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The melt inclusion record from the rhyolitic Kos Plateau Tuff (Aegean Arc)

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Abstract

The >60 km3 rhyolitic Kos Plateau Tuff provides an exceptional probe into the behavior of volatile components in highly evolved arc magmas: it is crystal-rich (30–40 vol% crystals), was rapidly quenched by the explosive eruptive process, and contains abundant homogeneous melt inclusions in large quartz crystals. Several methods for measuring major, trace and volatile element concentrations (SIMS, FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, electron microprobe, LA–ICPMS) were applied to these melt inclusions. We found a ~2 wt% range of H2O contents (4.5–6.5 wt% H2O, measured independently by SIMS, FTIR, and Raman spectroscopy) and relatively low CO2 concentrations (15–140 ppm measured by FTIR, with most analyses <100 ppm). No obvious correlations between H2O, CO2, major and trace elements are observed. These observations require a complex, protracted magma evolution in the upper crust that included: (1) vapor-saturated crystallization in a chamber located between 1.5 and 2.5 kb pressure, (2) closed-system degassing (with up to 10 vol% exsolved gas) as melts percolated upwards through a vertically extensive mush zone (2–4 km thick), and (3) periodic gas fluxing from subjacent, more mafic and more CO2-rich magma, which is preserved as andesite bands in pumices. These processes can account for the range of observed H2O and CO2 values and the lack of correlation between volatiles and trace elements in the melt inclusions.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Swiss NSF grants # 200021-103441 and 200021-111709/1 to Bachmann. We thank Robert Moritz for his help on the Raman instrument at the University of Geneva and Colleen Donegan for assistance with the FTIR analyses. Georgia Pe-Piper and an anonymous reviewer are thanked for providing constructive comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

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  1. Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Mailstop 351310, Seattle, WA, 98195-1310, USA

    Olivier Bachmann

  2. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403-1272, USA

    Paul J. Wallace

  3. Section Des Sciences De La Terre, Université De Genève, 13, Rue Des Maraîchers, 1205, Geneva 4, Switzerland

    Julie Bourquin

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  1. Olivier Bachmann
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Correspondence to Olivier Bachmann.

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Communicated by T.L. Grove.

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Bachmann, O., Wallace, P.J. & Bourquin, J. The melt inclusion record from the rhyolitic Kos Plateau Tuff (Aegean Arc). Contrib Mineral Petrol 159, 187–202 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-009-0423-4

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