Rapid pre-eruptive thermal rejuvenation in a large silicic magma body: the case of the Masonic Park Tuff, Southern Rocky Mountain volcanic field, CO, USA

Abstract

Determining the mechanisms involved in generating large-volume eruptions (>100 km3) of silicic magma with crystallinities approaching rheological lock-up (~50 vol% crystals) remains a challenge for volcanologists. The Cenozoic Southern Rocky Mountain volcanic field, in Colorado and northernmost New Mexico, USA, produced ten such crystal-rich ignimbrites within 3 m.y. This work focuses on the 28.7 Ma Masonic Park Tuff, a dacitic (~62–65 wt% SiO2) ignimbrite with an estimated erupted volume of ~500 km3 and an average of ~45 vol% crystals. Near-absence of quartz, titanite, and sanidine, pronounced An-rich spikes near the rims of plagioclase, and reverse zoning in clinopyroxene record the reheating (from ~750 to >800 °C) of an upper crustal mush in response to hotter recharge from below. Zircon U–Pb ages suggest prolonged magmatic residence, while Yb/Dy vs temperature trends indicate co-crystallization with titanite which was later resorbed. High Sr, Ba, and Ti concentrations in plagioclase microlites and phenocryst rims require in-situ feldspar melting and concurrent, but limited, mass addition provided by the recharge, likely in the form of a melt-gas mixture. The larger Fish Canyon Tuff, which erupted from the same location ~0.7 m.y. later, also underwent pre-eruptive reheating and partial melting of quartz, titanite, and feldspars in a long-lived upper crustal mush following the underplating of hotter magma. The Fish Canyon Tuff, however, records cooler pre-eruptive temperatures (~710–760 °C) and a mineral assemblage indicative of higher magmatic water contents (abundant resorbed sanidine and quartz, euhedral amphibole and titanite, and absence of pyroxene). These similar pre-eruptive mush-reactivation histories, despite differing mineral assemblages and pre-eruptive temperatures, indicate that thermal rejuvenation is a key step in the eruption of crystal-rich silicic volcanics over a wide range of conditions.