Experimental constraints on pre-eruption conditions of the 1631 Vesuvius eruption

Abstract

We established the phase equilibria of a representative tephriphonolitic sample of the 1631 eruption of Vesuvius (Italy). Experiments were conducted at 100 MPa, in the temperature range 950–1050 °C for melt water content ranging from 1.3 to 3.2 wt%, and at an oxygen fugacity (fO2) of NNO+1 to NNO+3 (one to three log unit above the fO2 of the Ni-NiO solid redox buffer). Results show that clinopyroxene, biotite and leucite dominate the crystallizing phase assemblage, with minor proportions of plagioclase and amphibole, in agreement with the petrological attributes of the tephra. Comparison between the phase proportions and compositions obtained in experiments and those observed in the rock indicates a pre-eruptive temperature of 950 ± 30° and a melt water content H2Omelt = 2.3 ± 0.3 wt%, for an oxygen fugacity around NNO+1. These T-H2O estimates are confirmed by empirical geothermometers based on experimental clinopyroxene and melt compositional trends. As for other Vesuvius eruptions, the most felsic part of the 1631 reservoir appears to have reached pre-eruptive leucite saturation, although a large amount of leucite microcrystals in the studied samples likely grew syn-eruptively. Our results confirm that magma storage conditions beneath Vesuvius became hotter, shallower, and more CO2-rich after the AD 79 Pompeii Plinian event.