Using rocks to reveal the inner workings of magma chambers below volcanoes in Alaska’s National Parks

Alaska is one of the most vigorously volcanic regions on the planet, and Alaska’s national parks are home to many of the state’s most active volcanoes. These pose both local and more distant hazards in the form of lava and pyroclastic flows, lahars (mudflows), ash clouds, and ash fall. Alaska’s volcanoes lie along the arc of the Aleutian-Alaskan subduction zone, caused as the oceanic Pacific plate moves northward and dips below the North American plate. These volcanoes form as water-rich fluid from the down-going Pacific plate is released, lowering the melting temperature of rock in the overlying mantle and enabling it to partially melt. The melted rock (magma) migrates upward, collecting at the base of the approximately 25 mile (40 km) thick crust, occasionally ascending into the shallow crust, and sometimes erupting at the earth’s surface.

During volcanic unrest, scientists use geophysical signals to remotely visualize volcanic processes, such as movement of magma in the upper crust. In addition, erupted volcanic rocks, which are quenched samples of magmas, can tell us about subsurface magma characteris-tics, history, and the processes that drive eruptions. The chemical compositions of and the minerals present in the erupted magmas can reveal conditions under which these magmas were stored in crustal “chambers”. Studies of the products of recent eruptions of Novarupta (1912), Aniakchak (1931), Trident (1953-74), and Redoubt (2009) volcanoes reveal the depths and temperatures of magma storage, and tell of complex interactions between magmas of different compositions. One goal of volcanology is to determine the processes that drive or trigger eruptions. Information recorded in the rocks tells us about these processes. Here, we demonstrate how geologists gain these insights through case studies from four recent eruptions of volcanoes in Alaska national parks.