Geology topics

C. Hawkesworth

Publications and source records attributed to C. Hawkesworth.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2004

Chemical versus temporal controls on the evolution of tholeiitic and calc-alkaline magmas at two volcanoes in the Alaska-Aleutian arc

The Alaska-Aleutian island arc is well known for erupting both tholeiitic and calc-alkaline magmas. To investigate the relative roles of chemical and temporal controls in generating these contrasting liquid lines of descent we have undertaken a detailed study of tholeiitic lavas from Akutan volcano in the oceanic A1eutian arc and calc-alkaline products from Aniakchak volcano on the continental A1askan Peninsula. The differences do not appear to be linked to parental magma composition. The Akutan lavas can be explained by closed-system magmatic evolution, whereas curvilinear trace element trends and a large range in 87 Sr/86 Sr isotope ratios in the Aniakchak data appear to require the combined effects of fractional crystallization, assimilation and magma mixing. Both magmatic suites preserve a similar range in 226 Ra-230 Th disequilibria, which suggests that the time scale of crustal residence of magmas beneath both these volcanoes was similar, and of the order of several thousand years. This is consistent with numerical estimates of the time scales for crystallization caused by cooling in convecting crustal magma chambers. During that time interval the tholeiitic Akutan magmas underwent restricted, closed-system, compositional evolution. In contrast, the calc-alkaline magmas beneath Aniakchak volcano underwent significant open-system compositional evolution. Combining these results with data from other studies we suggest that differentiation is faster in calc-alkaline and potassic magma series than in tholeiitic series, owing to a combination of greater extents of assimilation, magma mixing and cooling.

Journal of Petrology↗

USGS1998

Magmagenesis at Soufriere volcano St Vincent, Lesser Antilles Arc

Soufriere volcano of St Vincent (<0.6 Ma) is composed of basalts and basaltic andesites, the most mafic of which ( mg -number 75) may be representative of the parental magmas of the calc-alkaline suites of the Lesser Antilles arc. Parental, possibly primary, magmas at Soufriere had MgO ∼12.5 wt % and were probably nepheline-normative. They last equilibrated with mantle at ∼17 kbar pressure, at temperatures of around 1130°C and f(O 2 ) exceeding FMQ (fayalite–magnetite–quartz) + 1. They fractionated, along several liquid lines of descent, through to basaltic andesites and rarer andesites over a range of crustal pressures (5–10 kbar) and temperatures (1000–1100°C), separating initially olivine + Cr-spinel + clinopyroxene + plagioclase ± titanomagnetite and then clinopyroxene + plagioclase + titanomagnetite + orthopyroxene assemblages. The total amount of crystallization was some 76 wt %. Amphibole was apparently not a fractionating phase. Sr and Nd isotopic and trace element systematics show no evidence for significant crustal assimilation. There is conflicting evidence as to the pre-eruptive water contents of Soufriere magmas; compositions of clinopyroxene phenocrysts and melt inclusions suggest H 2 O >3 wt %, whereas various projections onto phase diagrams are more consistent with relatively anhydrous magmas. Primary magmas at Soufriere were generated by around 15% melting of mid-ocean ridge basalt type mantle sources which had been modified by addition of fluids released from the slab containing contributions from subducted sediments and mafic crust.

Journal of Petrology↗