Collaborative Research: Investigating the Relationship Between Pluton Growth and Volcanism at Two Active Intrusions in the Central Andes

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Our knowledge of how crustal magma chambers evolve and how these magma chambers relate to plutons and eruptions is inadequate, largely because nobody has yet conducted a comprehensive study of an active crustal magma chamber. This project provides a unique opportunity to do so and will provide fundamentally new insights into deep crustal magma generation, storage, and differentiation. The PIs have designed the project taking advantage of what may be the early stages leading up to an ignimbrite eruption. Given that a large ignimbrite eruption has never been observed, let alone the build-up to one, this might be a once in a many-generation opportunity. The project builds on recent InSAR results that show large-scale rapid uplift situated over several volcanoes in the Central Andes. The research is focused on resolving the location, size, and shape of the magma chambers, and the rates at which they are filling. The combination of InSAR, GPS geodesy, and microgravity measurements will provide the essential data for magma fluxes at present. Fluvial geomorphology will be used to estimate uplift rates over a longer time. Seismic and magnetotelluric studies will provide independent information about the location and size of any magma chamber. The mechanism of magma transport through the crust is very important for a number of issues ranging from the manner of crust formation via magma addition to basic hazard predictions for volcanic eruptions. Investigating the development of a large mid-crustal magma chamber while it is being built is the best way to advance our understanding of this issue and the interdisciplinary approach in this proposal is key. The project includes close collaboration with scientists from the University of Bristol (UK) who are funded by NERC and with research groups in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia.