Knowledge of temperature and pressure, however qualitative, has been central to our views of geology since at least the early 19th century. In 1822, for example, Charles Daubeny presented what may be the very first “Geological Thermometer,” comparing temperatures of various geologic processes (Torrens 2006). Daubeny (1835) may even have been the first to measure the temperature of a lava flow, by laying a thermometer on the top of a flow at Vesuvius—albeit several months following the eruption, after intervening rain (his estimate was 390°F). In any case, pressure ( P ) and temperature ( T ) estimation lie at the heart of fundamental questions: How hot is Earth, and at what rate has the planet cooled. Are volcanoes the products of thermally driven mantle plumes? Where are magmas stored, and how are they transported to the surface—and how do storage and transport relate to plate tectonics? Well-calibrated thermometers and barometers are essential tools if we are to fully appreciate the driving forces and inner workings of volcanic systems.

This chapter presents methods to estimate the P-T conditions of volcanic and other igneous processes. The coverage includes a review of existing geothermometers and geobarometers, and a presentation of approximately 30 new models, including a new plagioclase-liquid hygrometer. Our emphasis is on experimentally calibrated “thermobarometers,” based on analytic expressions using P or T as dependent variables. For numerical reasons (touched on below) such expressions will always provide the most accurate means of P-T estimation, and are also most easily employed. Analytical expressions also allow error to be ascertained; in the absence of estimates of error, P-T estimates are nearly meaningless. This chapter is intended to complement the chapters by Anderson et al. (2008), who cover granitic systems, and by Blundy and Cashman (2008) and Hansteen and Klugel (2008), who consider additional methods …

Thermometers and Barometers for Volcanic Systems

A model for the generation of intermediate and silicic igneous rocks is presented, based on experimental data and numerical modelling. The model is directed at subduction-related magmatism, but has general applicability to magmas generated in other plate tectonic settings, including continental rift zones. In the model mantlederived hydrous basalts emplaced as a succession of sills into the lower crust generate a deep crustal hot zone. Numerical modelling of the hot zone shows that melts are generated from two distinct sources; partial crystallization of basalt sills to produce residual H2O-rich melts; and partial melting of pre-existing crustal rocks. Incubation times between the injection of the first sill and generation of residual melts from basalt crystallization are controlled by the initial geotherm, the magma input rate and the emplacement depth. After this incubation period, the melt fraction and composition of residual melts are controlled by the temperature of the crust into which the basalt is intruded. Heat and H2O transfer from the crystallizing basalt promote partial melting of the surrounding crust, which can include meta-sedimentary and meta-igneous basement rocks and earlier basalt intrusions. Mixing of residual and crustal partial melts leads to diversity in isotope and trace element chemistry. Hot zone melts are H2O-rich. Consequently, they have low viscosity and density, and can readily detach from their source and ascend rapidly. In the case of adiabatic ascent the magma attains a super-liquidus state, because of the relative slopes of the adiabat and the liquidus. This leads to resorption of any entrained crystals or country rock xenoliths. Crystallization begins only when the ascending magma intersects its H2O-saturated liquidus at shallow depths. Decompression and degassing are the driving forces behind crystallization, which takes place at shallow depth on timescales of decades or less. Degassing and crystallization at shallow depth lead to large increases in viscosity and stalling of the magma to form volcano-feeding magma chambers and shallow plutons. It is proposed that chemical diversity in arc magmas is largely acquired in the lower crust, whereas textural diversity is related to shallow-level crystallization.

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The Genesis of Intermediate and Silicic Magmas in Deep Crustal Hot Zones

This chapter has four main aims. Provide a comprehensive picture of the composition of volcanic rocks from subduction-related magmatic arcs. Review evidence in favor of the existence of andesitic, as well as basaltic primary magmas in arcs. Present new data on the composition of arc lower crust, based mainly on our work on the Talkeetna arc section in southcentral Alaska. Summarize evidence from arc lower crustal sections that a substantial proportion of the dense, lower crustal pyroxenites and garnet granulites produced by crystal fractionation are missing.

