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Limestone assimilation by basaltic magmas: an experimental re-assessment and application to Italian volcanoes

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Abstract

The results of an experimental study of limestone assimilation by hydrated basaltic magmas in the range 1,050–1,150°C, 0.1–500 MPa are reported. Alkali basalts doped with up to 19 wt% of Ca, Mg-carbonates were equilibrated in internally heated pressure vessels and the resulting phase relationships are described. The major effects of carbonate incorporation are: (1) generation of CO2-rich fluid phases; (2) change in liquidus phase equilibria; the crystallization of Ca-rich clinopyroxene is favored and the other phases (e.g. olivine, plagioclase), present in the absence of carbonate assimilation, are consumed. As a consequence of the massive clinopyroxene crystallization, the residual melt is strongly silica-depleted and becomes nepheline-normative. Compositional and mineralogical evolutions observed in Mt. Vesuvius eruptive products match those documented in our experiments with added carbonates, suggesting the possibility that carbonate assimilation increased during the last 25 ka of activity. In Central-Southern Italy, carbonate assimilation at shallow levels probably superimposes on deeper source heterogeneities.

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Acknowledgments

G.I.M. would like to acknowledge Daniela Dolfi for discussions and original point of views on the quaternary magmatism in Italy and the INGV of Palermo for the postdoctoral grant that permitted her to accomplish this study. G.I.M. and F.G. also benefited of postdoc grants on the Visitor program of the BGI (Prof. D. Rubie) that allowed this study to be initiated at BGI (Bayreuth). The work performed at ISTO (Orléans) was funded by the French ANR (grant #JC 05–42707 to F.G.). This study benefited of helpful exchanges with Bruno Scaillet and Angelo Peccerillo. M. Schmit and T. Grove are thanked for the editorial handling of this manuscript. The frank reviews of M. Schmidt and two reviewers greatly improved our manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bayerisches GeoInstitut, Universtat Strasse, 95444, Bayreuth, Germany

    Giada Iacono Marziano & Fabrice Gaillard

  2. Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, sezione di Palermo, via Ugo La Malfa 153, 90146, Palermo, Italy

    Giada Iacono Marziano

  3. Institut des Sciences de la Terre d’Orléans (ISTO), UMR 6113 CNRS, 1A rue de la Ferollerie, 45071, Orléans CEDEX 2, France

    Fabrice Gaillard & Michel Pichavant

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  1. Giada Iacono Marziano
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  2. Fabrice Gaillard
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Correspondence to Fabrice Gaillard.

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Communicated by T.L. Grove.

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Iacono Marziano, G., Gaillard, F. & Pichavant, M. Limestone assimilation by basaltic magmas: an experimental re-assessment and application to Italian volcanoes. Contrib Mineral Petrol 155, 719–738 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-007-0267-8

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