A PRACTICAL PETROLOGICAL METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION OF VOLUME PROPORTIONS OF MAGMA CHAMBER REFILLING

A method is described for determining the proportion of the volume of a magma chamber refilled by new pulses of hot primitive melts. This method is based on the changes is crystal contents and in phenocryst zoning resulting from temperature equilibration. Study of phenocryst zoning and the composition of interstitial glasses from various chilled magmatic inclusions and mafic bands in hybrid rocks supports the idea that equilibration of temperatures between two magmas is reached before their physical mixing. If the magmas are genetically related (for example magma-fractionate and initial hot melt), this leads to equilibration of the compositions of residual melts and phenocrysts rims. Intervals of reverse zoning in minerals, resulting from temperature increases, and intervals of normal zoning, caused by cooling, along with the changes in modal mineral contents enable estimation of the amounts of released and adsorbed heat and, therefore, assessment of the proportion of the volume of each magma. Application of the method to some hybrid volcanic series of the Kurile-Kamchatka island arc shows that the proportion of mafic magma intruded into a siliceous magma chamber reservoir never exceeds 10% of the volume of the host magma, based upon thermal considerations. However, the observed degree of compositional mingling requres 25-50% of the mafic end-member. It is shown that this contradiction is related to flotation of vesiculated magmatic inclusions towards the chamber roof, where they become concentrated near the exit and are further mingled with the host during the eruption (forced convection).