Eruptive history of western and central Aeolian Islands volcanoes (South Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy): temporal evolution of magmatism and of morphological structures

The Aeolian Island archipelago is a complex volcanic province located on the continental margin of the Calabro-Peloritan basement. It emplaced in a geodynamic setting linked to the convergence of African and European plates. In this study, we focused on the western and central volcanoes that are respectively Alicudi-Filicudi-Salina and Lipari-Vulcano. They erupted the whole range of magmas typical of convergence settings : from calc-alkaline (CA) to potassic series (KS) through high-K CA (HKCA) and shoshonitic series (SHO). All these magma products were emitted in a span time of less than 300 ka that attests to the complexity of the volcano-tectonic evolution of this province. We report new geochronological data, based on the K/Ar Cassignol-Gillot technique, which is well suited for dating Quaternary volcanic materials. New geochemical analyses were realized on the dated samples in order to study the temporal evolution of the magmatism. These data sets were coupled with geomorphological analysis to study the relation between main morphological structures and eruptive styles. Before 180 ka, only the Filicudi, Salina and Lipari volcanoes had emerged activity. Their magmas have relatively the same CA composition, whereas some Lipari lavas have early HKCA affinity. Around 120-130 ka, Alicudi and Vulcano emerged simultaneously at the extremities of the archipelago. Alicudi products are less various and have the more primitive composition. SHO and HKCA products were emitted on Lipari and Vulcano, while only CA magmas were emplaced on Filicudi and Salina. After 40 ka, the last activity of Filicudi is characterized by mafic magmas of HKCA affinity. To the other extremity, similar products of SHO affinity were emplaced in southern Lipari and northern Vulcano. At this period, explosive activity with dacitic pumices occurred in Salina. The degree of differentiation and the K enrichment increase from western sector to central sector volcanoes and through time except at Filicudi. At the scale of the archipelago, two main magma composition changes occurred around 120 and 40 ka. However, at smaller space and time-scales, the magmatic evolution is more complex reflecting different processes specific to each volcano.