Magmatic perturbations in the Okataina Volcanic Complex, New Zealand at thousand-year timescales recorded in single zircon crystals

Using single crystals to trace the chemical evolution of a magmatic system has long been a goal of igneous petrology. Crystals utilized for in situ dating hold great potential to link compositional and temporal information to better understand the evolution of a magmatic system. If micron-scale zoning of trace elements within a single zircon can be directly associated with volcanic events in magmatic systems, then new insights into long-term maintenance and storage of eruptible magma can be unlocked. This study presents new data that directly links the geochemical history recorded in individual zircon crystals with over 50,000 yrs of changing physical and chemical conditions within a magma reservoir. Trace elements (Hf and Y) in zircon have not diffusively equilibrated with their host melt so that they store information about the melt when that zone crystallized. Thus, different stages of growth can be associated with discrete time periods in the magmatic system. Zircon from the two most recent rhyolite eruptions (Kaharoa and Whakatane) within the Okataina Volcanic Complex (OVC), New Zealand, have both isotopic (age) and trace element signatures that correspond with distinct changes in the temperature and phase assemblage of pulses of erupted magma within the caldera system. This discrete change is associated with caldera collapse and reflects a change from cold, wet source rhyolite to a relatively hotter and drier source rhyolite and back. The Kaharoa and Whakatane eruptions are separated by 4000 yrs and 15 km distance, yet the zircon populations record the same distinct thermal and chemical pulse that occurred following caldera collapse, suggesting an interconnected magmatic system that houses at least small volumes of rhyolite melt for timescales of 10(3) to 10(5) yrs that is periodically extracted during eruption. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.