Collaborative Research: Testing Models that Describe the Origin of Compositional Diversity of Subduction Zone Magmatism, Aeolian Islands

火山岩提供了岩浆形成过程的综合、多尺度记录。利用理论和分析工具，这项工作将记录导致意大利伊奥利亚群岛岩浆形成的关键过程。选择伊奥利亚火山作为研究地点，是因为它们成分多样，地质年龄年轻；因此，它们是研究年轻火山如何以及为何喷发的最佳地点。除了增加我们对这些岩浆如何形成和演化的理解之外，这项工作还将有助于描述这个年轻岩浆系统的特征，比如岩浆体在地球表面下的深度，以及喷发前岩浆的挥发性成分。这些数据可以为火山学家提供信息，帮助他们探索火山爆发的时间和方式，从而有可能加强对火山危害的评估和缓解。这项工作采用了两种方法。一个是相平衡模型的应用，该模型的发展是由国家科学基金会资助的，它记录了导致伊奥利亚群岛岩浆形成的热力学过程。计算机模拟的结果可以对火山岩的特定特征作出预测。使用最先进的分析工具，这些预测将通过收集选定的一组岩石的地球化学、结构和现场数据来验证。将理论预期与这些新数据进行比较，将有助于评估相平衡模型的优缺点，也将导致关于风成火山如何形成的充分记录的假设。如果这种最先进的理论和分析工具的结合是成功的，它将通过提供一种可以理解来源到表面成分多样性的方法，影响科学家研究复杂岩浆系统的方法。因为阶段平衡模型的改进是一个持续的目标，这项工作也将提供将告知模型改进的输入。

Volcanic rocks provide an integrated, multi-scale record of the processes that govern how magmas form. Using both theoretical and analytical tools, this work will document the critical processes that led to the formation of magmas in the Aeolian Islands, Italy. The volcanoes of the Aeolians were chosen as the study sites because they are compositionally diverse and geologically young; they thus represent prime places to study to how and why young volcanoes erupt. In addition to augmenting our understanding of how these magmas form and evolve, this work will also help characterize features of this young magmatic system such as the depth at which the magma bodies reside under the surface of Earth and the volatile content of the magmas prior to eruption. Such data can provide information to volcanologists who explore when and how volcanic eruptions initiate, thereby potentially enhancing volcanic hazard assessment and mitigation. This work utilizes two approaches. One is application of a phase equilibria model, the development of which was funded by the National Science Foundation, to document the thermodynamics of processes that led to formation of magmas in the Aeolian Islands. Results of computer modeling allow predictions to be made about particular characteristics of the volcanic rocks. Using state-of-the-art analytical tools, these predictions will be tested by collecting geochemical, textural and field data on a selected suite of rocks. Comparison of theoretical expectations and these new data will allow the strengths and weaknesses of the phase equilibria model to be assessed and will also lead to well documented hypotheses about how the Aeolian volcanoes formed. If this marriage of state-of-the-art theoretical and analytical tools is successful, it will impact how scientists approach studying complex magmatic systems by providing a methodology by which source to surface compositional diversity can be understood. Because improvements to the phase equilibria model are an on-going goal, this work will also provide input that will inform model improvements.