HR: 0800h
AN: V51C-0714 [Abstracts]
TI: Magmatic Lensing: A Mechanism for the Growth of Large Crustal Magma Chambers
AU: * Karlstrom, L
EM: leif@berkeley.edu
AF: Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences
University of California, Berkeley, 307 McCone Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AU: Dufek, J
EM: dufek@berkeley.edu
AF: Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences
University of California, Berkeley, 307 McCone Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AU: Manga, M
EM: manga@seismo.berkeley.edu
AF: Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences
University of California, Berkeley, 307 McCone Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AB:
We present a model for the growth and thermal evolution of large crustal magma reservoirs, based upon the
focusing of rising dikes towards a pressurized and buoyant melted region (the magma chamber). Dikes
propagate orthogonally to the least compressive (local) principle stress, which in turn is determined by the
regional stress trajectories created by the magma chamber and far field stresses. Therefore, there exists a
capture radius at depth that is potentially much larger than the dimensions of the chamber, forming a system that
we call a "magmatic lens." This phenomenon allows influx of magma to compete with the processes of cooling,
crystallization and viscous relaxation of stresses to form large chambers. In time, these magma chambers may
either 1) grow through melting and influx until excess overpressure causes eruption, 2) exist stably, or 3) freeze
and shrink until magma lensing no longer occurs.
We find analytical solutions for the stress fields of two-dimensional, viscoelastic, pressurized, and buoyant
inclusions of circular and elliptic geometry, with and without a free surface, to model a lower or mid-crustal
magma chamber. We then couple an algorithm for dike propagation with a thermal code that takes into account
melting, crystallization, and a nonlinear melt fraction curve for both chamber and country rock to simulate magma
lensing dynamically. This allows us to map the relationship between eruption-forming chamber overpressures,
lower crustal estimates for melt flux, and the effects of regional extension.
DE: 8439 Physics and chemistry of magma bodies
SC: Volcanology, Geochemistry, Petrology [V]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting