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Rapid open-system assembly of a large silicic magma body: time-resolved evidence from cored plagioclase crystals in the Oruanui eruption deposits, New Zealand

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Abstract

Rhyolitic pumices in the 26.5 ka Oruanui eruption (Taupo volcano, New Zealand) contain an average of 10 wt% crystals. About 2 wt% of the crystal population is feldspar crystals that display bluish–grey cloudy cores, the colour being imparted by exsolved needles of rutile. The volume of cloudy-cored feldspars thus amounts to ~1.0 km3 in a total magma volume of ~530 km3. The cored feldspars show great variability in detail, but in general have a rounded cloudy core bounded by a zone rich in glass and mineral inclusions, that was then overgrown by a euhedral clear rim. Sr-isotopic variations in eight representative crystals were measured on micromilled samples of selected growth zones in the cores and rims, and linked to feldspar compositions through microprobe traverses. The cloudy cores range from 87Sr/86Sr = 0.70547 to 0.70657, with compositions of An43 to An78. The overgrowth rims display wider variations: inner parts show extreme ranges in composition (maxima 87Sr/86Sr = 0.70764 and An78), while outer parts in seven of eight crystals are zoned, with outward-decreasing Sr-isotopic and An values to figures that are in accord with the bulk pumice and other, clear-feldspar values, respectively. The three parts of the crystals represent distinct regimes. The cloudy cores are inherited from an intermediate plutonic protolith that has been subjected to melting. The inner overgrowth rims were crystallised from a high temperature, relatively radiogenic melt derived from Mesozoic-Palaeozoic metasedimentary rocks (“greywacke”). The outer euhedral rims reflect mixing into and continued growth within the growing Oruanui magma body. The cloudy-cored feldspars also contain rare zircon inclusions. Twenty one zircons were recovered by HF digestion of a bulk sample of cloudy feldspars and analysed by SHRIMP for U–Th isotopes with which to calculate model ages. Eighteen of 21 crystals returned finite ages, the model-age spectrum of which is similar to the age spectra from free zircons in Oruanui pumices. Assembly of the Oruanui magma body was not only rapid (over ~40 kyr, as shown by other data) but involved a wide open system, with significant contributions from partly-melted intermediate-composition igneous intrusions (cloudy cores) and greywacke melts (inner overgrowths) being introduced into the magma body up to the point of eruption. Such open system behaviour contrasts with that proposed in models for comparably voluminous silicic magmas derived dominantly by fractionation (such as the Bishop Tuff) where the magma and its crystal cargo were better insulated thermally and chemically from country-rock interaction.

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Acknowledgments

Geoff Nowell, Graham Pearson and Chris Ottley are thanked for their assistance and encouragement in the Durham isotope lab. Co-workers in the isotope lab were Dan Morgan and Catherine Ginibre and we acknowledge their input with microsampling technique development. George Morris is thanked for his assistance with the electron microprobe analyses conducted at Lausanne, and Nick Mortimer for supplying Taupo area greywacke information from the Petlab database. We thank Joe Wooden and Frank Mazdab also for their help with U-Th dating studies at the USGS-Stanford ion probe facility. This work was supported through a NERC grant awarded to JPD (NER/A/S/2000/01008) and BLAC acknowledges continuing support from a NERC fellowship. CJNW acknowledges support from the Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand (grant GNS202 and UOA227). Insightful and helpful comments were provided by Vicki Smith and an anonymous reviewer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK

    B. L. A. Charlier

  2. Geology-SGGES, and Institute of Earth Science and Engineering, University of Auckland, PB 92019 Auckland Mail Centre, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand

    C. J. N. Wilson

  3. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Durham, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK

    J. P. Davidson

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  1. B. L. A. Charlier
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Correspondence to B. L. A. Charlier.

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Communicated by J. Blundy.

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Charlier, B.L.A., Wilson, C.J.N. & Davidson, J.P. Rapid open-system assembly of a large silicic magma body: time-resolved evidence from cored plagioclase crystals in the Oruanui eruption deposits, New Zealand. Contrib Mineral Petrol 156, 799–813 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-008-0316-y

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