Beschreibung: We measured oxygen isotope compositions of 34 adakites, high-Mg andesites, and lavas suspected to contain abundant slab and sediment melts from the Western and Central Aleutians, the Andes, Panama, Fiji, Kamchatka, Setouchi (Japan), and the Cascades. This suite covers much of the diversity of arc lavas previously hypothesized to contain abundant ‘slab’ melts. Measured and calculated values of δ18O for olivine phenocrysts in these samples vary between 4.88‰ and 6.78‰, corresponding to calculated melt values of 6.36‰ to 8.17‰. Values of δ18O for these samples are correlated with other geochemical parameters having petrogenetic significance, including Sr/Y, La/Yb, 87Sr/86Sr, and 143Nd/144Nd. Archetypical adakites from Adak Island (Central Aleutian) and Cook Island (Andean Austral zone), previously interpreted to be nearly pure melts of basaltic and gabbroic rocks in subducting slabs, have values of δ18O slightly higher than those of normal mid-ocean-ridge basalts, and in oxygen isotope equilibrium with typical mantle peridotite (i.e., their subtle 18O enrichment reflects their Si-rich compositions and low liquidus temperatures, not 18O-rich sources). Other primitive adakites from Panama and Fiji show only subtle sub-per mil enrichments in the source. This finding appears to rule out the hypothesis that end-member adakites are unmodified partial melts of basaltic rocks and/or sediments in the top (upper 1–2 km) of the subducted slab, which typically have δ18O values of ca. 9–20‰, and also appears to rule out them being partial melts of hydrothermally altered gabbros from the slab interior, which typically have δ18O values of ca. 2–5‰. One explanation of this result is that adakites are mixtures of partial melts from several different parts of the slab, so that higher- and lower-δ18O components average out to have no net difference from average mantle. Alternatively, adakites might be initially generated with more extreme δ18O values, but undergo isotopic exchange with the mantle wedge before eruption. Finally, adakites might not be slab melts at all, and instead come from differentation and/or partial melting processes near the base of the arc crust in the over-riding plate. High-Mg andesites and Setouchi lavas are commonly higher in δ18O than equilibrium with the mantle, consistent with their containing variable amounts of partial melts of subducted sediments (as we conclude for Setouchi lavas), slab-derived aqueous fluid (as we conclude for the Cascades) and/or crustal contaminants from the over-riding plate (as we conclude for Kamchatka).

Beschreibung: The Kamchatka Peninsula in far eastern Russia represents the most volcanically active arc in the world in terms of magma production and the number of explosive eruptions. We investigate large-scale silicic volcanism in the past several million years and present new geochronologic results from major ignimbrite sheets exposed in Kamchatka. These ignimbrites are found in the vicinity of morphologically-preserved rims of partially eroded source calderas with diameters from ∼ 2 to ∼ 30 km and with estimated volumes of eruptions ranging from 10 to several hundred cubic kilometers of magma. We also identify and date two of the largest ignimbrites: Golygin Ignimbrite in southern Kamchatka (0.45 Ma), and Karymshina River Ignimbrites (1.78 Ma) in south-central Kamchatka. We present whole-rock geochemical analyses that can be used to correlate ignimbrites laterally. These large-volume ignimbrites sample a significant proportion of remelted Kamchatkan crust as constrained by the oxygen isotopes. Oxygen isotope analyses of minerals and matrix span a 3‰ range with a significant proportion of moderately low-δ18O values. This suggests that the source for these ignimbrites involved a hydrothermally-altered shallow crust, while participation of the Cretaceous siliceous basement is also evidenced by moderately elevated δ18O and Sr isotopes and xenocryst contamination in two volcanoes. The majority of dates obtained for caldera-forming eruptions coincide with glacial stages in accordance with the sediment record in the NW Pacific, suggesting an increase in explosive volcanic activity since the onset of the last glaciation 2.6 Ma. Rapid changes in ice volume during glacial times and the resulting fluctuation of glacial loading/unloading could have caused volatile saturation in shallow magma chambers and, in combination with availability of low-δ18O glacial meltwaters, increased the proportion of explosive vs effusive eruptions. The presented results provide new constraints on Pliocene–Pleistocene volcanic activity in Kamchatka, and thus constrain an important component of the Pacific Ring of Fire.