Widespread and Compositionally Diverse Magmatism Characterizes Late Holocene Time at Medicine Lake Volcano, California

Medicine Lake volcano in the southern Cascades is a high priority target for monitoring by the USGS Volcano Hazards Program. Ongoing subsidence focused on the central caldera along with fumarolic activity and an active geothermal system, as well as intermittent long-period seismic events indicate that the volcano is likely to erupt again. Nine eruptions have taken place at this very large rear-arc volcano since 5200 years ago. Their vents were widely distributed, scattered over an area of about 300 square km across the 2000-square-km volcano. The eruptions are well dated and occurred in three episodes at about 5 ka, 3 ka, and 1 ka. A remarkably diverse array of magmas ranging from basalt through rhyolite is represented. The 5-ka episode produced two caldera-focused dacitic eruptions. At ~3 ka, a north flank tholeiitic basalt eruption was followed by eruption of a south flank andesite. The 1-ka final episode produced a variety of compositions including west- and north-flank calc-alkaline mafic flows interspersed with fissure rhyolites erupted tangential to the caldera. The youngest and most spectacular rhyolite, and the youngest eruption at the volcano, is the 950-yr-old Glass Mountain flow. Quenched mafic magmatic inclusions record evidence of intrusions that did not independently reach the surface. The inclusions are present in five andesitic, dacitic, and rhyolitic host lavas, and were erupted in each of the three episodes. The mafic lavas and inclusions include both tholeiitic and calc-alkaline types and record complicated petrogenetic histories. Experimental evidence suggests that magmas were stored at 3-6 km prior to eruption, and that both wet and dry parental magmas were involved in generating the more silicic magmas. All eruptions took place from NW- to NE-trending alignments of vents, reflecting the overall E-W extensional tectonic environment. The interaction of tectonism and volcanism is a dominant influence at this subduction-related volcano, located where the western edge of the Basin and Range extensional province impinges on the Cascades arc. Recent online publications characterize the potential hazards of the volcano (http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2007/5174/a/) and provide a detailed geologic history and reference list (http://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/2927/).