Apatite chemistry in shoshonitic magmas: Insights into the volatile evolution at La Fossa volcano (Vulcano Island, Aeolian Arc, Italy)

Apatite, which has demonstrated to be useful for tracking volatile evolution in magmatic systems, is a common accessory in La Fossa active volcano (Vulcano island, Italy) products. We performed in situ geochemical (major and trace elements, Cl, F, S) analyses on apatite of La Fossa, and used the data to track the pre-eruptive magmatic volatile evolution for the La Fossa shoshonitic suite, to provide insights on magma evolution in the plumbing system and to investigate volatile fluxing. Our results confirm that apatite volatile chemistry is a valuable tool to give constraints on pre-eruptive volatile contents of magmas. For specific compositions, however, we obtained an underestimation of the water contents with respect to those estimated with plagioclase-liquid hygrometer in previous works. Vulcano apatite halogen composition also indicates that water saturation and pre-eruptive exsolution of a hypersaline aqueous fluid phase occurred when the magma reached rhyolitic composition. The high As, Bi and Cd contents found in apatite crystals belonging to shoshonite and high-K trachyte suggest that the magma reservoirs feeding these eruptions were affected by a deep volatile fluxing which was able to carry these trace elements up to shallow levels. This is in agreement with the occurrence of the deep degassing already demonstrated at La Fossa volcano on the basis of petrological and geochemical data, and supports the apatite geochemical approach to track deep volatile fluxing.

Automated summary

We conducted in situ geochemical analyses on apatite from the La Fossa volcano in Vulcano island, Italy, and used the data to track the pre-eruptive volatile evolution of the magma. Our results show that apatite volatile chemistry is a valuable tool for estimating pre-eruptive volatile contents of magmas. However, we observed an underestimation of water contents for specific compositions. Additionally, our findings support the occurrence of deep degassing at the La Fossa volcano and the use of apatite geochemistry to track deep volatile fluxing.