Jökull


Jökull - 01.12.2006, Síða 73

Jökull - 01.12.2006, Síða 73
Pleistocene rhyolitic volcanism at Torfajökull, Iceland number of dated samples. (It is noteworthy that Fig- ure 6 shows more scatter, for Nb and Sr, when analy- ses from undated rhyolites are included.) Only when further ages have been obtained will the robustness of this near-linear trend be tested further. The third trend, the pronounced drop in alkalinity after 83 ka, has been followed by the dominance of subalkaline rhyolite compositions during the Holocene. The ap- parent permanence of this change is emphasised by studies (McGarvie, 1984; Macdonald et al., 1990) showing that the Holocene rhyolites, with one excep- tion, the compositionally-zoned Hrafntinnusker erup- tion, have compositions that are distinctly less evolved than those of the ring-fracture rhyolites (McGarvie et al., 1990). Furthermore, within the Holocene rhyo- lites, for which there is reasonable stratigraphic con- trol, only a slight trend of less-evolved compositions being erupted with time is present (Macdonald et al., 1990; McGarvie et al., 1990), which might indicate that some process is buffering the compositions of erupted Holocene magmas. At least two viable models can explain the third trend. The first is that the c. 16 km3 ring fracture rhyolite eruption has depleted the magma system of evolved melt, leaving only a subalkaline mush. For the past c. 65 ka this mush has been periodically in- truded by basaltic magmas, resulting both in the pro- duction of small batches of rhyolitic melt, and (dur- ing eruptive episodes) by extensive interactions be- tween intruding basaltic magmas and rhyolitic melts. Occasionally, melt generation and/or storage condi- tions has favoured the differentiation of batches of rhyolitic melt, leading (for example) to the production of the Hrafntinnusker zoned eruption (McGarvie et al., 1990). This could imply that episodes of basaltic magma injection not only trigger eruptions, but may contribute thermal energy that helps to generate fu- ture batches of rhyolitic melt (see also Gunnarsson et al., 1998). The second model ignores any direct role for basaltic magma injection in rhyolite magma production, and involves two steps, the first being the production of batches of ’dominant volume’ rhy- olitic magma (Smith 1979), and the second being the differentiation of this starting composition. This is broadly similar to models for other volcanic com- plexes, such as Pantelleria (Mahood et al., 1990) and Boina (Barberi et al., 1975). At Torfajökull, the sub- alkaline compositions that typify Holocene eruptions are assumed to represent the starting composition, and although there is disagreement over how this melt is produced (see Macdonald et al., 1990; Gunnarsson et al., 1998), for present purposes this can be ignored. Once the starting composition has been produced, it can then differentiate towards more-evolved compo- sitions such as comendites and pantellerites. Only at one Holocene eruption (Hrafntinnusker, McGarvie et al., 1990) has this occurred convincingly. Two possi- bilities stem from this: firstly that the rate of produc- tion of the starting composition is now less than it was in the past (because there has not been a return to the production of highly-evolved rhyolitic compositions such as pantellerites); and secondly that rhyolite melt replenishment is occurring at rates similar to those of the past but repeated injections of basaltic magma at c. 500-1000 year intervals (Larsen, 1984) are deny- ing the accumulating magma of sufficient residence time (and sufficient accumulated volumes) to differen- tiate towards more evolved compositions. If the model for the propagation of the Eastern Rift Zone to the south-west is correct (e.g. Oskarsson et al., 1982, 1985) then this situation is unlikely to change because episodic injections of mafic magmas into Torfajökull (from various sources), will continue (Larsen, 1984; McGarvie, 1985). Indeed, if an intensification of rift zone mafic magma production accompanies this pos- tulated rift propagation, this might well increase the frequency of tholeiitic magma injections into Torfa- jökull (McGarvie et al., 1990), though whether this will increase or decrease the volume of rhyolitic melt available for eruption is unclear at present. In seeking a more viable explanation, it is note- worthy that better-constrained examples of peralka- line magma production and evolution such as those at Olkaria and Naivasha in Kenya point to shorter timescales of 103–104 rather than 105 years (Davies and Macdonald, 1987; Heumann and Davies, 2002), with even shorter timescales implicated at other sys- tems (see Hawkesworth et al., 2004). However exam- ples of such rapid production-differentiation need to be reconciled with the broad general trend of older JÖKULL No. 56 71
Síða 1
Síða 2
Síða 3
Síða 4
Síða 5
Síða 6
Síða 7
Síða 8
Síða 9
Síða 10
Síða 11
Síða 12
Síða 13
Síða 14
Síða 15
Síða 16
Síða 17
Síða 18
Síða 19
Síða 20
Síða 21
Síða 22
Síða 23
Síða 24
Síða 25
Síða 26
Síða 27
Síða 28
Síða 29
Síða 30
Síða 31
Síða 32
Síða 33
Síða 34
Síða 35
Síða 36
Síða 37
Síða 38
Síða 39
Síða 40
Síða 41
Síða 42
Síða 43
Síða 44
Síða 45
Síða 46
Síða 47
Síða 48
Síða 49
Síða 50
Síða 51
Síða 52
Síða 53
Síða 54
Síða 55
Síða 56
Síða 57
Síða 58
Síða 59
Síða 60
Síða 61
Síða 62
Síða 63
Síða 64
Síða 65
Síða 66
Síða 67
Síða 68
Síða 69
Síða 70
Síða 71
Síða 72
Síða 73
Síða 74
Síða 75
Síða 76
Síða 77
Síða 78
Síða 79
Síða 80
Síða 81
Síða 82
Síða 83
Síða 84
Síða 85
Síða 86
Síða 87
Síða 88
Síða 89
Síða 90
Síða 91
Síða 92
Síða 93
Síða 94
Síða 95
Síða 96
Síða 97
Síða 98
Síða 99
Síða 100
Síða 101
Síða 102
Síða 103
Síða 104
Síða 105
Síða 106
Síða 107
Síða 108

x

Jökull

Beinleiðis leinki

Hvis du vil linke til denne avis/magasin, skal du bruge disse links:

Link til denne avis/magasin: Jökull
https://timarit.is/publication/1155

Link til dette eksemplar:

Link til denne side:

Link til denne artikel:

Venligst ikke link direkte til billeder eller PDfs på Timarit.is, da sådanne webadresser kan ændres uden advarsel. Brug venligst de angivne webadresser for at linke til sitet.