Oxygen and hydrogen investigation of volcanic rocks: Petrogenesis to paleoclimate

• Main Author: Seligman, Angela
• Other Authors: Bindeman, Ilya
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Oregon 2016
• Subjects: isotopes; paleoclimatology; volcanology; Kamchatka
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1794/20547

Knowledge of the isotopic evolution of volcanic eruptions is essential to volcanologists, geochemists, and paleoclimatologists. I isotopically evaluate the evolution of magmas from their initial formation, to eruption, and then to their alteration during the diffusion of environmental waters into volcanic glass. I focus first on the formation and evolution of large, caldera-forming eruptions from both Gorely volcano in Kamchatka, Russia and 30–40 Ma caldera forming eruptions through Oregon in the United States of America. I utilize oxygen (δ18O), hafnium (εHf), strontium (87Sr/86Sr), and neodymium (143Nd/144Nd) isotopes to document the creation of caldera-forming eruptions at these eruptive centers through the melting of surrounding crust. I also use U-Pb and 40Ar/39Ar to document the timescales of the formation of these large-volume silicic eruptions. Following eruption, the volcanic glass in tephra and ash can slowly take in environmental water. It is thought that the hydrogen isotopic ratio (δD) of these waters can be used to determine paleoenvironments from the time that the volcanic glass was deposited. The latter portion of my dissertation focuses on the use of hydrogen isotopes of environmentally hydrated volcanic glass to determine paleoenvironments, and the calibration of the TCEA to analyze oxygen isotopes of hydrated volcanic glass. I first focus on the rate of diffusion of water at ambient temperature to better understand the time frame necessary to hydrate volcanic glass for use as a paleoenvironmental indicator. I also document the hydrogen isotopic ratios that result from the diffusion of water into volcanic glass, which is documented as a decrease in δD with an increase in secondary hydration in all regions worldwide except equatorial. Finally, I focus on the earliest stages of diffusion of water into volcanic glass by analyzing tephra deposits that were collected within days of the 1980 eruptions of Mount St. Helens as well as tephra deposits recently collected in 2015 to identify changes in ...