Boundary layer fractionation constrained by differential information from the Kutsugata lava flow, Rishiri volcano, Japan

Abstract

Detailed investigation of an erupted magma with limited compositional diversity provides instantaneous information on incremental magma differentiation processes in a magma chamber. Kutsugata lava, a suitable target of such study, is a Quaternary alkali basalt (51.3–53.2 wt% in SiO2) from Rishiri Volcano, northern Japan. Despite the narrow range in the whole rock compositional variation, chemical and modal compositions of mineral phases crystallized in the magma chamber vary systematically with the whole rock composition. In the North lava (51.3–51.9 wt% in SiO2) the less differentiated portion of the Kutsugata lava, most crystals which include low‐Ni olivine and plagioclase were derived from the mushy boundary layer. The main part of the magma body was principally aphyric (<0.5 vol% crystals). Estimated chemical compositions of fractionated mineral phases during differentiation of the magma coincide with the observed compositions of low‐Ni olivine and plagioclase crystals. This indicates that the main magma was differentiated by separation of crystals grown in the mush zone. The low‐density interstitial melt is suggested to have been extracted from the floor mush zone with average crystallinity of >30 vol% by such mechanisms as compaction and compositional convection. This fractionated melt was mixed with the overlying main magma, causing differentiation of the Kutsugata magma. The average temperature of the extracted melt is 1010°C, significantly lower than 1100°C estimated for the main magma. A quantitative model of magmatic differentiation, which includes thermal and compositional evolution of a mushy boundary layer, can successfully reproduce the observed compositional trends of the North lava.