HR: 08:45h
AN: V51H-04 [Abstracts]
TI: An Episode 56 Perspective on Post-2001 Comagmatic Mixing Along Kilauea's East Rift Zone
AU: * Thornber, C
EM: cthornber@usgs.gov
AF: USGS, CVO, Vancouver, WA 98683, United States
AU: Orr, T
EM: torr@usgs.gov
AF: USGS, HVO, HI Nat'l Park, HI 96718, United States
AU: Lowers, H
EM: hlowers@usgs.gov
AF: USGS, DFC, Denver, CO 88025, United States
AU: Heliker, C
EM: cheliker@usgs.gov
AF: USGS, HVO, HI Nat'l Park, HI 96718, United States
AU: Hoblitt, R
EM: rhoblitt@usgs.gov
AF: USGS, CVO, Vancouver, WA 98683, United States
AB:
A significant change in the petrology of Pu`u `O`o -Kupaianaha lava occurred in April 2001 (3 years after the onset
of the decade-long episode 55). Prior to that time all steady-state eruption products were olivine phryic. After that
time and until the Kane Nui o Hamo eruption of June 19, 2007 (episode 56), all magma erupted from vents in and
around Pu`u `O`o was olivine and pyroxene-phyric containing <1mm, isolated or clustered clinopyroxene
(±olivine, ±plagioclase), usually with resorbed edges.
Textures, phase chemistry and low-pressure phase relations define a pre-eruptive mixing environment that is
driven by continuous recharge of a stagnant, near-cotectic shallow magma body. The comagmatic nature of the
cooler component in the post-2001 hybrid magma is verified by low concentrations of incompatible elements
relative to MgO. Since the eruption began in 1983, the olivine-saturated liquid-line-of-descent has progressively
shifted toward the present-day low concentrations of incompatible elements. Superimposed on this long-term
trend are shorter chemical cycles (months to years) which track fractionation and recharge between comagmatic
endmembers of ~10 and ~7 wt% MgO. These shorter cycles correspond to heating and cooling
events and imply magmatic recharge of a sustained shallow magma reservoir within the eruptive plumbing
system. The longest cooling cycle of the entire eruption began in April 1998 after effusion of the hottest and most-
primitive lava erupted since 1985 (episodes 30 and 31). Glass temperatures up to 1168°C and bulk MgO of
9.5 wt% steadily declined for 6 years until late 2004 when they bottomed-out at 1140°C and 6.8 wt%. This
signaled a stable near-cotectic magma condition. MgO contents and glass temperatures stailized at ~7.1
wt% and 1146°C for the remainder of episode 55, as the hybrid magmas were stirred by a steady influx of
summit-derived magma beneath a complex of intermittently active Pu`u O`o vents.
During the June 19, 2007 Kane Nui O Hamo eruption (episode 56), as with the January 1997 Napua Crater event
(episode 54), the summit deflated and Pu`u O`o collapsed as magma was drawn from either end of the active rift
conduit toward a zone of extension. In both cases, magma returned to the Pu`u `O`o vent area after the conduit
repressurized. However, in contrast to cool and porphyritic hybrid magma erupted through isolated and
chemically evolved rift magma reservoirs at Napau Crater, the episode 56 lava is relatively primitive (8.7 wt%
MgO) and 30 to 50°C hotter at 1160°C. This is likely to be summit-derived magma from within the
active rift conduit beneath Kane Nui o Hamo. The episode 56 lava is ~15°C hotter than the late episode 55
hybrid magmas with consistently low incompatible elements and likely represents the recharge component that
maintained a shallow reservoir at near-cotectic conditions beneath the vicinity of the Pu`u `O`o vents for the last
several years.
Both lava erupted from Pu`u `O`o in early June, 2007(episode 57), and lava the from the July 21-24 sequence of
fissure eruptions down-rift of Pu`u `O`o (early episode 58) contain a distinctly hybrid phenocryst and glomerocryst
assemblage, suggesting a flushing of cooler crystal-laden magma from the conduit.
DE: 3618 Magma chamber processes (1036)
DE: 3640 Igneous petrology
DE: 8410 Geochemical modeling (1009, 3610)
DE: 8419 Volcano monitoring (7280)
DE: 8425 Effusive volcanism
SC: Volcanology, Geochemistry, Petrology [V]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting