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Insights into the 1976–2000 eruption episode of Whakaari/White Island, New Zealand: an eruption fuelled by repeated mafic recharge

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Abstract

Whakaari is New Zealand’s most active volcano, and its last major magmatic eruption occurred during a protracted episode between 1976 and 2000. This eruption episode involved a sustained phase of heightened unrest, punctuated by regular, and small-volume, phreatic, magmatic and phreatomagmatic eruptions. We examine the scoria sample suite erupted throughout this period to develop a model for the storage conditions and the underlying cause of this long-lived activity. From our analysis of the major element composition of minerals, groundmass glass and phenocryst-hosted melt inclusions, along with the volatile content of melt inclusions, Whakaari magmas are relatively hot and dry arc andesites when compared globally. Based on a combination of plagioclase hygrometry, volatile contents of phenocryst-hosted melt inclusions and thermodynamic modelling, we conceptualize a distributed magmatic system that is dominated by andesite. We find that the 1976–2000 eruption episode was largely driven by volatile poor andesite-dacite magma that was periodically intruded by a relatively primitive mafic magma throughout this period. This andesite-dacite crustal magma reservoir (to at least 9 km) is capped by a shallow storage reservoir at ~1- to 2-km depth, where magmas stalled before erupting. Mafic magma/s periodically intruded the andesite-dacite reservoir providing heat, melt, volatiles, and mafic minerals, including olivine, into the system. Finally, we show that the volatile budget during this small-volume eruption episode released significant S and Cl into the atmosphere, similar in scale to large basaltic eruptions.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Strategic Science Investment Funding within the Hazards and Risk Management Programme at GNS Science. Stuart Kearns and Ben Buse are thanked for their support with EPMA and SEM analyses at the University of Bristol. Ian Schipper is thanked for his help with EPMA analyses at Victoria University, Wellington. Nicolas Cluzel and Jean-Luc Devidal are thanked for their help with EPMA analyses at LMV. We thank Paul Wallace and an anonymous reviewer for their constructive comments and suggestions that significantly improved the paper. We also thank Tobias Fischer for his editorial handling and input.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. GNS Science, Wairakei Research Centre, Taupō, 3330, New Zealand

    Geoff Kilgour

  2. Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans, Université Clermont Auvergne, CNRS, IRD, OPGC, 63170, Aubière, France

    Severine Moune

  3. Observatoire Volcanologique et Sismologique de Guadeloupe, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Paris, Guadeloupe, France

    Severine Moune

  4. National Isotope Centre, GNS Science, Lower Hutt, New Zealand

    Bruce Christenson & Fernando Della Pasqua

  5. GNS Science, 1 Fairway Drive, 5011, Lower Hutt, New Zealand

    Fernando Della Pasqua

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  1. Geoff Kilgour
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  2. Severine Moune
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Correspondence to Geoff Kilgour.

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Kilgour, G., Moune, S., Christenson, B. et al. Insights into the 1976–2000 eruption episode of Whakaari/White Island, New Zealand: an eruption fuelled by repeated mafic recharge. Bull Volcanol 83, 40 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-021-01460-5

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