The Magma Feeding System of Somma-Vesuvius (Italy) Strato-Volcano 185

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The Magma Feeding System of Somma-Vesuvius (Italy) Strato-Volcano 185 Else_DV-DEVIVO_ch009.qxd 3/2/2006 2:53 PM Page 183 Volcanism in the Campania Plain: Vesuvius, Campi Flegrei and Ignimbrites edited by B. De Vivo © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 183 1 2 3 4 Chapter 9 5 6 The magma feeding system of Somma-Vesuvius (Italy) 7 strato-volcano: new inferences from a review of geochemical 8 and Sr, Nd, Pb and O isotope data 9 10 1 Monica Piochia,∗, Benedetto De Vivob and Robert A. Ayusoc 2 aIstituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Osservatorio Vesuviano, Napoli, Italy 3 bDipartimento di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Università Federico II, Napoli, Italy 4 cU.S. Geological Survey, MS 954 National Center, Reston, VA, USA 5 6 Abstract 7 A large database of major, trace and isotope (Sr, Nd, Pb, O) data exists for rocks produced by the volcanic activity 8 of Somma-Vesuvius volcano. Variation diagrams strongly suggest a major role for evolutionary processes such 9 as fractional crystallization, contamination, crystal trapping and magma mixing, occurring after magma genesis 20 in the mantle. Most mafic magmas are enriched in LILE (K, Rb, Ba), REE (Ce, Sm) and Y, show small Nb–Ta AQ1 1 negative anomalies, and have values of Nb/Zr at about 0.15. Enrichments in LILE, REE, Nb and Ta do not 2 correlate with Sr isotope values or degree of both K enrichment and silica undersaturation. The results indicate mantle source heterogeneity produced by slab-derived components beneath the volcano. However, the Sr isotope 3 values of Somma-Vesuvius increase from 0.7071 up to 0.7081 with transport through the uppermost 11–12 km 4 of the crust. The Sr isotope variation suggests that the crustal component affected the magmas during ascent 5 through the lithosphere to the surface. Our new geochemical assessment based on chemical, isotopic and fluid 6 inclusion data points to the existence of three main levels of magma storage. Two of the levels are deep and may 7 represent long-lived reservoirs, and an uppermost crustal level that probably coincides with the volcanic conduit. The deeper level of magma storage is deeper than 12 km and fed the 1944 AD eruption. The intermediate level 8 coincides with the seismic discontinuity detected by Zollo et al. (1996) at about 8 km. This intermediate level 9 supplies magmas with 87Sr/86Sr values between 0.7071 and 0.7074, and δO18 Ͻ8‰ that typically erupted both 30 during interplinian (i.e. 1906 AD) and sub-plinian (472 AD, 1631 AD) events. The shallowest level of magma stor- 1 age at about 5 km was the site of magma chambers for the Pompei and Avellino eruptions. New investigations 2 are necessary to verify the proposed magma feeding system. 3 4 5 1. Introduction 6 7 Somma-Vesuvius (Fig. 1a) has long attracted intense scrutiny because of its recent activity, 8 enormous hazard potential to the Campanian region and immediate proximity to the city of 9 Naples. Plinian eruptions from the Somma-Vesuvius volcano were first described during 40 the eruption of 79 AD. The erupted silica-undersaturated potassium-rich rocks have been the 41 object of petrological studies (Rittmann, 1933; Savelli, 1967; Cortini and Hermes, 1981; 42 Joron et al., 1987; Civetta and Santacroce, 1992; Belkin et al., 1993; Cioni et al., 1995, 43 1998; Ayuso et al., 1998; Cioni, 2000; Peccerillo, 2001; Paone, 2005; Piochi et al., 2005; 44 45 46 *Corresponding author. Fax: 139-81-6100811. E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Piochi). Else_DV-DEVIVO_ch009.qxd 3/2/2006 2:53 PM Page 184 184 M. Piochi, B. De Vivo, R.A. Ayuso 1 and references therein) aimed at evaluating how the erupted magmas reflect the contribu- 2 tions of mantle sources, how their compositions have been affected during transport, and to 3 what extent they can be used to deduce their geodynamic setting. Recently, a large major, 4 trace and isotope (Sr, Nd, Pb, O) database has been published (De Vivo et al., 2003) and can 5 be downloaded at the Internet site http://www.dgv.unina.it/ricerca/de_vivo.htm. The 6 summary of results shows that rocks produced during major plinian and sub-plinian 7 eruptions, and during the last interplinian period of activity which started in 1631 AD, are 8 relatively well characterized on the basis of mineralogy, chemistry and isotopes. Adequate 9 data also exist for some rocks from interplinian periods of volcanism occurring before the 10 last sub-plinian eruption in 1631 AD. 1 In this paper, we briefly present a description of the chemical and isotopic database and 2 a