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Volcanological studies coupled with detailed geochemistry can reveal important aspects regarding the melting and ascent processes of a magmatic body. The explosive part of the eruption giving rise to scoria and tephra deposits can hold a wealth of information which can complement chemical analyses of lava flows, however, it is often poorly exposed. A well-exposed scoria deposit and lava flow at the small eruptive center (SEC) San Jorge near Pucón in the Southern Volcanic Zone (SVZ), Chile, provides an opportunity to examine melting and storage processes in a primitive magma body almost in 'real time' through sampling up the stratigraphy of the deposit. This dataset comprises whole rock major and trace element chemistry, Sr–Nd and U-Th–Ra isotopes, in addition to mineral data through the eruption sequence. San Jorge whole rock compositions are unique in the area (MgO 10–12 wt%, SiO2 50–52 wt%, Cr 600–900 ppm) and the studied tephras extend to the highest uranium- and radium-excesses yet measured in the SVZ. The unusual composition of the volcanic material displays similarities to rocks from the arc-front stratovolcano Villarrica but is distinct from other stratovolcanoes in the area, which exhibit greater influence from sediment input to the source, crustal assimilation and prolonged storage. We model the San Jorge magmas as a mixture of melts originating from highly fluid-fluxed, depleted mantle and fractionated basalt from the same source, with increasing amounts of the latter component with progression of eruption. This suggests that San Jorge-like magmas were the main feeder of the longer lived system building Villarrica. Abrupt major element variations up-sequence additionally show a rapid switch to more fractionated compositions, indicating that storage and evolution through crystallization may have taken place once the initially wet melts 'dried out'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: U-series disequilibria provide important constraints on the processes and time scales of melt production, differentiation, and transport in subduction settings. Such constraints, which are essential for understanding the chemical evolution of the continental crust, are conventionally based on the assumption that the U-series disequilibria measured in mafic lavas are produced during mantle metasomatism and melting, and that intracrustal differentiation and assimilation have limited impacts. Here we show that mantle-derived U-series disequilibria in mafic lavas erupted at Volcán Llaima, Chile are significantly diminished by assimilation of plutonic rocks forming Llaima''s subvolcanic basement. This contamination process is extremely subtle in terms of “classical” indicators of crustal assimilation like Sr, Nd or Pb isotopes because it is a manifestation of assimilative recycling of the plutonic roots of the arc. This process results in variations in U-series disequilibria and incompatible trace element ratios that are significant compared to regional and global variability in arc magmas. Furthermore, it yields linear correlations between U-series excesses and incompatible trace element ratios that are generally interpreted as slab-fluid indicators and chronometers, or tracers of sediment recycling in subduction zone. Cannibalization of ancestral magmas by ascending melts warrants careful evaluation when considering the components and chemical fluxes in subduction zones. Linear arrays defined by activity ratios of U-series nuclides with different half-lives may be the most reliable indicators of assimilative recycling of ancestral intrusive magmas. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]