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Abstract Mount Elbrus, Europe's tallest and largely glaciated volcano, is made of silicic lavas and is known for Holocene eruptions, but the size and state of its magma chamber remain poorly constrained. We report high spatial resolution U–Th–Pb zircon ages, co-registered with oxygen and hafnium isotopic values, span ~ 0.6 Ma in each lava, documenting magmatic initiation that forms the current edifice. The best-fit thermochemical modeling constrains magmatic fluxes at 1.2 km 3 /1000 year by hot (900 °C), initially zircon-undersaturated dacite into a vertically extensive magma body since ~ 0.6 Ma, whereas a volcanic episode with eruptible magma only extends over the past 0.2 Ma, matching the age of oldest lavas. Simulations explain the total magma volume of ~ 180 km 3 , temporally oscillating δ 18 O and εHf values, and a wide range of zircon age distributions in each sample. These data provide insights into the current state (~ 200 km 3 of melt in a vertically extensive system) and the potential for future activity of Elbrus calling for much-needed seismic imaging. Similar zircon records worldwide require continuous intrusive activity by magmatic accretion of silicic magmas generated at depths, and that zircon ages do not reflect eruption ages but predate them by ~ 10 3 to 10 5  years reflecting protracted dissolution–crystallization histories. 

Abstract The basalts of the 2021 Fagradalsfjall eruption were the first erupted on the Reykjanes Peninsula in 781 years and offer a unique opportunity to determine the composition of the mantle underlying Iceland, in particular its oxygen isotope composition (δ¹⁸O values). The basalts show compositional variations in Zr/Y, Nb/Zr and Nb/Y values that span roughly half of the previously described range for Icelandic basaltic magmas and signal involvement of Icelandic plume (OIB) and Enriched Mid-Ocean Ridge Basalt (EMORB) in magma genesis. Here we show that Fagradalsfjall δ¹⁸O values are invariable (mean δ¹⁸O = 5.4 ± 0.3‰ 2 SD,N = 47) and indistinguishable from “normal” upper mantle, in contrast to significantly lower δ¹⁸O values reported for erupted materials elsewhere in Iceland (e.g., the 2014–2015 eruption at Holuhraun, Central Iceland). Thus, despite differing trace element characteristics, the melts that supplied the Fagradalsfjall eruption show no evidence for¹⁸O-depleted mantle or interaction with low-δ¹⁸O crust and may therefore represent a useful mantle reference value in this part of the Icelandic plume system. 

The history of the growth of continental crust is uncertain, and several different models that involve a gradual, decelerating, or stepwise process have been proposed1,2,3,4. Even more uncertain is the timing and the secular trend of the emergence of most landmasses above the sea (subaerial landmasses), with estimates ranging from about one billion to three billion years ago5,6,7. The area of emerged crust influences global climate feedbacks and the supply of nutrients to the oceans8, and therefore connects Earth’s crustal evolution to surface environmental conditions9,10,11. Here we use the triple-oxygen-isotope composition of shales from all continents, spanning 3.7 billion years, to provide constraints on the emergence of continents over time. Our measurements show a stepwise total decrease of 0.08 per mille in the average triple-oxygen-isotope value of shales across the Archaean–Proterozoic boundary. We suggest that our data are best explained by a shift in the nature of water–rock interactions, from near-coastal in the Archaean era to predominantly continental in the Proterozoic, accompanied by a decrease in average surface temperatures. We propose that this shift may have coincided with the onset of a modern hydrological cycle owing to the rapid emergence of continental crust with near-modern average elevation and aerial extent roughly 2.5 billion years ago.