One View of the Geochemistry of Subduction-Related Magmatic Arcs, with an Emphasis on Primitive Andesite and Lower Crust

This work focuses on a rigorous analysis of the physical–chemical, compositional and textural relationships of amphibole stability and the development of new thermobarometric formulations for amphibole-bearing calc-alkaline products of subduction-related systems Literature experimental results (550–1,120°C, 021) and are inferred to represent xenocrysts of crustal or mantle materials Most experimental results on calc-alkaline suites have been found to be unsuitable for using in thermobarometric calibrations due to the high Al# (>021) of amphiboles and high Al2O3/SiO2 ratios of the coexisting melts The pre-eruptive crystallization of consistent amphiboles is confined to relatively narrow physical–chemical ranges, next to their dehydration curves The widespread occurrence of amphiboles with dehydration (breakdown) rims made of anhydrous phases and/or glass, related to sub-volcanic processes such as magma mixing and/or slow ascent during extrusion, confirms that crystal destabilization occurs with relatively low T–P shifts At the stability curves, the variance of the system decreases so that amphibole composition and physical–chemical conditions are strictly linked to each other This allowed us to retrieve some empirical thermobarometric formulations which work independently with different compositional components (ie Si*, AlT, Mg*, [6]Al*) of a single phase (amphibole), and are therefore easily applicable to all types of calc-alkaline volcanic products (including hybrid andesites) The Si*-sensitive thermometer and the fO2–Mg* equation account for accuracies of ±22°C (σest) and 04 log units (maximum error), respectively The uncertainties of the AlT-sensitive barometer increase with pressure and decrease with temperature Near the P–T stability curve, the error is 35%) and lower-T magmas, the uncertainty increases up to 24%, consistent with depth uncertainties of 04 km, at 90 MPa (~34 km), and 79 km, at 800 MPa (~30 km), respectively For magnesiohornblendes, the [6]Al*-sensitive hygrometer has an accuracy of 04 wt% (σest) whereas for magnesiohastingsite and tschermakitic pargasite species, H2Omelt uncertainties can be as high as 15% relative The thermobarometric results obtained with the application of these equations to calc-alkaline amphibole-bearing products were finally, and successfully, crosschecked on several subduction-related volcanoes, through complementary methodologies such as pre-eruptive seismicity (volcano-tectonic earthquake locations and frequency), seismic tomography, Fe–Ti oxides, amphibole–plagioclase, plagioclase–liquid equilibria thermobarometry and melt inclusion studies A user-friendly spreadsheet (ie AMP-TBxls) to calculate the physical–chemical conditions of amphibole crystallization is also provided

Stability and chemical equilibrium of amphibole in calc-alkaline magmas: an overview, new thermobarometric formulations and application to subduction-related volcanoes

Based on a compilation of published sources, rocks referred to as adakites show the following geochemical and isotopic characteristics: SiO2 ≥56 wt percent, Al2O3 ≥15 wt percent, MgO normally <3 wt percent, Mg number ≈0.5, Sr ≥400 ppm, Y ≤18 ppm, Yb ≤1.9 ppm, Ni ≥20 ppm, Cr ≥30 ppm, Sr/Y ≥20, La/Yb ≥20, and 87Sr/86Sr ≤0.7045. Rocks with such compositions have been interpreted to be the products of hybridization of felsic partial melts from subducting oceanic crust with the peridotitic mantle wedge during ascent and are not primary magmas. High Mg andesites have been interpreted to be related to adakites by partial melting of asthenospheric peridotite contaminated by slab melts. The case for these petrogenetic models for adakites and high Mg andesites is best made in the Archean, when higher mantle geotherms resulted in subducting slabs potentially reaching partial melting temperatures at shallow depths before dehydration rendered the slab infusible. In the Phanerozoic these conditions were likely only met under certain special tectonic conditions, such as subduction of young (≤25-m.y.-old) oceanic crust.

