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Shallow magma chambers either erupt as volcanoes or solidify as intrusive magma bodies. These magma bodies are traditionally considered to be long-lived and dominated by melt. Cashman et al. review the evidence that shallow magma chambers are actually assembled quickly from much larger, crystal-rich transcrustal magmatic systems. This paradigm helps explain many geophysical and geochemical features of volcanic systems. It also presents challenges for understanding the evolution of magma and provides insight into how and why volcanoes erupt. Science , this issue p. eaag3055 Shallow magma chambers are ephemeral expressions of larger transcrustal magmatic systems. Volcanoes are an expression of their underlying magmatic systems. Over the past three decades, the classical focus on upper crustal magma chambers has expanded to consider magmatic processes throughout the crust. A transcrustal perspective must balance slow (plate tectonic) rates of melt generation and segregation in the lower crust with new evidence for rapid melt accumulation in the upper crust before many volcanic eruptions. Reconciling these observations is engendering active debate about the physical state, spatial distribution, and longevity of melt in the crust. Here we review evidence for transcrustal magmatic systems and highlight physical processes that might affect the growth and stability of melt-rich layers, focusing particularly on conditions that cause them to destabilize, ascend, and accumulate in voluminous but ephemeral shallow magma chambers.

Mantle-derived, hydrous mafic magmas are often invoked as a mechanism to transfer heat, mass and volatiles to felsic plutons in the Earth’s crust. Field observations suggest that mafic, water-rich magmas often intrude viscous felsic crystal-rich mushes. This scenario can advect water from the crystallising mafic magma to the felsic magma, leading to an increase in melt fraction in the felsic mush and subsequent mobilisation, at the same time as the mafic magma becomes quenched through a combination of cooling and water loss. To investigate such a scenario, we conducted experiments on a water-undersaturated (4 wt% H 2 O in the interstitial melt) dacitic crystal mush (50–80 vol% quartz crystals) subject to volatile supply from a water-saturated (≥6 wt% H 2 O) andesite magma at 950 °C and 4 kbar. Our experimental run products show unidirectional solidification textures (i.e. comb layering) as crystals nucleate at the mafic–felsic interface and grow into the mafic end-member. This process is driven by isothermal and isobaric undercooling resulting from a change in liquidus temperature as water migrates from the mafic to the felsic magma. We refer to this process as “chemical quenching” and suggest that some textures associated with natural mafic–felsic interactions are not simply cooling-driven in origin, but can be caused by exsolution of volatiles adjacent to an interface, whether a water-undersaturated felsic magma (as in our experiments) or a fracture.

Clinopyroxene–melt trace element partitioning experiments were carried out in the system Na 2 O–CaO–MgO–Al 2 O 3 –SiO 2 at pressures of 1, 2.3 and 3 GPa and temperatures of 1508 to 1811 K, to investigate the effects of temperature ( T ), pressure ( P ) and composition ( X ) on partition coefficients. Of particular interest were elements entering the octahedral M1-site. Ion probe analyses of run products produced crystal–melt partition coefficients ( D ) for 16 elements (Na, Ca, Al, Cl, Sc, Ti, Fe, Zr, In, La, Ce, Nd, Sm, Ho, Yb and Hf). With the exception of D Na , partition coefficients for all elements studied decrease with increased P and T , despite the concomitant increase in the Al content of the T-site. Fitting partition coefficients for isovalent series of cations to the elastic strain model of Blundy and Wood ( 1994 ) produced values for the site radius ( r 0 ), effective elastic modulus ( E ) and strain-free partition coefficient ( D 0 ). At each pressure, E values for the M1 and M2-sites increase with increasing Al concentration in the T-site . For a given bulk composition, E values decrease with increased T . The decrease in E with increasing T accounts for the remarkable constancy of the degree of fractionation between chemically similar elements, e.g. , over the range of pressures studied here. for our experiments is found to be higher than predicted by the Hazen and Finger ( 1979 ) relationship between elastic moduli and interatomic distance. This is explained by deformation of the M1-site polyhedron leading to relative displacement and kinking of the clinopyroxene T-site chains. We developed expressions for , , D Sc and D Ti as functions of P , T and composition. We show the feasibility of using calculated D Ti values in the prediction of D Zr and D Hf . Scandium and Ti partition coefficients were modelled based on the thermodynamic description for the crystal–melt exchange reaction and in terms of the energetics of the different charge-imbalanced configurations produced by insertion of a heterovalent trace cation. The resulting equations produce values of D Sc and D Ti that are within a factor of 2 of other experimentally determined values. Fits of the equations along the lherzolite solidus show that D Sc remains compatible in clinopyroxene at high pressure and that ratios of Zr/Hf and Ti/Eu should vary subtly with the pressure at which melting occurred.

Characterising equilibrium and disequilibrium crystal-melt processes is critical in determining the extent of magma mixing and crystallization conditions in the roots of volcanoes. However, these processes remain poorly investigated in most Pacific intraplate ocean settings that are difficult to access and study. To help address this issue, we investigated crystallization conditions of clinopyroxene phenocrysts in an accreted Palaeogene oceanic island in Panama. Petrographic and geochemical observations, petrological modelling of major and trace elements, and liquid-mineral multicomponent equilibrium tests were carried out using basalts, picrites, and hawaiites of the transitional tholeiitic shield to alkaline post-shield volcanic stages of the island. Five types of clinopyroxene crystals were identified, including (1) microphenocrysts with micron-scale oscillatory zoning, (2) primitive, yet resorbed picrite-hosted phenocrysts, (3) chemically homogeneous, anhedral crystals found in the remaining basalts, (4) Ti–rich euhedral hawaiite-hosted phenocrysts, and (5) evolved sector-zoned phenocrysts. Liquid-clinopyroxene multicomponent equilibrium tests in combination with textural analysis show that ~ 74% of the studied clinopyroxenes are in possible major element equilibrium with one of the available whole rock magma compositions, of which only 21% are equilibrated with their carrier liquid. To deconvolute clinopyroxene-melt pairings and determine plumbing system conditions, we combine rhyolite-MELTS modelling, geothermobarometry, and major- and trace-element equilibrium evaluations, limiting crystallization conditions to crustal levels (< 23 km depth). No migration of magmatic reservoirs to deeper levels is observed during the shield- to post-shield transition. These results suggest the occurrence of an extensive crystal mush system during the late shield to post-shield volcanic stages of this intraplate volcanic system, with both primitive and evolved crystallization domains sampled during eruptions.

Reactive liquid flow is a common process in layered intrusions and more generally in episodically refilled magma chambers. Interaction between newly injected melt and cumulates, or crystal mushes, perturbs the liquid line of descent of the melt and modifies mineral chemistry and texture. We present insights into the effects of assimilation of mafic cumulate rocks (gabbro, troctolite) by cogenetic Mg-rich basalt liquid using one-atmosphere, controlled f O 2 phase equilibrium experiments on picritic parental liquid to the Rum layered intrusion, Scotland. For picrite-only experiments at f O 2  = QFM, Cr-spinel (Cr# = Cr/[Cr + Al + Fe 3+ ] = 0.43; Fe# = Fe 2+ /[Mg + Fe 2+ ] = 0.32) saturates at 1320 °C, olivine (Fo 88 ) at ~1290 °C, plagioclase (An 77 ) at 1200 °C, and clinopyroxene (Mg#: 0.81) at 1180 °C. In melting experiments on picrite + gabbro mixtures, plagioclase (1230 °C, An 80 ) and clinopyroxene (1200 °C, Mg#: 0.85) saturation temperature and mode are increased significantly. Cr-spinel in these experiments has a distinctive, low Fe#. In melting experiments on picrite + troctolite mixtures, plagioclase (An 86 ) saturates at 1240 °C and clinopyroxene (Mg#: 0.81) at 1170 °C. Al-rich spinel crystallizes at high temperature (>1220 °C) and becomes more Cr-rich upon cooling, reaching the highest Cr# = 0.47 at 1180 °C (0.54 at QFM-1.2). The experimental results confirm that plagioclase and clinopyroxene stability plays a major role in determining the composition of coexisting spinel. Comparing our experimental results to the Rum Eastern Layered Intrusion, we propose a model for the precipitation of spinel from picrite–troctolite hybrid melt that is compatible with the observed olivine, plagioclase, and clinopyroxene chemistry.

We present major and trace element data on coexisting garnet and clinopyroxene from experiments carried out between 1.3 and 10 GPa and 970 and 1400 °C. We demonstrate that the lattice strain model, which was developed for applications to mineral-melt partitioning, can be adapted to garnet-clinopyroxene partitioning. Using new and published experimental data we develop a geothermometer for coexisting garnet and clinopyroxene using the concentration of rare earth elements (REE). The thermometer, which is based on an extension of the lattice strain model, exploits the tendency of minerals at elevated temperatures to be less discriminating against cations that are too large or too small for lattice sites. The extent of discrimination against misfit cations is also related to the apparent elasticity of the lattice site on which substitution occurs, in this case the greater stiffness of the dodecahedral X-site in garnet compared with the eightfold M2-site in clinopyroxene. We demonstrate that the ratio of REE in clinopyroxene to that in coexisting garnet is particularly sensitive to temperature. We present a method whereby knowledge of the major and REE chemistry of garnet and clinopyroxene can be used to solve for the equilibrium temperature. The method is applicable to any scenario in which the two minerals are in equilibrium, both above and below the solidus, and where the mole fraction of grossular in garnet is less than 0.4. Our method, which can be widely applied to both peridotitic and eclogitic paragenesis with particular potential for diamond exploration studies, has the advantage over commonly used Fe-Mg exchange thermometers in having a higher closure temperature because of slow interdiffusion of REE. The uncertainty in the calculated temperatures, based on the experimental data set, is less than ±80 °C.

Van Westrenen et al developed a predictive model for the partitioning of magnesium and a range of trivalent trace elements between garnet and anhydrous silicate melt as a function of pressure, temperature and bulk composition. The model for the magnesium partition coefficient is based on a thermodynamic description of the pyrope melting reaction between garnet and melt.

We present isothermal (885 °C) phase equilibrium experiments for a rhyodacite from Mount St. Helens (USA) at variable total pressure (25–457 MPa) and fluid composition (XH 2 O fl  = 0.6–1.0) under relatively oxidizing conditions (NNO to NNO + 3). Run products were characterized by SEM, electron microprobe, and SIMS. Experimental phase assemblages and phase chemistry are consistent with those of natural samples from Mount St. Helens from the last 4000 years. Our results emphasize the importance of pressure and melt H 2 O content in controlling phase proportions and compositions, showing how significant textural and compositional variability may be generated in the absence of mixing, cooling, or even decompression. Rather, variations in the bulk volatile content of magmas, and the potential for fluid migration relative to surrounding melts, mean that magmas may take varied trajectories through pressure–fluid composition space during storage, transport, and eruption. We introduce a novel method for projecting isothermal phase equilibria into CO 2 –H 2 O space (as conventionally done for melt inclusions) and use this projection to interpret petrological data from Mount St. Helens dacites. By fitting the experimental data as empirical functions of melt water content, we show how different scenarios of isothermal magma degassing (e.g., water-saturated ascent, vapor-buffered ascent, and vapor fluxing) can have quite different textural and chemical consequences. We explore how petrological data might be used to infer degassing paths of natural magmas and conclude that melt CO 2 content is a much more useful parameter in this regard than melt H 2 O.