Abstract

The Plinian eruption in October 1902 of 8.5 km³of dacitic pumice and minor basaltic andesite scoria and ash at Volcán de Santa María, Guatemala violently interrupted a 25 kyr period of repose that had followed ∼75 kyr of cone-growth via extrusion of 8 km³ of basaltic andesite lava. Two-oxide and pyroxene thermometry reveal an oxidized (Ni-NiO+2 log units) and thermally-zoned magma body in which basaltic andesite with 54 wt% SiO₂ at 1020 °C and dacite with 65 wt% SiO₂ at 870 °C coexisted. Plagioclase in dacite pumice and basaltic andesite scoria shows remarkably similar zoning characterized by repeated excursions toward high anorthite and increases in Mg, Fe, and Sr associated with resorption surfaces along which dacitic to rhyolitic melt inclusions are trapped. The melt inclusions increase slightly in K₂O as SiO₂ increases from 69 to 77 wt%, whereas H₂O contents between 5.2 and 1.4 wt% drop with increasing K₂O. These observations suggest that crystallization of the plagioclase, and evolution of a high-silica rhyolitic residual melt, occurred mainly in the conduit as the compositionally-zoned magma body decompressed and degassed from >180 MPa, or >5 km depth, toward the surface. The similarity of plagioclase composition, zoning, and melt inclusion compositions in pumice and scoria suggests that crystals which grew initially in the cooler dacite, were exchanged between dacitic and basaltic andesite magma as the two magmas mingled and partially mixed en route to the surface. Since 1922>1 km³ of dacitic magma similar to the 1902 pumice has erupted effusively to form the Santiaguito dome complex in the 1902 eruption crater.

Trace element and Sr–Nd–Pb–O and U–Th isotope data indicate that cone-forming basaltic andesite lavas record processes operating in the deep crust in which wallrock heating sufficient to induce partial melting and assimilation involved several pulses of recharging mantle-derived basalt over at least 50 kyr. A fundamental shift in process coincides with the termination of cone-building at 25 ka: the 1902 dacite reflects >40% fractional crystallization of plagioclase+amphibole+clinopyroxene+magnetite from ∼20 km³ of basaltic andesite magma left-over following cone-building that cooled slowly without assimilating additional crust. Small contrasts in Sr–Nd–Pb ratios, a modest contrast in δ¹⁸O(WR), and a large difference in the (²³⁸U/²³⁰Th) activity ratio between the 1902 scoria and dacite indicate that these two magmas are not consanguineous, rather this basaltic andesite is likely a recent arrival in the system. A glass–whole rock–magnetite–amphibole ²³⁸U–²³⁰Th isochron of 9.5±2.5 ka for a 1972 Santiaguito dacite lava suggests that deeper, occluded portions of the silicic magma body, not erupted in 1902, incubated in the crust for at least 10 kyr prior to the 1902 eruption. Basaltic andesite inclusions in the Santiaguito dacite lava domes are interpreted to be modified remnants of the cone-forming magma parental to the 1902 dacite.