<p>All active polygenetic volcanoes erupt magma sourced from a shallow crustal reservoir. &#160;Those chambers are complex entities that act as a collector of magma originating from deeper crustal sources. The geometry of those active storage systems depends on the rheology of the magma and on the rock properties of the host. Studying how the geometry influences the eruptive behaviour of a magma chamber has implications for our understanding of volcanic hazard.<br>We introduced a simple model where a magma reservoir is cooled by an overlying geothermal system and recharged by a deeper magma source. The geometry of the chamber is defined by its volume and aspect ratio. The model tracked changes in pressure, mixture enthalpy and composition, and implemented parameterisations of eruption, hydrothermal cooling, viscoelastic relaxation, and volatile leakage. The thermodynamic properties of the melt, crystals and water were computed using rhyolite-MELTS.<br>A large number of simulations sweeping our parameter space gave us insight into how the different magmatic processes trade off with respect to the geometry of the inclusion. An example of the complex control of geometry on the eruptive behaviour can be made regarding cooling and the effective compressibility of an ellipsoidal inclusion. On the one hand, a larger aspect ratio will favor eruptibility by offering a larger area for cooling therefore increasing the exsolution of water and pressure build up. On the other hand, a larger aspect ratio will work against eruptibility by decreasing the compressibility making it harder to build overpressures within the chamber. We found that a specific geometry is required in order for a chamber to erupt without any external stimuli (such as a large recharge event).<br>A limiting factor of our model is the assumption of a perfect mixing. Whereas, in reality, we would expect recharge, cooling and leakage to occur within specific regions of the chamber. In a model where mixing is not considered perfect, those processes would be a source of heterogeneity. We could conjecture that under the right conditions, eruptible regions would appear within the chamber. A model focusing more on the flows within the chamber might be able to give additional insights on the eruptive behaviour of magma chambers.</p>
<p>Hydrothermal fluids can alter the chemical and physical properties of the materials through which they pass and can therefore modify the efficiency of fluid circulation. The role of hydrothermal alteration in the development of geothermal and epithermal mineral resources, systems that require the efficient hydrothermal circulation provided by fracture networks, is investigated here from a petrophysical standpoint using samples collected from a well exposed and variably altered palaeo-hydrothermal system hosted in the Ohakuri ignimbrite deposit in the Taup&#333; Volcanic Zone (New Zealand). Our new laboratory data show that, although quartz and adularia precipitation reduces matrix porosity and permeability, it increases the uniaxial compressive strength, Young&#8217;s modulus, and propensity for brittle behaviour. The fractures formed in highly altered rocks containing quartz and adularia are also more planar than those formed in their less altered counterparts. All of these factors combine to enhance the likelihood that a silicified rock-mass will host permeability-enhancing fractures. Indeed, the highly altered silicified rocks of the Ohakuri ignimbrite deposit are much more fractured than less altered outcrops. By contrast, smectite alteration at the margins of the hydrothermal system does not significantly increase strength or Young&#8217;s modulus, or significantly decrease permeability, and creates a relatively unfractured rock-mass. Using our new laboratory data, we provide permeability modelling that shows that the equivalent permeability of a silicified rock-mass will be higher than that of a less altered rock-mass or a rock-mass characterised by smectite alteration, the latter of which provides a low-permeability cap required for an economically viable hydrothermal resource. Our new data show, using a petrophysical approach, how hydrothermal alteration can produce rock-masses that are both suitable for geothermal energy exploitation (high-permeability reservoir and low-permeability cap) and more likely to host high-grade epithermal mineral veins, such as gold and silver (localised fluid flow).</p>
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