The eruption of the Breccia Museo (Campi Flegrei, Italy): Fractional crystallization processes in a shallow, zoned magma chamber and implications for the eruptive dynamics

Abstract

The Breccia Museo Member (BMM) was formed by an explosive eruption that occurred in the SW sector of Campi Flegrei about 20 ka ago. The eruptive sequence consists of the Lower Pumice Flow Unit and the overlying Upper Pumice Flow Unit with its associated lithic Breccia Unit. Interlayered with the Breccia Unit is a welded deposit that mainly consists of spatter clasts (Spatter Unit).The products of this eruption range in composition from trachytic to trachyphonolitic with K2O decreasing from 9.5 to 7 wt.%; Na2O correspondingly increases from 2.6 to 7.2 wt.% with increasing differentiation (Nb from 23 to 122 ppm). The phenocrysts are mostly sanidine (Or88-63) with subordinate plagioclase (An33-27), clinopyroxene (Ca47Mg44Fe9 to Ca46Mg35Fe19), biotite, titanomagnetite, and apatite. The observed major- and trace-element variations are fully consistent with about 80% fractional crystallization of a sanidine-dominated assemblage starting from the least differentiated trachytes.The compositions of the erupted products are compatible with the progressive tapping of a shallow magma chamber that was thermally and chemically zoned. The incompatible trace elements indicate a slightly different magma composition with respect to trachytes of the Campi Flegrei mainland.The geochemical stratigraphy suggests that after an early eruptive phase during which the upper, most differentiated level of the magma chamber was tapped, the sudden collapse of the roof of the reservoir triggered drainage of the remaining magma, which ranged in composition from trachyte to trachyphonolite, and formed the Breccia Unit and the Upper Pumice Flow Unit.The strongly differentiated trachyphonolite composition of the spatter clasts also suggests that they likely originated from the uppermost part of the reservoir soon after the eruption of Lower Pumice Flow Unit and the collapse of the chamber roof. This is in agreement with the eruptive model proposed by Perrotta and Scarpati (1994).