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Eruption style at Kīlauea Volcano in Hawai‘i linked to primary melt composition

Nature Geoscience volume 7, pages 464–469 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Explosive eruptions at basaltic volcanoes have been linked to gas segregation from magmas at shallow depths in the crust. The composition of primary melts formed at greater depths was thought to have little influence on eruptive style. Ocean island basaltic volcanoes are the product of melting of a geochemically heterogeneous mantle plume and are expected to give rise to heterogeneous primary melts. This range in primary melt composition, particularly with respect to the volatile components, will profoundly influence magma buoyancy, storage and eruption style. Here we analyse the geochemistry of a suite of melt inclusions from 25 historical eruptions at the ocean island volcano of Kīlauea, Hawai‘i, over the past 600 years. We find that more explosive styles of eruption at Kīlauea Volcano are associated statistically with more geochemically enriched primary melts that have higher volatile concentrations. These enriched melts ascend faster and retain their primary nature, undergoing little interaction with the magma reservoir at the volcano’s summit. We conclude that the eruption style and magma-supply rate at Kīlauea are fundamentally linked to the geochemistry of the primary melts formed deep below the volcano. Magmas might therefore be predisposed towards explosivity right at the point of formation in their mantle source region.

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Figure 1: Spatial and temporal context of the study.
Figure 2: Compositional relationship between melt inclusions, host olivines and carrier liquids.
Figure 3: Variations in melt inclusion compositions between different eruptive styles.
Figure 4: Schematic diagram to show how primary melt compositions may be linked to eruption style.

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Acknowledgements

We thank D. Clague for advice and comments on our manuscript, which improved it immensely. This work was financially supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), UK: I.R.S. acknowledges a NERC studentship. M.E. acknowledges a NERC urgency grant NE/G001537/1 and a NERC ion probe facility grant IMF376/0509. I.S. acknowledges a USGS Jack Kleinman Grant for Volcano Research. We thank J. Kauahikaua and the staff of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory for allowing us access and providing logistical support for our fieldwork. In Edinburgh, R. Hinton and C-J. de Hoog assisted with the ion probe measurements. In Cambridge, J. Day, C. Petrone, M. Walker and I. Buisman assisted with sample preparation and analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Earth Sciences Department, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK

    I. R. Sides, M. Edmonds & J. Maclennan

  2. Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, US Geological Survey, Hawai‘i National Park, Hawai‘i 96718, USA

    D. A. Swanson

  3. Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Hawai‘i, Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96822, USA

    B. F. Houghton

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  1. I. R. Sides
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I.R.S., D.A.S. and B.F.H. collected the samples. I.R.S. prepared and analysed the samples. All authors contributed to data interpretation.

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Correspondence to M. Edmonds.

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Sides, I., Edmonds, M., Maclennan, J. et al. Eruption style at Kīlauea Volcano in Hawai‘i linked to primary melt composition. Nature Geosci 7, 464–469 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2140

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