Understanding the isotopic and chemical evolution of Yellowstone hot spot magmatism using magmatic-thermomechanical modeling

Abstract

Large-scale melting and reworking of the crust and the upper mantle occurs in areas of mantle plume-crust interaction, generating voluminous and bimodal basaltic and silicic magmatism. Continental hot spot track magmas preserve geochemical and temporal records of these processes. Here, we apply and further develop the large scale (crust and the upper mantle) I2VIS magmatic-thermomechanical modeling code to investigate the potential origins of chemical and isotopic trends in the Yellowstone hot spot track, perhaps the best studied and constrained subcontinental mantle plume system on Earth. We model the propagation of melt via dikes in solid crust and via percolation in partially molten crust by using Lagrangian markers which also track the chemical and isotopic compositions of the melts that eventually erupt at the surface. Confirming the results of earlier geophysical and geochemical studies, we show that the eruptive activity at Yellowstone is best explained in terms of the formation of a ~15 km-thick mid-crustal mafic sill complex with its top at a depth of ~8 km that develops over a period of ~3 Myr. This sill complex releases rhyolitic fractionates and creates additional rhyolites by melting the surrounding crust, driving the voluminous rhyolitic volcanism which characterizes the Yellowstone system.We recognize three key trends in the evolution of a continental hot spot volcanic center such as Yellowstone: (1) frequent, small eruptions results in in larger erupted rhyolite volumes compared to rare and large eruptions, (2) erupted magmas tend to be initially comprised of a large degree of crustal melt, and the relative contribution of fractionates of basalts from the mantle increases with time, and (3), the initial depth of the crust which melts to produce eruptible rhyolites becomes shallower with time. The first of these trends is simply a function of the continuous supply of new basalt to the crust from the mantle. The latter trend, which is responsible for low-δ18O rhyolites, is produced by a combination of progressive melting of shallower crust as the system becomes hotter, repeated caldera collapses advecting shallow crust to a depth where it can melt, and the overplating and burial of shallow crust by repeated intrusions of basalt. The mid- and lower crust is not a significant source of erupted rhyolitic melts, as both the crustal melting and basalt fractionation takes place in the sill complex which forms near the bottom of the upper crust. The resulting modeled isotopic evolution of erupted magmas are a good match with the actual stable and radiogenic isotopic record of Yellowstone hot spot track volcanism preserved in zircon phenocrysts, and further replicates the results of recent geophysical imaging campaigns, giving us confidence that the assumptions and results of these thermomechanical models are broadly correct.