Variations in magma supply and magma partitioning: the role of tectonic settings

Magma supply rates for 200 years at Krafla and Lakagigar, Iceland, and those for 150 years at Kilauea and Mauna Loa, Hawaii, are estimated roughly, based on their geophysical and geological observations. A diagram that relates erupted volumes to eruption intervals at volcanoes under various tectonic settings is represented. These results lead to a new model that a large volume (1–10 km3) of magma is supplied intermittently at a long interval (102–104 years) beneath volcanoes in rift zones, while magma is supplied continuously with oscillations or fluctuations beneath intraplate volcanoes. Chemical data such as the MgO wt.% of lava may be one indicator in evaluating the magma supply rates of Hawaiian volcanoes. Systematic variation with time in magma partitioning within a volcano or to the surface is obtained in comparisons between among migration patterns of eruption sites, cumulative supplied volumes, and the volume ratios of erupted to supplied magma at Krafla and Kilauea. The variations suggest that a magma plumbing system may act under self-control (regulating) system through stress as one system. In response to a change in magma supply rate, the system partitions magma horizontally into dikes or vertically toward the surface. A large magma supply rate promotes the vertical extent of a crack to result in an eruption with a large volume ratio of erupted to supplied magma. This tendency is supported by field observations of flood basalts. The partitioned magma as dike intrusions suppresses magma supply partially in the shallow crust. Using analog experiments on liquid-filled cracks in gelatin, this paper demonstrates fundamental processes for magma partitioning on the effect of magma supply and stress change by the partitioned magma. A dynamical system of two differential equations on magma supply rate and stress around a magma plumbing system is proposed, to understand the qualitative variations in magma supply rate imposed by tectonic settings.