Collaborative research: Andean Plutonic Perspectives on Generation, Storage, and Eruption of Rhyolite

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Large-scale, caldera-forming volcanic eruptions, for example those characteristic of Yellowstone National Park, owe their explosivity and widespread impact to the composition of molten rock called magma that fuels their plumbing systems. Yet, the generation of such magma plumbing systems, and how the erupted volcanic rock rhyolite is related to the unerupted magma that crystallizes at depth to form plutons of rock called granite that makes up the continental crust which we live on, remains unknown and highly controversial among earth scientists. Our study focuses on the formation of a plutonic body of granite in the southern Andes in Chile that preserves a record of processes required to generate large quantities of potentially explosive volcanic rhyolite. We will map spatially distinct rock types, measure their compositions, and determine the compositions of the constituent minerals that comprise this very young, and exceptionally well-exposed pluton. A multidisciplinary approach using modern geochemical methods, geochronology, and numerical modeling will then be used to interpret the processes, timescales, and thermal history of magma that are preserved in this pluton. We aim to bring the discipline of igneous petrology one step closer to a universal model of magma dynamics that incorporates both the plutonic and volcanic realms.High silica granites are hypothesized to form via crystal-melt fractionation in the shallow crust yet, the resulting crystal residues are rarely identified and can be difficult to distinguish from plutons whose compositions plot along liquid lines of descent. Bulk rock compositional mass balance in the late Miocene Risco Bayo-Huemul plutonic complex in the Southern Andes of Chile suggests that lithological differences reflect crystal concentration in response to melt extraction. We aim to combine field observations with U-Pb petrochronology of zircon and titanite, 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology, compositional and isotopic measurements of whole rocks and minerals within the plutonic complex, and thermal modeling to: (1) establish the rates and mechanisms of emplacement, (2) identify individual magma batches and assess any interaction between them, (3) determine the timescales of crystallization and cooling of individual magma batches and system-wide, (4) establish petrogenetic relationships between the Risco Bayo and Huemul plutons including subdomains within each, and (5) evaluate whether eruptible rhyolitic melt may have formed within this system. This young plutonic complex preserves a detailed record of a process commonly associated with the formation of rhyolite that has propelled large silicic eruptions during the past million years within the adjacent Andean subduction zone.