HR: 14:40h
AN: V23D-05 [Abstracts]
TI: High water contents in basaltic melt inclusions from Arenal volcano, Costa Rica
AU: * Wade, J A
EM: jwade@bu.edu
AF: Department of Earth Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215
United States
AU: Plank, T
EM: tplank@bu.edu
AF: Department of Earth Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215
United States
AU: Hauri, E H
EM: hauri@dtm.ciw.edu
AF: Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC 20015
United States
AU: Melson, W G
EM: melson@volcano.si.edu
AF: Division of Petrology and Volcanology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, DC 20013
United States
AU: Soto, G J
EM: katomirodriguez@yahoo.com
AF: Escuela Centroamericana de Geologia, Universidad de Costa Rica, San Jose, 214-2060
Costa Rica
AB:
Despite the importance of water to arc magma genesis, fractionation and eruption, few quantitative constraints exist on the
water content of Arenal magmas. Early estimates, by electron microprobe sum deficit, suggested up to 4 wt% H$_{2}$O in
olivine-hosted basaltic andesite melt inclusions (MI) from pre-historic ET-6 tephra (Melson, 1982), and up to 7 wt% H$_{2}$O
in plagioclase and orthopyroxene-hosted dacitic MI from 1968 lapilli (Anderson, 1979). These high water contents are
consistent with abundant hornblende phenocrysts in Arenal volcanics, but inconsistent with geochemical tracers such as
$^{10}$Be and Ba/La that suggest a low flux of recycled material (and presumably water) from the subduction zone. In order
to test these ideas, and provide the first direct measurements of water in mafic Arenal magmas, we have studied
olivine-hosted MI from the prehistoric (900 yBP; Soto et al., 1998) ET3 tephra layer. MI range from andesitic ($>$ 58%
SiO$_{2}$) to basaltic compositions ($<$ 50% SiO$_{2}$), the latter of which are similar to the most primitive whole rocks
analyzed from Arenal. SIMS analyses yield up to 4 wt% H$_{2}$O in the basaltic MI, and water declines systematically (to
1-2 wt%) with increasing silica content. Water also correlates strongly with sulfur (up to 2500 ppm S) and CO$_{2}$ (up to
300 ppm). H$_{2}$O and CO$_{2}$ in the MI define a closed-system degassing path that begins at 2 kb. Chlorine ($\sim$ 2000
ppm) and fluorine ($\sim$ 400 ppm) show less variation, as expected from their higher solubilities in these melts. The high
sulfur contents ($\sim$ 2000 ppm on average for basaltic MI) would provide more than enough "petrologic" sulfur to balance
recent (1982, 1995, and 1996; Williams-Jones et al., 2001) COSPEC measurements. Although host olivines are quite evolved
($<$ Fo$_{76}$), the high CO$_{2}$ and sulfur contents indicate that their inclusions are not highly degassed. The high
water contents ($>$ 4 wt%) found here for Arenal basaltic MI support the semi-quantitative data from earlier studies, but
are somewhat unexpected given predictions from slab tracers. Arenal water contents (4%) approach those of the 1995
eruption of Cerro Negro in Nicaragua (4-5 wt% in basaltic MI; Roggensack et al., 1997), despite the fact that the latter has
Ba/La of $>$ 100, while Arenal has Ba/La $<$ 50. Thus, Ba/La, which has commonly been used to infer the proportion of
slab-fluids and water-fluxed melting in Central American magmas, seems to be a poor water proxy. Even more surprising are
the very high Cl contents of Arenal MI, which exceed those in Cerro Negro MI by more than a factor of two. The high Cl and
high Cl/K$_{2}$O (0.3-0.5) of Arenal, are also inconsistent with an enriched, Galapagos-type mantle (Cl/K$_{2}$O $<$ 0.1), as
has been proposed for this part of Costa Rica. Thus, contrary to previous inferences, Arenal receives a major flux of
H$_{2}$O and Cl from the subduction zone.
References: Anderson, A.T. (1979) Journal of Geology; Melson, William G. (1982) Boletin de Volcanologia; Roggensack et al.
(1997) Science; Soto et al. (1998) OSIVAM; Williams-Jones et al. (2001) Journal of Volc. and Geoth. Res.
DE: 8400 VOLCANOLOGY
DE: 3640 Igneous petrology
DE: 1030 Geochemical cycles (0330)
SC: Volcanology, Geochemistry, Petrology [V]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting