Experimental Investigation of Trachydacite Magma Storage Prior to the 1257 Eruption of Mt Samalas

Abstract

The caldera-forming Samalas eruption of the Samalas-Rinjani volcanic complex on Lombok, Indonesia, in 1257 CE ranks as one of the most explosive and sulfur-rich eruptions of the last thousand years. Along with other significant events (e.g., Tambora 1815, El Chichón 1982), Samalas 1257 forms a class of powerful eruptions of magmas of intermediate alkaline composition which remain relatively understudied. This study aims to better understand the pre-eruptive magma reservoir conditions and volatile storage capacities of intermediate alkaline systems, using the 1257 Samalas eruption as a case study. Systematic partial-equilibrium experiments were run to constrain potential magma reservoir conditions (25–200 MPa and 850–1000°C) by examining changes in the chemistry and textures of experimental glass and mineral products. Natural trachydacite pumice from the 1257 Samalas eruption was used as the experimental charge for a series of water-saturated experiments run in cold-seal pressure vessels, buffered at an oxygen fugacity ƒO2 of NNO/NNO+1 log units. Assessing the match between natural and experimental glass compositions and mineral phases and textures, reveals that pre-eruptive magma reservoir conditions were between 875°C and 930°C and ca. 100–150 MPa (4.5 ± 1 km depth). Breakdown of experimental amphibole at pressures below 75 MPa, and plagioclase instability at 950°C/100 MPa, provide the strongest constraints on phase stabilities that are consistent with the magma storage region. In the observed temperature and pressure range, the natural compositions of plagioclase, amphibole and orthopyroxene are replicated in experimentally precipitated rims. Clinopyroxene and high anorthite plagioclase (An>64) in the natural mineral assemblage could not be replicated in the experiments, implying that these compositions most likely did not grow in the shallow pre-eruptive reservoir of Mt Samalas. The pre-eruptive storage depths of trachydacite magma are significantly shallower than the postulated magma storage at the currently-active basaltic-andesite magmatic system at Rinjani, and thus monitoring magma storage depth may be a useful indicator of changing magma composition in the future. Our findings show that highly explosive, VEI 7 eruptions of intermediate alkaline magma can be fed from a relatively limited range of storage pressures (100–150 MPa), suggesting accumulation of magma in one place, rather than the rapid extraction of magma from a vertically-extensive, transcrustal magma system.