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The iconic volcanoes of the Cascade arc stretch from Lassen Volcanic Center in northern California, through Oregon and Washington, to the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt in British Columbia. Recent studies have reviewed differences in the distribution and eruptive volumes of vents, as well as variations in geochemical compositions and heat flux along strike (amongst other characteristics). We investigate whether these along‐arc trends manifest as variations in magma storage conditions. We compile available constraints on magma storage depths from InSAR, geodetics, seismic inversions, and magnetotellurics for each major edifice and compare these to melt inclusion saturation pressures, pressures calculated using mineral‐only barometers, and constraints from experimental petrology. The availability of magma storage depth estimates varies greatly along the arc, with abundant geochemical and geophysical data available for some systems (e.g., Lassen Volcanic Center, Mount St. Helens) and very limited data available for other volcanoes, including many which are classified as “very high threat” by the USGS (e.g., Glacier Peak, Mount Baker, Mount Hood, Three Sisters). Acknowledging the limitations of data availability and the large uncertainties associated with certain methods, available data are indicative of magma storage within the upper 15 km of the crust (∼2 ± 2 kbar) beneath the main edifices. These findings are consistent with previous work recognizing barometric estimates cluster within the upper crust in many arcs worldwide. There are no clear offsets in magma storage between arc segments that are in extension, transtension or compression, although substantially more petrological work is needed for fine scale evaluation of storage pressures.

 

Understanding the processes that initiate volcanic eruptions after periods of quiescence are of paramount importance to interpreting volcano monitoring signals and mitigating volcanic hazards. However, studies of eruption initiation mechanisms are rarely systematically applied to high-risk volcanoes. Studies of erupted materials provide important insight into eruption initiation, as they provide direct insight into the physical and chemical changes that occur in magma reservoirs prior to eruptions, but are also often underutilized. Petrologic and geochemical studies can also constrain the timing of processes involved in eruption initiation, and the time that might be expected to elapse between remote detection of increased activity and eventual eruption. A compilation and analysis of literature data suggests that there are statistical differences in the composition, volume, style and timescales between eruptions initiated by different mechanisms. Knowledge of the processes that initiate eruptions at a given volcano may thus have significant predictive power. 

Abstract The composition of clinopyroxene and clinopyroxene-liquid (Cpx-Liq) pairs are frequently used to calculate crystallization/equilibration pressures in igneous systems. While canonical uncertainties are often assigned to calculated pressures based on fits to calibration or test datasets, the sources of these uncertainties (and thus ways to reduce them) have not been rigorously assessed. We show that considerable uncertainties in calculated pressures arise from analytical error associated with Electron Probe Microanalyser (EPMA) measurements of Cpx. Specifically, low X-ray counts during analysis of elements with concentrations <1 wt% resulting from insufficient count times and/or low beam currents yield highly imprecise measurements (1σ errors of 10–40% for Na2O). Low analytical precision propagates into the calculation of pressure-sensitive mineral components such as jadeite. Using Monte Carlo approaches, we demonstrate that elemental variation resulting from analytical precision alone generates pressures spanning ~4 kbar (~15 km) for a single Cpx and ~6 kbar for a single Cpx-Liq pair using popular barometry expressions. In addition, analytical uncertainties in mineral compositions produce highly correlated arrays between pressure and temperature that have been previously attributed to transcrustal magma storage. Before invoking such geological interpretations, a more mundane origin from analytical imprecision must be ruled out. Most importantly, low analytical precision does not just affect the application of barometers to natural systems; it has also affected characterization of Cpx in experimental products used to calibrate and test barometers. The impact of poor precision on each individual measurement is often magnified by the small number of measurements made within experimental charges, meaning that low analytical precision and true variability in mineral compositions have not been sufficiently mediated by averaging multiple EPMA analyses. We compile the number of Cpx measurements performed in N = 307 experiments used to calibrate existing barometers, and N = 490 new experiments, finding ~45% of experiment charges were characterized by ≤5 individual Cpx analyses. Insufficient characterization of the true composition of experimental phases likely accounts for the fact that all Cpx-based barometers exhibit large errors (± 3 kbar) when tested using global experimental datasets. We suggest specific changes to analytical and experimental protocols, such as increased count times and/or higher beam currents when measuring low concentration elements in relatively beam resistant Cpx in experiments and natural samples. We also advocate for increasing the number of analyses per experimental charge, resolving interlaboratory analytical offsets and improving data reporting. Implementing these changes is essential to produce a more robust dataset to calibrate and test the next generation of more precise and accurate Cpx-based barometers. In turn, this will enable more rigorous investigation of magma storage geometries in a variety of tectonic settings (e.g. distinguishing true transcrustal storage vs. storage in discrete reservoirs). 

We present Thermobar, a new open-source Python3 package for calculating pressures, temperatures, and melt compositions from mineral and mineral-melt equilibrium. Thermobar allows users to perform calculations with >100 popular parametrizations involving liquid, olivine-liquid, olivine-spinel, pyroxene only, pyroxene-liquid, two pyroxene, feldspar-liquid, two feldspar, amphibole only, amphibole-liquid, and garnet equilibria. Thermobar is the first open-source tool which can match up all possible pairs of phases from a given region, and apply various equilibrium tests to identify pairs from which to calculate pressures and temperatures (e.g. pyroxene-liquid, two pyroxene, feldspar-liquid, two feldspar, amphibole-liquid). Thermobar also contains functions allowing users to propagate analytical errors using Monte-Carlo methods, convert pressures to depths using different crustal density profiles, plot mineral classification and mineral-melt equilibrium diagrams, calculate liquid viscosities, and convert between oxygen fugacity values, buffer positions and Fe speciation in a silicate melt. Thermobar can be downloaded using pip and extensive documentation is available at https://thermobar.readthedocs.io/. 

Abstract Several geothermobarometric tools have focused on clinopyroxene due to its prevalence in igneous rocks, however clinopyroxene produced in high-silica igneous systems is high in iron and low in aluminum, causing existing geothermometers that depend on aluminum exchange to fail or yield overestimated temperatures. Here we present a new clinopyroxene-liquid geothermometer recommended for use in natural igneous systems with bulk SiO2 ≥ 70 wt%, which contain clinopyroxene with Mg# ≤ 65 and Al2O3 ≤ 7 wt%. (1) T ( ∘ C ) = 300 [ − 1.89 − 0.601 ( X CaTs Cpx ) − 0.186 ( X DiHd 2003 Cpx ) + 4.71 ( X SiO 2 liq ) + 77.6 ( X TiO 2 liq ) + 10.9 ( X FeO liq ) + 33.6 ( X MgO liq ) + 15.5 ( X CaO liq ) + 15.6 ( X KO 0.5 liq ) ] The new geothermometer lowers calculated temperatures by ~85 °C on average relative to Putirka (2008, Eq. 33) and reduces the uncertainty by a factor of two (standard error of estimate ±20 °C). When applied to natural systems, we find this new clinopyroxene-liquid geothermometer reconciles many inconsistencies between experimental phase equilibria and preexisting geothermometry results for silicic volcanism, including those from the Bishop Tuff and Yellowstone caldera-forming and post-caldera rhyolites. We also demonstrate that clinopyroxene is not restricted to near-liquidus temperatures in rhyolitic systems; clinopyroxene can be stable over a broad temperature range, often down to the solidus. An Excel spreadsheet and Python notebook for calculating temperature with this new geothermometer may be downloaded from GitHub at http://bit.ly/cpxrhyotherm.