Oxidation during magma mixing recorded by symplectites at Kusatsu–Shirane Volcano, Central Japan

Abstract

Abstract Kusatsu–Shirane Volcano is an active Quaternary andesitic-to-dacitic volcano located in the Central Japan Arc. We conducted a detailed petrological investigation of orthopyroxene (opx)–magnetite (mt) symplectites associated with olivine in the Sessho lava, an andesitic lava flow from Kusatsu–Shirane. We concluded that the symplectites are pseudomorphs after olivine and were formed through the breakdown of olivine in a mafic magma as a result of oxidation during mixing with a felsic magma. Various olivines and opx–mt symplectites that show different stages of the progressive breakdown reaction of olivine coexist in a single lava flow. We suggest that basaltic recharge into the magma reservoir beneath Kusatsu–Shirane occurred repeatedly, leading to a hybrid andesite magma with different types of olivine and symplectite being erupted at Kusatsu–Shirane Volcano.

Keywords

• Kusatsu–Shirane
• Andesite
• Symplectite
• Magma mixing
• Olivine
• Active volcano