The onset of an eruption: selective assimilation of hydrothermal minerals during pre-eruptive magma ascent of the 2010 summit eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano, Iceland

Abstract

The complex processes occurring in the initial phases of an eruption are often recorded in the products of its opening stage, which are usually characterized by small volume and limited dispersal, and thus generally poorly studied. The 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull (Iceland) represents a unique opportunity for these investigations thanks to the good preservation of tephra deposits within the ice/snow pack. A detailed geochemical investigation on the glassy groundmass of single ash clasts disclosed a population of fragments with unusual high 87Sr/86Sr (up to 0.70668) for Icelandic magmatism, and anomalous elemental composition with respect to most of the juvenile material of the eruption. This suggests that during its rise, before intruding into the ice cover, magma at a dyke tip selectively assimilated hydrothermal minerals with seawater-related, high-Sr isotopic ratios (zeolites, silica phases, anhydrite) hosted in altered volcanic/epiclastic rocks. According to the observed precursory seismicity, only restricted to few hours before the onset of the eruption, this process could have accompanied subcritical aseismic fracture opening during the days before the eruption, possibly related to stress corrosion-cracking processes, which enhanced the partial dissolution/melting and subsequent selective assimilation of the host rocks.