Petrologic and experimental evidence for the movement and heating of the pre-eruptive Minoan rhyodacite (Santorini, Greece)

Hydrothermal experiments combined with petrologic observations form the basis for a new two-stage model for the evolution of the pre-eruption Minoan magma chamber at Santorini, Greece. Ninety-nine percent of the erupted volume is two-pyroxene, rhyodacitic magma that had been stored at a temperature of similar to 885 degrees C, based on magnetite-ilmenite and QUILF geothermometry. The rest of the volume is basaltic to andesitic magma, which occurs as <10 cm scoria clasts and as small inclusions in rhyodacite pumices. Petrologic observations show that these magmas mixed at different scales and at different times (i.e., multiple batches of mafic magma). Hydrothermal experiments were carried out on samples of rhyodacite and a mafic scoria in order to determine magma storage conditions and the mixing history of the two magmas. At 885 degrees C, the rhyodacite must have been stored at water-saturated pressures of similar to 50 MPa, based on its phase assemblage, matrix-glass composition, and crystal content. However, glass inclusions inside rhyodacitic plagioclase phenocrysts contain more than 6 wt% H2O, indicating they formed at pressures > 200 MPa. In addition, the composition of the plagioclase hosts (An(56+/-6)) of the inclusions require temperatures of 825 +/- 25 degrees C at pressures >200 MPa. This demonstrates that the Minoan rhyodacitic magma underwent a two-stage evolution, first crystallizing at similar to 825 degrees C and > 200 MPa, and then rinsing to a shallow similar to 50 MPa storage region with a concomitant rise in temperature to similar to 885 degrees C. We suggest that the episodic intrusion of mafic magmas provided the necessary heat and perhaps contributed to the ascent of the magma to shallow crustal depths where it reequilibrated before the cataclysmic eruption. Phase equilibria suggest that much of the heating of the rhyodacite occurred in the shallow storage region. Thermal budget calculations suggest that the rhyodacite magma could have been heated by intrusions of basalt rising at reasonable upwelling rates and injected into the storage zone over several hundred years. Preservation of amphibole in the mafic scoria indicate that injection of mafic magma continued up until days before the cataclysmic eruption, perhaps triggering the event.