Magma mixing during conduit flow is reflected in melt-inclusion data
from persistently degassing volcanoes
Abstract
Persistent volcanic activity is thought to be linked to degassing, but
volatile transport at depth cannot be observed directly. Instead, we
rely on indirect constraints such as CO2-H2O concentrations in melt
inclusions trapped at different depth, but this data is rarely
straight-forward to interpret. In this study, we integrate a multiscale
conduit-flow model for non-eruptive conditions and a
volatile-concentration model to compute synthetic profiles of volatile
concentrations for different flow conditions and CO2 fluxing. We find
that actively segregating bubbles in the flow enhance the mixing of
volatile-poor and volatile-rich magma in vertical conduit segments, even
if the radius of these bubbles is several orders of magnitude smaller
than the width of the conduit. This finding suggests that magma mixing
is common in volcanic systems when magma viscosities are low enough to
allow for bubble segregation as born out by our comparison with
melt-inclusion data: Our simulations show that even a small degree of
mixing leads to volatile concentration profiles that are much more
comparable to observations than either open- or closed-system degassing
trends for both Stromboli and Mount Erebus. Our results also show that
two of the main processes affecting observed volatile concentrations,
magma mixing and CO2 fluxing, leave distinct observational signatures,
suggesting that tracking them jointly could help better constrain
changes in conduit flow. We argue that disaggregating melt-inclusion
data based on the eruptive behavior at the time could advance our
understanding of how conduit flow changes with eruptive regimes.