Project Details
Projekt
Timescales of processes in magma mush zones – a case study from Pulvermaar, Eifel Volcanic Field, Germany
Subject Area
Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry
Term
since 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 405665352
This project is targeted as a field test of the tools developed in this Research Unit, at the same time as a pressing problem in volcanology with immediate societal relevance to Germany is addressed. A special set of samples from the Eifel Volcanic Field record the evolution of more or less the same melt composition (melilite nephelinite) in a slowly cooling plutonic as well as a rapidly quenched volcanic setting. These are plutonic nodules coated with lava that are found in many of the maar deposits (e.g. Pulvermaar, Dauner Maar). The interesting feature from the point of view of this Research Unit, in addition to the variation in cooling rates, is the occurrence of compositionally zoned olivines and pyroxenes - two minerals which play a central role in TP1 and TP3 (of both the first as well as the second cycle of the Research Unit). In combination with phase equilibrium data from TP4 and the modeling of textural evolution (TP5), the modeling of these compositional zonings should provide an area for (a) testing the diffusion data and isotopic methods, and (b) joint application of all the tools. This will lead to the determination of robust timescales for subsurface evolution of such systems before eruption. Given the recent detection of seismic activity in the region at mid-crustal depths (i.e. the depth where the plutonic rocks resided before disruption), the results could contribute toward a better understanding of the significance of the seismic signals. This information is of societal relevance in this well populated region of Central Europe.
DFG Programme
Research Units
Subproject of
FOR 2881:
Diffusion Chronometry of magmatic systems
