Zircon reveals protracted magma storage and recycling beneath Mount St. Helens

Abstract

Research Article| November 01, 2010 Zircon reveals protracted magma storage and recycling beneath Mount St. Helens Lily L. Claiborne; Lily L. Claiborne 1Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37240, USA Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Calvin F. Miller; Calvin F. Miller 1Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37240, USA Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Daniel M. Flanagan; Daniel M. Flanagan 1Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37240, USA Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Michael A. Clynne; Michael A. Clynne 2Volcano Hazards Team, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Joseph L. Wooden Joseph L. Wooden 3Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Geology (2010) 38 (11): 1011–1014. https://doi.org/10.1130/G31285.1 Article history received: 08 Apr 2010 rev-recd: 14 Jun 2010 accepted: 20 Jun 2010 first online: 09 Mar 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation Lily L. Claiborne, Calvin F. Miller, Daniel M. Flanagan, Michael A. Clynne, Joseph L. Wooden; Zircon reveals protracted magma storage and recycling beneath Mount St. Helens. Geology 2010;; 38 (11): 1011–1014. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/G31285.1 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGeology Search Advanced Search Abstract Current data and models for Mount St. Helens volcano (Washington, United States) suggest relatively rapid transport from magma genesis to eruption, with no evidence for protracted storage or recycling of magmas. However, we show here that complex zircon age populations extending back hundreds of thousands of years from eruption age indicate that magmas regularly stall in the crust, cool and crystallize beneath the volcano, and are then rejuvenated and incorporated by hotter, young magmas on their way to the surface. Estimated dissolution times suggest that entrained zircon generally resided in rejuvenating magmas for no more than about a century. Zircon elemental compositions reflect the increasing influence of mafic input into the system through time, recording growth from hotter, less evolved magmas tens of thousands of years prior to the appearance of mafic magmas at the surface, or changes in whole-rock geochemistry and petrology, and providing a new, time-correlated record of this evolution independent of the eruption history. Zircon data thus reveal the history of the hidden, long-lived intrusive portion of the Mount St. Helens system, where melt and crystals are stored for as long as hundreds of thousands of years and interact with fresh influxes of magmas that traverse the intrusive reservoir before erupting. You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.