Eruptive history and petrology of Mount Drum volcano, Wrangell Mountains, Alaska

Abstract

Mount Drum is one of the youngest volcanoes in the subduction-related Wrangell volcanic field (80x200 km) of southcentral Alaska. It lies at the northwest end of a series of large, andesite-dominated shield volcanoes that show a northwesterly progression of age from 26 Ma near the Alaska-Yukon border to about 0.2 Ma at Mount Drum. The volcano was constructed between 750 and 250 ka during at least two cycles of cone building and ring-dome emplacement and was partially destroyed by violent explosive activity probably after 250 ka. Cone lavas range from basaltic andesite to dacite in composition; ring-domes are dacite to rhyolite. The last constructional activity occurred in the vicinity of Snider Peak, on the south flank of the volcano, where extensive dacite flows and a dacite dome erupted at about 250 ka. The climactic explosive eruption, that destroyed the top and a part of the south flank of the volcano, produced more than 7 km3 of proximal hot and cold avalanche deposits and distal mudflows. The Mount Drum rocks have medium-K, calc-alkaline affinities and are generally plagioclase phyric. Silica contents range from 55.8 to 74.0 wt%, with a compositional gap between 66.8 and 72.8 wt%. All the rocks are enriched in alkali elements and depleted in Ta relative to the LREE, typical of volcanic arc rocks, but have higher MgO contents at a given SiO2, than typical orogenic medium-K andesites. Strontium-isotope ratios vary from 0.70292 to 0.70353. The compositional range of Mount Drum lavas is best explained by a combination of diverse parental magmas, magma mixing, and fractionation. The small, but significant, range in 87Sr/86Sr ratios in the basaltic andesites and the wide range of incompatible-element ratios exhibited by the basaltic andesites and andesites suggests the presence of compositionally diverse parent magmas. The lavas show abundant petrographic evidence of magma mixing, such as bimodal phenocryst size, resorbed phenocrysts, reaction rims, and disequilibrium mineral assemblages. In addition, some dacites and andesites contain Mg and Ni-rich olivines and/or have high MgO, Cr, Ni, Co, and Sc contents that are not in equilibrium with the host rock and indicate mixing between basalt or cumulate material and more evolved magmas. Incompatible element variations suggest that fractionation is responsible for some of the compositional range between basaltic andesite and dacite, but the rhyolites have K, Ba, Th, and Rb contents that are too low for the magmas to be generated by fractionation of the intermediate rocks. Limited Sr-isotope data support the possibility that the rhyolites may be partial melts of underlying volcanic rocks.