Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-10-2018
Department
Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences
Abstract
Very large eruptions (>50 km3) and supereruptions (>450 km3) reveal Earth’s capacity to produce and store enormous quantities (>1000 km3) of crystal-poor, eruptible magma in the shallow crust. We explore the interplay between crustal evolution and volcanism during a volcanic flare-up in the Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ, New Zealand) using a combination of quartz-feldspar-melt equilibration pressures and time scales of quartz crystallization. Over the course of the flare-up, crystallization depths became progressively shallower, showing the gradual conditioning of the crust. Yet, quartz crystallization times were invariably very short (<100 years), demonstrating that very large reservoirs of eruptible magma were transient crustal features. We conclude that the dynamic nature of the TVZ crust favored magma eruption over storage. Episodic tapping of eruptible magmas likely prevented a supereruption. Instead, multiple very large bodies of eruptible magma were assembled and erupted in decadal time scales.
Publication Title
Science Advances
Recommended Citation
Gualda, G. A.,
Gravley, D. M.,
Connor, M.,
Hollmann, B.,
Pamukcu, A. S.,
Begue, F.,
Ghiorso, M. S.,
&
Deering, C.
(2018).
Climbing the crustal ladder: Magma storage-depth evolution during a volcanic flare-up.
Science Advances,
4(10).
http://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aap7567
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/1187
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Version
Publisher's PDF
Publisher's Statement
Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC). Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aap7567