Key adakitic geochemical signatures, such as low Y and Yb concentrations and high Sr/Y and La/Yb ratios, can be generated in normal asthenosphere-derived tholeiitic to calc-alkaline arc magmas by common upper plate crustal interaction and crystal fractionation processes and do not require slab melting. An assessment of several arc volcanic suites from around the world shows that most adakite-like compositions are generated in this way and do not reflect source processes. Similarly, rare adakite-like intrusive rocks associated with some porphyry Cu deposits are the evolved products of extensive crustal-level processing of calc-alkaline basalt-andesite-dacite-rhyolite series magmas. If slab melts contribute to such magmas, their geochemical signatures would have been obliterated or rendered ambiguous by subsequent extensive open-system processes. In Archean terranes, where adakitic and high Al tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite (TTG) magma series rocks are more common, porphyry Cu deposits are rare and, where found, are associated with normal calc-alkaline suites rather than adakites. The two different magma series are compositionally distinct in terms of several major and trace element parameters.

Common upper plate magmatic processes such as melting-assimilation-storage-homogenization (MASH) and assimilation-fractional-crystallization (AFC) affecting normal arc magmas can be demonstrated to explain the distinctive compositions of most adakite-like arc rocks, including high Mg andesites and especially those rare examples associated with porphyry Cu deposits. In contrast, slab melting can in most cases neither be proved nor disproved and is therefore unsatisfactory as a unique factor in porphyry Cu genesis.

Special Paper: Adakite-Like Rocks: Their Diverse Origins and Questionable Role in Metallogenesis

Quaternary hornblende andesites have erupted along a fault zone near El Penon, central Mexico. One of these flows contains 1‐2 cm xenoliths of amphibole-rich spinel lherzolite and chromite websterite. These xenoliths are rare samples of subarc upper mantle from a region of continuing subduction, and they are the most oxidized mantle peridotites yet described (fayalitemagnetite-quartz +1.5 to 2.4). The abundant amphibole and high oxygen fugacities that characterize these xenoliths are significant because they provide direct evidence for metasomatism of the mantle wedge by slab-derived fluids. Phenocrysts of hornblende and lack of plagioclase phenocrysts in the host andesite indicate that it equilibrated with high water content (>8 wt%), and the presence of xenoliths implies rapid (26 km/day) ascent.

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Hornblende peridotite xenoliths from central Mexico reveal the highly oxidized nature of subarc upper mantle

Hydrous phase equilibria of a Mexican high-silica andesite:A candidate for a mantle origin?

Approximately 150 km west of Mexico City in the central part of the Mexican Volcanic Belt (MVB) near Zitacuaro, Mexico, young volcanism has produced shield volcanoes, large volume silicic deposits, and fault-related basalt and andesite lava flows and cinder cones. This paper concerns a small cluster of Pleistocene andesite cones and flows which can be separated into two distinct groups: high-magnesium andesites (>6% MgO, 57–59% SiO2), conveniently called basaltic andesites, with phenocrysts of orthopyroxene and augite, or augite and olivine; and andesites (60–62% SiO2, 3 wt%) at pressures of about 1 kbar. Compared to basaltic andesites of western Mexico, the Zitacuaro basaltic andesites have ∼2 wt% lower Al2O3 concentrations, which causes plagioclase to precipitate at significantly lower temperatures, and it therefore follows the crystallization sequence: olivine, augite, and orthopyroxene. Based on ubiquitous quartz xenocrysts, with glassy rhyolitic inclusions, a reasonable conclusion is that substantial mixing of a quartz-bearing rhyolitic magma with a parental basaltic andesite has occurred at low pressure (shallow depth), and this would account for the low Al2O3 concentrations in the Zitacuaro basaltic andesites. Whatever the mechanism of incorporation, the quartz xenocrysts are evidence of contamination of basaltic magma with more siliceous material, thus making it difficult to use these magmas as indicators of mantle melting processes.

