouth (United Kingdom)
  7. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  8. Technische Univ. Bergakademie, Freiberg (Germany)
  9. Inst. de Physique du Globe de Paris, Paris (France)
  10. Geological Survey of Japan (AIST), Tsukuba (Japan)
  11. Tufts Univ., Medford, MA (United States)
  12. Yamagata Univ., Yamagata (Japan)
  13. Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
  14. Univ. of Tsukuba, Tsukuba (Japan)
  15. Ibaraki Univ., Mito (Japan)
  16. Niigata Univ., Nishi-ku (Japan)
  17. Univ. of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku (Japan)
  18. Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokosuka (Japan)
  19. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Volcanic edifice collapses generate some of Earth's largest landslides. How such unloading affects the magma storage systems is important for both hazard assessment and for determining long-term controls on volcano growth and decay. Here we present a detailed stratigraphic and petrological analyses of volcanic landslide and eruption deposits offshore Montserrat, in a subduction zone setting, sampled during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 340. A large (6-10km3) collapse of the Soufrière Hills Volcano at ~130 ka was followed by explosive basaltic volcanism and the formation of a new basaltic volcanic center, the South Soufrière Hills, estimated to have initiated <100 years after collapse. This basaltic volcanism was a sharp departure from the andesitic volcanism that characterized Soufrière Hills' activity before the collapse. Mineral-melt thermobarometry demonstrates that the basaltic magma's transit through the crust was rapid and from midcrustal depths. We suggest that this rapid ascent was promoted by unloading following collapse.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1512134
Journal Information:
Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 42, Issue 12; ISSN 0094-8276
Publisher:
American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 20 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (31)

Magma chambers: Formation, local stresses, excess pressures, and compartments journal September 2012
Tracking the magmatic evolution of island arc volcanism: Insights from a high-precision Pb isotope record of Montserrat, Lesser Antilles journal January 2012
Geomorphological evolution of Montserrat (West Indies): importance of flank collapse and erosional processes journal January 2004
A case for CO2-rich arc magmas journal February 2010
A New Model to Estimate Deep-level Magma Ascent Rates, with Applications to Mt. Etna (Sicily, Italy) journal December 2012
Consequences of volcano sector collapse on magmatic storage zones: Insights from numerical modeling journal February 2013
Gradients in silicic magma chambers: Implications for lithospheric magmatism journal November 1981
Role of large flank-collapse events on magma evolution of volcanoes. Insights from the Lesser Antilles Arc journal August 2013
10. Volatile Abundances in Basaltic Magmas and Their Degassing Paths Tracked by Melt Inclusions book January 2008
Postshield volcanism and catastrophic mass wasting of the Waianae Volcano, Oahu, Hawaii journal July 1997
Magma hybridisation and diffusive exchange recorded in heterogeneous glasses from Soufrière Hills Volcano, Montserrat: MAGMA HYBRIDISATION AT MONTSERRAT journal February 2010
The effects of flank collapses on volcano plumbing systems journal December 2009
Widespread and progressive seafloor-sediment failure following volcanic debris avalanche emplacement: Landslide dynamics and timing offshore Montserrat, Lesser Antilles journal September 2012
Stability and chemical equilibrium of amphibole in calc-alkaline magmas: an overview, new thermobarometric formulations and application to subduction-related volcanoes journal December 2009
Some consequences of volcanic edifice destruction for eruption conditions journal July 2005
Construction of volcanic records from marine sediment cores: A review and case study (Montserrat, West Indies) journal November 2014
Cross section of a magma conduit system at the margin of the Colorado Plateau journal January 2003
Glacioisostacy controls chemical and isotopic characteristics of tholeiites from the Reykjanes Peninsula, SW Iceland journal December 1998
The effect of edifice load on magma ascent beneath a volcano
  • Pinel, Virginie; Jaupart, Claude
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 358, Issue 1770 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2000.0601
journal May 2000
Evidence for carbonate platform failure during rapid sea-level rise; ca 14 000 year old bioclastic flow deposits in the Lesser Antilles: Voluminous bioclastic flow deposits, Lesser Antilles journal November 2009
Shallow and deep crustal control on differentiation of calc-alkaline and tholeiitic magma journal July 2009
Amphibole as an archivist of magmatic crystallization conditions: problems, potential, and implications for inferring magma storage prior to the paroxysmal 2010 eruption of Mount Merapi, Indonesia journal June 2014
A geochemical investigation of fragmentation and physical fractionation in pyroclastic flows from the Soufrière Hills volcano, Montserrat journal September 2001
Crustal structure beneath the Montserrat region of the Lesser Antilles island arc: CRUSTAL STRUCTURE IN MONTSERRAT REGION journal June 2010
Geochemical Evolution of the Soufriere Hills Volcano, Montserrat, Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc journal August 2003
Submarine record of volcanic island construction and collapse in the Lesser Antilles arc: First scientific drilling of submarine volcanic island landslides by IODPExpedition 340 journal February 2015
New clinopyroxene-liquid thermobarometers for mafic, evolved, and volatile-bearing lava compositions, with applications to lavas from Tibet and the Snake River Plain, Idaho journal October 2003
Origin of Basalts by Hybridization in Andesite-dominated Arcs journal February 2015
Amphibole “sponge” in arc crust? journal January 2007
Clinopyroxene precursors to amphibole sponge in arc crust journal July 2014
SEISMIC TRIGGERING OF ERUPTIONS IN THE FAR FIELD: Volcanoes and Geysers journal May 2006

Cited By (3)

Geochemical and petrological diversity of mafic magmas from Mount St. Helens journal January 2019
Multi-stage volcanic island flank collapses with coeval explosive caldera-forming eruptions journal January 2018
Geochemical and petrological diversity of mafic magmas from Mount St. Helens text January 2019

Figures / Tables (3)

Figure 1(p. 2)figure Figure 1
Figure 2(p. 4)figure Figure 2
Figure 3(p. 5)figure Figure 3

Similar Records

The relationship between eruptive activity, flank collapse, and sea level at volcanic islands: A long-term (> 1 Ma) record offshore Montserrat, Lesser Antilles
Journal Article · Fri Jun 17 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems · OSTI ID:1512134
+20 more
Mafic magmatism and associated tectonism of the central high Cascade Range, Oregon
Journal Article · Sat Nov 10 00:00:00 EST 1990 · Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States) · OSTI ID:1512134
Late Cenozoic volcanism in the Lassen area, southernmost Cascade Range, California
Conference · Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1993 · Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States) · OSTI ID:1512134

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
sector collapse
clinopyroxene
petrology
magma ascent