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A window on mantle-derived magmas within the Central Andes: eruption style transitions at Cerro Overo maar and La Albóndiga lava dome, northern Chile

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Abstract

Cerro Overo maar and La Albóndiga lava dome are two independent monogenetic volcanoes located in the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes in northern Chile, close to the active Lascar and Chiliques volcanoes. Cerro Overo maar was formed <77 ka ago by explosive-effusive eruptions, including phreatomagmatic activity, while La Albóndiga lava dome (Pleistocene) is the result of magmatic explosive-effusive activity alone. Cerro Overo and La Albóndiga are characterized by deposits composed of pyroclastic rocks and dense coherent lava blocks. At Cerro Overo, these deposits are located around the crater rim, while at La Albóndiga, they form coherent in situ lava dome features. Cerro Overo also displays thin ash- and lapilli-dominated deposit layers presumed to be pyroclastic surge deposits, which include juvenile pyroclasts exhibiting cauliflower textures, numerous exotic accidental lithics, and ballistically transported lapilli, bombs, blocks, and bomb sags. These fragments include recycled, juvenile pyroclasts, as well as material from older volcanic and intrusive rocks from the stratigraphic units immediately below. These small-volume volcanoes represent two of the less silicic volcanoes (~54 wt.% SiO2) in the northern Chilean Pleistocene to Holocene volcanic provinces. They are characterized by a fine grain size (mainly fine lapilli), olivine phenocrysts with skeletal textures, ignimbritic, dioritic, and granitic xenoliths, and quartz xenocrysts, with high concentrations of incompatible trace elements and light rare earth elements. The general magmatic evolution of the Cerro Overo and La Albóndiga systems has been controlled by fast ascent (e.g., skeletal olivine phenocrysts) of mantle-derived magma associated with mixing, fractional crystallization, and a low degree of crustal assimilation during turbulent ascent processes. Such eruptions provide evidence that various factors play an essential role in the transition from explosive-effusive magmatic (Cerro Overo and La Albóndiga) to phreatomagmatic (Cerro Overo) volcanic eruption styles.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Dr. J. A. Stammeier (GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences), Heike Rothe (GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences), Irene Alfaro (Universidad Católica del Norte), and Fernando Alvarez (Universidad Católica del Norte) for assisting with chemical analyses. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Mary T. Lavin-Zimmer and Dr. Andrew Harris (Executive Editor) for reviewing and English editing of the draft and make useful suggestions on presentation style. The authors highly appreciate the time and effort of Dr. Jacopo Taddeucci (Deputy Editor) and the anonymous reviewers for their comments to improve this manuscript. Besides, the authors wish to thank all members of the Núcleo de Investigación en Riesgo Volcánico - Ckelar Volcanes group for fruitful discussions and support during fieldwork.

Funding

This study is part of G.U. Ph.D. thesis, which is funded by CONICYT-PCHA Doctorado Nacional 2016-21161286 fellowship and supported by the Universidad Católica del Norte. This research was funded by the Antofagasta Regional Government, FIC-R project, code BIP N°30488832-0 and by CONICYT-PAI MEC 2017-80170048; based on the Memorandum of Understanding of Research Cooperation between Universidad Católica del Norte and Massey University.

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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, sampling, and data collection were performed by Gabriel Ureta, Károly Németh, and Felipe Aguilera. Martin Zimmer and Andrew Menzies performed laboratory analyses. Gabriel Ureta wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Gabriel Ureta.

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Editorial responsibility: J. Taddeucci

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Ureta, G., Németh, K., Aguilera, F. et al. A window on mantle-derived magmas within the Central Andes: eruption style transitions at Cerro Overo maar and La Albóndiga lava dome, northern Chile. Bull Volcanol 83, 19 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-021-01446-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-021-01446-3

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