EAPS

"A simple model to study the coupled thermal and mechanical evolution of subvolcanic magma chambers"

Abstract: Crustal magma chambers host a wide array of physical and chemical processes that control volcanic activity and also regulate the thermal and chemical evolution of the crust. As active magma chambers are not directly observable, constraining the relative importance of processes such as magma recharge, dike initiation and magma transport, exsolution of volatile phases on the evolution of the system remains difficult. Here I discuss a relatively simple and idealized model of magma chamber that considers mass and energy exchanges through magma recharge and diking/eruptions and includes thermo-mechanical feedbacks associated with the coupling of the chamber and its host (crustal container). While this model does not consider internal processes such as phase separation, it allows for rapid simulations of the thermal evolution of chambers over a wide range of conditions (pressure/depth, magma composition, recharge rate versus time, volume of the chamber…). After a rapid overview of the physical model, I will discuss some recent (published and unpublished) results that addresses questions such as- Is there an optimal depth for the growth of eruptible pools of magma in the continental crust on Earth? What about Mars ? If so what controls it ?- Can we use the eruptive history of active volcanoes to infer their magma supply rate over time and predict their future behavior ? How far back can we go ?

About this series: About this series: The EAPS Geophysics Seminar is a class for EAPS geophysics graduate students with a guest speaker approximately every two weeks. All members of the MIT community are welcome to attend the guest talks which are generally on Tuesdays at 10am in 54-209 and on Zoom. Titles and abstracts will be posted here when available. Contact Josh at jkastorf@mit.edu with any questions.