Genesis of low-Ba rhyolite by reheating of a crystal mush: The case of the 29 ka White Pyroclastic Sequence, Guangoche stratovolcano, Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, central Mexico

Rhyolitic magmas are commonly related to explosive eruptions, and its precursors are almost absent that makes the volcanoes very dangerous for the communities around them. The knowledge of pre-eruptive conditions of such magmas is important to decipher the mechanisms capable to produce explosive eruptions. In this work we studied the Guangoche stratovolcano located to the southwest of the Los Azufres Volcanic Field in central Mexico. Guangoche has a horse-shoe shaped (1.6 km wide) crater, opened to the south, and a central rhyolitic dome. During late Pleistocene the volcano produced several explosive eruptions one of which occurred 29 ka and deposited the so-called White Pyroclastic Sequence (WPS). This sequence was emplaced by a Plinian-subplinian eruption of moderate size (VEI 5). This eruption ejected 0.5 km3 of rhyolitic magma and deposited a pumice fallout followed by three pumice rich pyroclastic flow deposits. White and banded juvenile pumice, used to determine pre-eruptive storage conditions with hydrothermal experiments, have similar mineralogy and chemical composition. Petrography, coupled with mineral chemical data and hydrothermal experiments, suggest that prior to eruption, the melt was a high-silica rhyolite (77.3 + 0.3 wt. % SiO2) stagnated at a water pressure of 130-170 MPa (assuming vapor saturation at depth), at a temperature of 762-793°C (on the basis of Fe-Ti oxide thermometry) and had a mineral assemblage of sanidine, plagioclase, biotite, hornblende, Fe-Ti oxides and zircon. Quartz-hosted melt inclusions indicate the presence of a relatively cold (536-759°C; TitaniQ geothermometer) quartz-feldespathic crystal body (crystal mush), stored at depths between 3.2 and 8.9 km (74-204 MPa), thus quartz probably represents partially assimilated xenocrysts. We propose that the 29 ka rhyolitic WPS magma was produced by reheating of a crystal mush that partially melted and incorporated quartz xenocrysts. This rhyolitic low-Ba, Eu, and Sr melt was stored within the crystal mush (5.7-7.4 km depth), where it experienced vesiculation and eventually fragmentation, producing the explosive Plinian-subplinian eruption.