synthesis of previous petrological studies in order to summarize the main evidence for 3 mantle source heterogeneity associated with the Somma-Vesuvius magmas, and highlight 4 the results supporting the importance of shallow-level evolution. Particularly, our brief 5 review of existing data points to a magma feeding system formed by multi-depth storage 6 levels; the magma reservoir at 8 km imaged by seismic tomography (Zollo et al., 1996) fed 7 both low- and large-magnitude eruptions. Significant progress has been made in the last 8 20 years of research focused on Somma-Vesuvius volcano (Civetta and Santacroce, 1992; 9 Belkin et al., 1993; Villemant et al., 1993; Cioni et al., 1995; Ayuso et al., 1998; Del Moro 20 et al., 2001; Peccerillo, 2001; Fulignati et al., 2004, 2005; Pappalardo et al., 2004; Piochi 1 et al., 2005), and it is now possible to combine the results of previous studies to produce a 2 framework for more detailed investigations of the behaviour of magma and the magma 3 feeding system in Somma-Vesuvius volcano. 4 5 6 2. Volcanological and magmatological background 7 8 Somma-Vesuvius is a strato-volcano (Fig. 1a) that consists of an older collapsed edifice 9 (Somma), and a younger cone (Vesuvius). The volcano has been active at least since 300 ky 30 bp (Brocchini et al., 2001 and references therein) up to the major eruption of 1944 AD. 1 Presently, the volcano is the site of fumaroles, diffuse degassing (Chiodini et al., 2001; 2 Federico et al., 2002; Frondini et al., 2004) and low-magnitude seismicity (Bianco et al., 3 1999; Vilardo et al., 1999). Volcanism has been characterized by high explosive sub-plinian 4 and plinian eruptions that followed long periods of quiescence, and by intermediate and 5 small-scale explosive and explosive/effusive eruptions that occurred during continuous 6 periods of activity (interplinian period) (Fig. 1b) (Arnò et al., 1987; Civetta and Santacroce, 7 1992; Rolandi et al., 1998; Principe et al., 2004). Sub-plinian and plinian eruptions have 8 always produced larger volumes of rocks (one to a few cubic kilometres DRE, i.e. Dense 9 Rock Equivalent) (Rosi and Santacroce, 1983; Arnò et al., 1987; Civetta and Santacroce, 40 1992; Rolandi et al., 1993; Cioni et al., 1995; Landi et al., 1999) than the intermediate and 41 small-scale events (0.01–0.1 km3 DRE) (Scandone et al., 1986; Mastrolorenzo et al., 1993; 42 Rolandi et al., 1998; Arrighi et al., 2001). 43 The volcano rests on a sequence of Mesozoic and Cenozoic carbonates overlain by 44 Miocene sediments outcropping in the surrounding Apennine chain (D’Argenio et al., 45 1973; Ippolito et al., 1975) and encountered at a depth of around 2 km (Brocchini et al., 46 2001). The Moho discontinuity has been detected at about 30 km of depth (Corrado and Else_DV-DEVIVO_ch009.qxd 3/2/2006 2:53 PM Page 185 The magma feeding system of Somma-Vesuvius (Italy) strato-volcano 185 1 2 Plinian Activity Inter-Plinian Activity 3 Repose time ?? 18th (1907-1944) 9th (1783-1794) 17th (1874-1906) 4 A.D.1944 8th (1770-1779) 16th (1870-1872) 7th (1764-1767) 15th (1864-1868) 5 Recent 5th (1712-1737) 14th (1854-1861) 4th (1700-1707) 13th (1841-1850) 6 A.D.1631 3rd (1696-1698) 12th (1835-1839) 2nd (1685-1694) 11th (1825-1834) 7 Repose time 1st (1638-1682) 10th (1700-1707) 8 III cycle A.D.1139 Medieval 2nd ( A.D.~635) 4th(~A.D.1095.) 9 A.D.472 1st (>A.D. 512) 3rd (>A.D.893.) 10 (Pollena) Repose time 1 A.D.303 2 Ancient Historic A.D.79 No geochronologic determinations 3 Pompei Repose time 4 Transitional 800 years B.C.700 5 Protohistoric 1st (~1758B.C.) 2nd (~1414 B.P) 3rd (~832 B.C.) 6 3.5 ky.B.P. Avellino 7 II cycle 8.0 ky.B.P. 8 Ottaviano (Mercato) Repose time 9 6000 years 20 16-14 ky.B.P. 1 Novelle (Verdoline) 2 18.6 ky.B.P. Somma I cycle Sarno (Pomici di Base) 3 25.0 ky.B.P. 4 Codola Older Vesuvius 5 6 Somma activity 7 8 9 30 1 b) a) 2 3 Figure 1. (a) DTM of the Somma-Vesuvius strato-volcano; (b) Reconstructed stratigraphy of volcanic activity 4 during the last 25 ka. Source: Arnò et al. (1987); Arrighi et al. (2001); Ayuso et al. (1998); Landi et al. (1999); 5 Rolandi et al. (1993, 1998); Rosi and Santacroce (1983). Symbols as used in the following figures. Names of eruptions in parenthesis are from Arnò et al. (1987). 6 7 8 Rapolla, 1981; Ferrucci et al., 1989; Chiarabba et al., 2005). A high-velocity body dipping 9 westward from 65 km down to 285 km was interpreted as a plate within the mantle 40 (De Natale et al., 2001). Furthermore, an active, large magma chamber is located at about 41 8–10 km (Zollo et al., 1996; Di Maio et al., 1998) and has been proposed to extend up to 42 30 km (De Natale et al., 2001).
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