The Whakamaru group ignimbrites, Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand: evidence for reverse tapping of a zoned silicic magmatic system

Abstract

The Whakamaru group ignimbrites are widespread voluminous welded ignimbrites which crop out along the eastern and western margins of the Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ), New Zealand. The ignimbrites have a combined volume exceeding 1000 km 3, and were erupted from a large caldera in the central TVZ around 340 ka, following a c. 350 ka hiatus in caldera-forming activity in TVZ. Analysis of individual pumice clasts identifies five distinct magma types (rhyolite types A to D, and high alumina basalt) and significant gradients in temperature, water content, and Sr isotopic composition in the pre-eruptive Whakamaru magmatic system. There is a marked variation in mineral assemblage with composition; type A low-silica rhyolite pumices contain plagioclase, quartz, orthopyroxene, hornblende, biotite, and magnetite/ilmenite with distinctive large rounded quartz phenocrysts. High-silica (types B and C) pumices contain quartz (smaller, subhedral phenocrysts), plagioclase, sanidine, biotite, and magnetite/ilmenite. Type D pumices are rich in plagioclase and biotite phenocrysts, and have anomalously high Rb contents (>200 ppm) relative to all other pumice types. Rhyolite types B and C are related to type A magma by a two-stage crystal fractionation process, probably by side wall crystallisation and convective fractionation. The first stage involved 30–40% fractionation of a plagioclase-dominated (sanidine-free) assemblage to produce a type B magma, which in turn underwent fractionation of a plagioclase/quartz/sanidine assemblage to produce the highly evolved, but relatively Ba-depleted, type C magmas. Stratigraphic variations in modal proportions of mineral phases, and calculated Fe–Ti oxide equilibrium temperatures indicate that eruptions commenced with the hottest, least evolved magmas, and more evolved magmas became important at a later stage in the eruption along with a high alumina basalt component. This reverse-zoned sequence precludes simple sequential tapping of a large zoned magma chamber, and indicates a complex magma chamber configuration and/or withdrawal dynamics during eruption. Type D magma, which appears to be unrelated to either types A or B by crystal fractionation, may have formed a separate subjacent chamber that was ruptured and incorporated into the eruption. The Whakamaru magma system provides clear evidence that (less evolved) low silica rhyolites undergo significant fractionation at shallow crustal levels in central TVZ, to produce the generally more evolved rhyolites more commonly erupted at the surface, and suggests large ignimbrite eruptions may tap multiple magma chambers.