Abstract
How and why magmatic systems reactivate and evolve is a critical question for monitoring and hazard mitigation efforts during initial response and ongoing volcanic crisis management. Here we report the first integrated petrological results and interpretation provided to monitoring authorities during the ongoing eruption of Cumbre Vieja, La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain. The first eruptive products comprised simultaneous Strombolian fountain-fed lava flows and tephra fall from near-continuous eruption plumes. From combined field, petrographic and geochemical analyses conducted in the 10 days following sample collection, we infer low percentage mantle melts with a variably equilibrated multimineralic crystal-cargo and compositional fractionation by winnowing during eruptive processes. Hence ‘rapid response’ petrology can untangle complex magmatic and volcanic processes for this eruption, which combined with further study and methodological improvement can increasingly assist in active decision making.
Highlights
Understanding the origins and evolution of the lithologically varied Canarian archipelago (Figure 1A) has long attracted international research efforts [e.g. Turner et al 2015]
Previous historical eruptions along the Cumbre Vieja north-south trending rift zone have been characterized by the appearance of multiple vents aligned obliquely to the rift zone axis
Cone building initiated around the main fissure vent, which soon resolved into emission centers dominated either by an ash plume or lava fountains. The latter fed flows that coursed to the west and west-southwest [Global Volcanism Program 2021b]
Summary
Understanding the origins and evolution of the lithologically varied Canarian archipelago (Figure 1A) has long attracted international research efforts [e.g. Turner et al 2015]. La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain) has experienced several magmatic episodes: Basal Complex (~4.0–3.0 Ma); Garafia, Taburiente, Cumbre Nueva and Bejenado volcanoes (~1.7–490 ka); and Cumbre Vieja (~125 ka–present). It is the most active Canarian volcanic system in historical times, with eruptions in ~1480, 1585, 1646, 1677, 1712, 1949, 1971 and 2021 [Hernandez-Pacheco and Valls 1982; Romero. Cone building initiated around the main fissure vent, which soon resolved into emission centers dominated either by an ash plume or lava fountains The latter fed flows that coursed to the west and west-southwest [Global Volcanism Program 2021b]
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