Plagioclase-free andesites from Zitácuaro (Michoacán), Mexico: petrology and experimental constraints

As part of the continuing study of the young Mexican volcanic belt designed to document the ages and types of volcanism from the Gulf of California to the Valley of Mexico, a 50-km-wide segment of the central part of the belt has been mapped, and five types of lava have been found. Pliocene (3.77 Ma) shoshonite lava flows (K 2 O >2 wt%; SiO 2 52–58 wt%) form eroded plateaus more than 50 km behind the present volcanic front, but in the past 1 m.y. shoshonites have erupted closer to the volcanic front (∼300 km from the Middle America Trench). The shoshonite lava type is the most enriched in Ba, Sr, and Zr of the suite, and plagioclase phenocrysts are absent, presumably because of high contents of dissolved water (3–5 wt%). Quaternary shield volcanoes and several cinder cones with small-volume lava flows are composed of high-TiO 2 lavas (>1.2 wt%), which have 51–57 wt% SiO 2 , 9 ppm) and Zr (160–230 ppm). Pliocene high-TiO 2 lava is found within the eroded plateaus located ∼50 km behind the present volcanic front. Quaternary basaltic andesite (52–57 wt% SiO 2 ) with up to ∼10 wt% MgO is found at the volcanic front, along with more siliceous andesite (57–63 wt% SiO 2 ). Representatives of the siliceous andesites (57–63 wt% SiO 2 ) are free of plagioclase phenocrysts, low in Al 2 O 3 (∼15.7 wt%), but rich in MgO (∼5 wt%). Experiments reported elsewhere suggest that the magmas contained 3–7 wt% dissolved water. This andesite erupted along a normal fault between ∼0.3 and 0.005 Ma, and it is associated with dacite, similarly lacking plagioclase phenocrysts, but having comparatively abundant pyroxene. Other dacite in the Zitacuaro area is richly porphyritic, having plagioclase and hornblende; this dacite forms clusters of steep-sided domes or widespread pyroclastic deposits, and the latest eruptions, dated by radiocarbon and K-Ar, occurred between 0.03–0.05 Ma. Estimates of the volume of magma erupted in the Zitacuaro–Valle de Bravo region in the past 1 m.y. (1.8 km 3 · m.y. –1 · km –1 ) show that this area is somewhat less productive per 1 km of arc than those to the west (3.5 km 3 · m.y. –1 · km –1 ) in the Michoacan-Guanajuato Volcanic Field (MGVF). A large volume of dacite has erupted in the Zitacuaro–Valle de Bravo region, which is rare in the MGVF. The cone density in the Zitacuaro–Valle de Bravo region (2.1/100 km 2 ) is only slightly lower than the 2.6 cones/100 km 2 found in the MGVF.

Neogene volcanism at the front of the central Mexican volcanic belt: Basaltic andesites to dacites, with contemporaneous shoshonites and high-TiO2 lava

http://www.geo.mtu.edu/EHaz/ConvergentPlatesClass/el%20penon/mukasa%20peridotite.pdf

Mantle peridotite xenoliths in andesite lava at El Peñon, central Mexican Volcanic Belt: Isotopic and trace element evidence for melting and metasomatism in the mantle wedge beneath an active arc

Dawnika L. Blatter

Papers

Hornblende peridotite xenoliths from central Mexico reveal the highly oxidized nature of subarc upper mantle

Hydrous phase equilibria of a Mexican high-silica andesite:A candidate for a mantle origin?

Plagioclase-free andesites from Zitácuaro (Michoacán), Mexico: petrology and experimental constraints

Neogene volcanism at the front of the central Mexican volcanic belt: Basaltic andesites to dacites, with contemporaneous shoshonites and high-TiO2 lava

Mantle peridotite xenoliths in andesite lava at El Peñon, central Mexican Volcanic Belt: Isotopic and trace element evidence for melting and metasomatism in the mantle wedge beneath an active arc