The size and shape of Kilauea Volcano’s summit magma storage reservoir: a geochemical probe

One of the most important components of the magmatic plumbing system of Kilauea Volcano is the shallow (2–4 km deep) magma storage reservoir that underlies the volcano’s summit region. Nevertheless, the geometry (shape and size) of Kilauea’s summit reservoir is controversial. Two fundamentally different models for the reservoir’s shape have been proposed based on geophysical observations: a plexus of dikes and sills versus a single, ‘spherical’ magma body. Furthermore, the size of the reservoir is poorly constrained with estimates ranging widely from 0.08 to 40 km3. In this study, we use the temporal variations of Pb, Sr, and Nd isotope and incompatible trace element (e.g., La=Yb and Nb=Y) ratios of Kilauea’s historical summit lavas (1790–1982) to probe the geometry of the volcano’s summit reservoir. These lavas preserve a nearly continuous, 200-year record of the changes in the composition of the parental magma supplied to the volcano. The systematic temporal variations in lava chemistry at Kilauea since the early 19th century suggest that the shape of the volcano’s summit reservoir is relatively simple. Residence time analysis of these rapid geochemical fluctuations indicates that the volume of magma in Kilauea’s summit reservoir is only 3⁄42–3 km3, which is smaller than most geophysical estimates (2–40 km). This discrepancy can be explained if the volume calculated from lava chemistry represents the hotter, molten core of the reservoir in which magma mixing occurs, whereas the volumes estimated from geophysical data also include portions of the reservoir’s outer crystal-mush zone and a hot, ductile region that surrounds the reservoir. Although our volume estimate is small, the amount of magma stored within Kilauea’s summit reservoir since the early 19th century is an order of magnitude larger than the magma body supplying Piton de la Fournaise Volcano, another frequently active ocean-island volcano.  1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.