Petrogenesis of Voluminous Silicic Magma in Northeast Iceland

Neogene silicic volcanic complexes in the greater Borgarfjörður eystri area, NE-Iceland, are the focus of a petrological and geochemical investigation. The region contains the second-most voluminous occurrence of silicic rocks in Iceland, including caldera structures, inclined sheet swarms, extensive ignimbrite sheets, sub-volcanic rhyolites and silicic lava flows. Despite the relevance of these rocks to understand the generation of evolved magmas in Iceland, the area is geologically poorly studied [c.f. 1, 2, 3]. The voluminous occurrence of evolved rocks in Iceland (10-12 %) is very unusual for an ocean island or a mid-oceanic ridge, with a typical signal of magmatic bimodality, often called “Bunsen-Daly” compositional gap [e.g. 4, 5, 6]. The Bunsen-Daly Gap is a long-standing and fundamental issue in petrology and difficult to reconcile with continuous fractional crystallization as a dominant process in magmatic differentiation [7]. This implies that partial melting of hydrothermally altered crust may play a significant role. Our aim is to contribute to a solution to this issue by unravelling the origin, timing and evolution of voluminous evolved rhyolites in NE-Iceland. We use a combined petrological, textural, experimental and in-situ isotope approach on a comprehensive sample suite of intrusive and extrusive rocks, ranging from basaltic to silicic compositions. We are performing major, trace element and Sr-Nd-Hf-Pb-He-O isotope geochemistry, as well as U-Pb geochronology and Ar/Ar geochronology on rocks and mineral separates. Zircon oxygen isotope analysis will be performed in conjuction with zircon U-Pb geochronology for further assessment of the role of processes such as partial melting of hydrated country rock and/or fractional crystallization in generating Icelandic rhyolites. In addition, high pressure-temperature partial melting experiments aim to reproduce and further constrain natural processes. Using the combined data set we intend to produce a compre