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

形成火山口的大规模火山喷发，例如黄石国家公园特有的火山喷发，其爆炸性和广泛的影响归因于被称为岩浆的熔岩的组成，这些熔岩为它们的管道系统提供动力。然而，这种岩浆管道系统的产生，以及喷发的火山岩流纹岩是如何与未喷发的岩浆有关的，这些岩浆在深处结晶形成被称为花岗岩的岩浆，构成了我们赖以生存的大陆地壳，这在地球科学家中仍然是未知的，也是非常有争议的。我们的研究重点是智利南部安第斯山脉花岗岩深成岩体的形成，保存了产生大量潜在爆炸性火山流纹岩所需的过程记录。我们将绘制空间上不同的岩石类型图，测量它们的组成，并确定组成这个非常年轻和异常暴露的岩体的组成矿物的组成。然后将使用现代地球化学方法、地质年代学和数值模拟的多学科方法来解释保存在该岩体中的岩浆的过程、时间尺度和热史。我们的目标是使火成岩岩石学学科更接近于同时包括深成岩和火山领域的岩浆动力学的通用模型。高硅花岗岩被假设是通过浅地壳中的晶体熔体分馏形成的，然而，由此产生的晶体残留物很少被识别，并且很难与其成分沿液体下降线分布的深成岩区分开来。智利南部安第斯山脉晚中新世Risco Bayo-Huemul深成杂岩的主体岩石成分质量平衡表明，岩性差异反映了晶体对熔体提取的响应。我们的目标是将野外观察与锆石和钛铁矿的U-Pb年代学、40Ar/39Ar热年代学、深成杂岩内全岩和矿物的成分和同位素测量以及热模拟相结合，以：(1)建立侵位速率和机制，(2)识别单独的岩浆批次并评估它们之间的任何相互作用，(3)确定单独的岩浆批次和整个系统的结晶和冷却的时间尺度，(4)建立Risco Bayo和Huemul深成岩体之间的岩石成因关系，包括每个亚域，以及(5)评估该系统内是否形成了可喷发的流纹状熔融。这个年轻的深成杂岩保存了一个详细的过程记录，这个过程通常与流纹岩的形成有关，在过去的100万年里，流纹岩在邻近的安第斯俯冲带内推动了大规模的硅质喷发。

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.