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Timescales of mixing and storage for Keanakāko‘i Tephra magmas (1500–1820 C.E.), Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i

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Abstract

The last 2500 years of activity at Kīlauea Volcano (Hawai‘i) have been characterized by centuries-long periods dominated by either effusive or explosive eruptions. The most recent period of explosive activity produced the Keanakāko‘i Tephra (KT; ca. 1500–1820 C.E.) and occurred after the collapse of the summit caldera (1470–1510 C.E.). Previous studies suggest that KT magmas may have ascended rapidly to the surface, bypassing storage in crustal reservoirs. The storage conditions and rapid ascent hypothesis are tested here using chemical zoning in olivine crystals and thermodynamic modeling. Forsterite contents (Fo; [Mg/(Mg + Fe) × 100]) of olivine core and rim populations are used to identify melt components in Kīlauea’s prehistoric (i.e., pre-1823) plumbing system. Primitive (≥Fo88) cores occur throughout the 300+ years of the KT period; they originated from mantle-derived magmas that were first mixed and stored in a deep crustal reservoir. Bimodal olivine populations (≥Fo88 and Fo83–84) record repeated mixing of primitive magmas and more differentiated reservoir components shallower in the system, producing a hybrid composition (Fo85–87). Phase equilibria modeling using MELTS shows that liquidus olivine is not stable at depths >17 km. Thus, calculated timescales likely record mixing and storage within the crust. Modeling of Fe–Mg and Ni zoning patterns (normal, reverse, complex) reveal that KT magmas were mixed and stored for a few weeks to several years before eruption, illustrating a more complex storage history than direct and rapid ascent from the mantle as previously inferred for KT magmas. Complexly zoned crystals also have smoothed compositional reversals in the outer 5–20 µm rims that are out of Fe–Mg equilibrium with surrounding glasses. Diffusion models suggest that these rims formed within a few hours to a few days, indicating that at least one additional, late-stage mixing event may have occurred shortly prior to eruption. Our study illustrates that the lifetimes of KT magmas are more complex than previously proposed, and that most KT magmas did not rise rapidly from the mantle without modification during shallow crustal storage.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Jason Herrin (NTU) and Eric Hellebrand (UH) for support during electron microprobe analyses, Caroline Caplan and Julia Hammer for guidance in electron backscatter diffraction, and Eileen Chen, Scott Milleson, and Valerie Finlayson for assistance with sample preparation. We are grateful to Rosalind Helz and three anonymous reviewers for helping to improve this paper, and thank Gordon Moore for editorial handling. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes grant OISE1513668 in collaboration with the Research Foundation of Singapore, and the Harold T. Stearns Fellowship and the Fred M. Bullard Graduate Fellowship from UH to KL. Additional support was provided by NSF grants EAR1347915 and EAR1449744 to MG, EAR1321890 to TS, and a Singapore Ministry of Education grant (MoE2014-T2-2-041) to FC. This is the University of Hawai‘i School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) contribution number 10076.

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  1. Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Hawai‘i, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

    Kendra J. Lynn, Michael O. Garcia & Thomas Shea

  2. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 19711, USA

    Kendra J. Lynn

  3. Earth Observatory of Singapore, Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 639797, Singapore

    Fidel Costa

  4. U.S. Geological Survey, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, P.O. Box 51, Hawaii National Park, HI, 96718, USA

    Donald A. Swanson

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  1. Kendra J. Lynn
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Lynn, K.J., Garcia, M.O., Shea, T. et al. Timescales of mixing and storage for Keanakāko‘i Tephra magmas (1500–1820 C.E.), Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i. Contrib Mineral Petrol 172, 76 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-017-1395-4

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