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[1] New geochemical and isotopic data are presented for lavas from three sites in the Havre Trough-Lau Basin back arc and six volcanoes along the Kermadec arc. The back arc basalts range from MORB-like to arc-like in composition and contain a variable contribution from the underlying slab. The least contaminated MORB-like back arc lavas from 24°-29°S are low degree partial melts of a source with Pacific MORB isotopic characteristics. A transition occurs at 30°S between the strongly depleted northern Kermadec (and Tonga) arc lavas and the mildly depleted southern Kermadec arc lavas. This transition does not correlate with changes in the back arc extension rate or width but may reflect inhibited mantle wedge replenishment behind the shallower-dipping northern Kermadec-Tonga slab. Northern Kermadec lavas require mixing between two components: (1) depleted Havre Trough mantle and (2) fluid derived from altered MORB crust with a slight input of sediment lead. Inter-volcano differences in fluid compositions probably reflect local variations on the subducting slab rather than mineralogical variation in the mantle wedge. Southern Kermadec lavas require an additional component: (3) Pacific sediment melt. This sediment melt is only detected where the subduction rate is <7 cm/year, and requires thermal heating of the slab to >650°C before passing through the sub-arc melt generation zone.

Submarine hydrothermal vents and associated seafloor mineralization on the Tonga arc have been found for the first time, in the summit calderas of two shallow-water volcanoes, greatly extending the known areas and diversity of seafloor hydrothermal activity in the western Pacific region. The highest temperature vents (245-265 ؇C) occur at water depths of 385-540 m near the summit of one volcano at 24؇S. The vents are spatially related to basaltic dike swarms exposed at a summit cone and in the caldera walls. Clusters of large (to 10 m high) barite, anhydrite, and sulfide chimneys on the summit cone are vigorously discharging clear hydrothermal fluids with temperatures on the seawater boiling curve. There is abundant evidence of phase separation, which can be seen as flame-like jets of steam (H 2 O vapor) at the chimney orifices. Pyrite, marcasite, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite line the interiors of the highest temperature vents, similar to black smoker chimneys on the mid-ocean ridges.

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Quantifying hydrothermal venting at the boundaries of tectonic plates is an outstanding geoscience problem. Considerable progress has been made by detailed surveys along mid‐ocean ridges (MORs), but until recently little was known about fluid venting along volcanic arcs. We present the first systematic survey for hydrothermal venting along the 425‐km‐long south Tonga arc and new chemistry data for particle and thermal plumes previously reported along an adjacent 88‐km‐long section of the back‐arc Valu Fa Ridge (VFR). Eleven hydrothermal plumes, recognized by their anomalous light backscattering, Eh, temperature, pH, dissolved 3He, CH4, and total dissolvable Fe and Mn, were identified arising from seven volcanic centers along the arc. Five plumes on the VFR were characterized chemically. Vent field density for the south Tonga arc was 2.6 sites/100 km of arc front, comparable to that found by surveys of the Kermadec arc (1.9 to 3.8 sites/100 km) and to MORs in the eastern Pacific (average value for 2280 km of surveyed ridgecrest: 3.2 sites/100 km). A “vent gap” occurs along a 190 km section of the arc closest to the VFR, and a site density twice the average for MORs on the eastern edge of the Pacific plate was found on this part of the VFR (6.6 sites/100 km). We suggest magmas ascending under the adjacent south Tonga arc have been captured by the VFR. While chemical enrichments of plumes on the south Tonga arc were, in general, slightly less than those on the Kermadec arc, several instances of excessive anomalies in pH suggest a similar presence of fluids enriched in magmatic volatiles (CO2‐SO2‐H2S). Locally, venting on the VFR has contributed to accumulations of 3He, Fe, and Mn within the southern Lau basin. On a broader scale, our results provide considerable support for the notion that venting from intraoceanic arcs on the convergent margin of the Pacific plate adds significantly to the total hydrothermal input into the Pacific Ocean.

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Large-scale felsic volcanic systems are a common, but not ubiquitous, feature of volcanic arc systems in continental settings. However, in oceanic volcanic arcs the erupted materials are dominated by basalts and basaltic andesites, whereas intermediate compositions are rare and dacites and rhyolites relatively uncommon. The Kermadec arc is an intraoceanic convergent system in the SW Pacific. Volcanoes occur as a continuous arc that is mainly submarine. Despite its simple tectonic setting, felsic magmatism is widespread. In the Kermadec Islands, Macauley Volcano is a basaltic volcano that produced a large felsic eruption about 6000 years ago. A comparable pattern of magmatic evolution is seen on adjacent Raoul Volcano, where basaltic activity built the main edifice of the volcano and where activity during the last 3000 years has been characterized by felsic eruptions of varying size. Elsewhere in the Kermadec arc and in its northward extension, the Tonga arc, felsic eruptions are recorded from 11 of the 30 volcanoes for which petrographic information is available, and in many cases these are the most recent eruptions. Felsic europtions are a widespread recent feature of the arc, and the scale and extent of this magmatism appears to be unusual for a tectonically simple oceanic subduction system. One explanation of the origin of the felsic magmatism is prolonged fractional crystallization from a parental basalt composition, but modelling of the chemical compositions of the felsic rocks does not support this. A second explanation, albeit apparently at odds with the oceanic setting, is crustal anatexis. An important feature of the felsic eruptives from the Kermadec arc is that each tephra sequence or occurrence has a unique chemical composition, although all show the same generalized characteristics. We suggest that this feature supports a model of crustal anatexis rather than fractionation of a range of parental magmas. We also suggest that in the thermal evolution of an oceanic arc system the processes of underplating, together with the continuous magmatic (and thermal) flux, can generate a crustal thickness in which dehydration melting of underplated arc material generates felsic magmas. Further, this condition can represent a unique ‘adolescent’ stage in a developing oceanic arc, as once the felsic melts are extracted the lower crust becomes an infertile residue.