Ricerc@Sapienza

My project is focused on fifteen eruptive products (i.e., scoriae, lava flows, lava domes, and lava dykes) erupted at Vulcano Island (Aeolian Arc, Italy) over a long period of time from 54 to 8 ka and representative of Eruptive Epochs from 5 to 8, according to the chronostratigraphy of the last geological map. I investigate both high-K calc-alkaline and shoshonitic rocks, with compositions changing from primitive basalts-shoshonites (Mg#35-60) to intermediate latites (Mg#32-54) to evolved trachytes-rhyolites (Mg#23-40), focusing on the clinopyroxene population. The architecture of the plumbing system at Vulcano Island is characterized by multiple reservoirs continuously refilled by more mafic magma in which compositionally distinct magmas pond and undergo mixing and polybaric-polythermal differentiation, before erupting to the surface. This project seeks to integrate the textural and microchemical analyses of zoned clinopyroxenes from Vulcano products with new petrological tools developed in the recent years for accurately estimating the pressure, temperature, melt-water content, and residence time of magma before eruption. The intensive variables driving the crystallization path of magmas are reconstructed through mineral-melt equilibrium and thermodynamic models, as well as barometers, thermometers, hygrometers and oxygen barometers. A new diffusion chronometry modelling named NIDIS (Non-Isothermal Diffusion Incremental Step model) allows to calculate the timescales of pre-eruptive magmatic processes in active volcanic systems in order to understand magma chamber dynamics and the triggers for volcanic eruptions.