Petrologic evidence of a complex plumbing system feeding the July–August 2001 eruption of Mt. Etna,Sicily, Italy |
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| Authors: | Rosa Anna Corsaro Lucia Miraglia Massimo Pompilio |
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| Institution: | (1) Sezione di Catania, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Piazza Roma, 2, 95123 Catania, Italy;(2) Sezione di Pisa, Istituto Nazionale Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Via della Faggiola, 32, 56126 Pisa, Italy |
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| Abstract: | After the major 1991–1993 eruption, Mt. Etna resumed flank activity in July 2001 through a complex system of eruptive fissures
cutting the NE and the S flanks of the volcano and feeding effusive activity, fire fountains, Strombolian and minor phreatomagmatic
explosions. Throughout the eruption, magmas with different petrography and composition were erupted. The vents higher than
2,600 m a.s.l. (hereafter Upper vents, UV) erupted porphyritic, plagioclase-rich trachybasalt, typical of present-day summit
and flank activity. Differently, the vents located at 2,550 and 2,100 m a.s.l. (hereafter Lower vents, LV) produced slightly
more primitive trachybasalt dominated by large clinopyroxene, olivine and uncommon minerals for Etna such as amphibole, apatite
and orthopyroxene and containing siliceous and cognate xenoliths. Petrologic investigations carried out on samples collected
throughout the eruption provided insights into one of the most intriguing aspects of the 2001 activity, namely the coeval
occurrence of distinct magmas. We interpret this evidence as the result of a complex plumbing system. It consists in two separate
magma storage systems: a shallow one feeding the activity of the UV and a deeper and more complex storage related to the activity
of LV. In this deep storage zone, which is thermally and compositionally zoned, the favourable conditions allow the crystallization
of amphibole and the occurrence of cognate xenoliths representing wall cumulates. Throughout 2001 eruption, UV and LV magmas
remain clearly distinct and ascended following different paths, ruling out the occurrence of mixing processes between them.
Furthermore, integrating the 2001 eruption in the framework of summit activity occurring since 1995, we propose that the 2001
magma feeding the vents lower than 2,600 m a.s.l. is a precursor of a refilling event, which reached its peak during the 2002–2003
Etna flank eruption. |
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| Keywords: | Mt Etna Flank eruption Amphibole Xenoliths Petrologic monitoring Plumbing system Eruption dynamics |
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