Voluminous plutonism during volcanic quiescence revealed by thermochemical modeling of zircon

Five late Pleistocene lava domes with a combined eruptive volume of ~40 km³ distributed over an area of ~2000 km² represent the waning stages of the 10–1 Ma ignimbrite flare-up in the Altiplano Puna Volcanic Complex (APVC) of the Central Andes. Zircon crystal face (on unsectioned rims) and interior (on sectioned crystals) ages (U-Th and U-Pb, respectively) for a total of 252 crystals indicate remarkably consistent zircon crystallization histories: the youngest zircon surface ages (ca. 104–83 ka) are near ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar eruption ages from sanidine and biotite (ca. 120–87 ka), but a significant population of surface ages predates eruption, ranging to secular equilibrium (with U-Pb interior ages to 3.5 Ma). The essentially continuous zircon crystallization history implies protracted magma presence, which agrees with temporally invariant Ti-in-zircon model temperatures, backed by the homogeneity of indirectly temperature-dependent compositional parameters. Zircon age spectra modeled using a finite-difference thermal and mass-balance model for open-system magma evolution indicate protracted zircon production in the magma reservoirs that require time-integrated recharge rates of ~1 x 10^–3 km³/yr, corresponding to high intrusive to extrusive ratios of 75: 1. This rate is below the ~5 x 10^–3 km³/yr threshold proposed in the literature for incubating the supereruptions defining the flare-up. When accounting for the shorter durations of high versus low recharge episodes over the ~10 m.y. lifetime of the APVC flare-up, the contributions to composite batholith formation in the shallow crust of the APVC remained broadly constant during peaks and lulls in eruptive activity. This connotes that eruptive fluxes are a poor measure for intrusive fluxes. A corollary of this interpretation is that commonly applied intrusive to extrusive ratios will severely underestimate pluton formation rates during periods of low eruptive flux.

from Geology Current Issue http://geology.gsapubs.org/cgi/content/abstract/44/8/683?rss=1