Magmatism is responsible for hazardous volcanic eruptions and the formation of valuable economic mineral deposits. Understanding the budget of magmatic volatiles and metals, as well as the physical and chemical mechanisms that control their transfer, is of great importance to our society. For instance, large volcanic eruptions are a significant contributor of natural greenhouse gases (e.g. CO2, CH4, SO2) influencing Earth’s climate, while ore-deposits related to magmatic systems provide crucial resources in the transition towards carbon-neutral technologies. Because the trans-crustal evolution of magmas dictates whether a magmatic system culminates in a volcanic eruption, pluton or economic mineralization, it is particularly important to characterize magmatic processes at all crustal levels including magma crystallization, mixing, assimilation, element partitioning, volatile (H2O, CO2, S) saturation, exsolution, and degassing processes. Each process imparts distinct signatures during magma evolutionary pathways and plays a critical role in the volatile and metal evolution of the melt.

Volatiles represent key elements in magmatic and hydrothermal systems, e.g., volatiles influence the generation of different types of magmas (tholeiitic vs. calc-alkaline), the style of volcanic eruptions, and metals solubility in melts and hydrothermal fluids. Volcanic eruptions can discharge prodigious quantities of volatiles and metals into the atmosphere, including metal fluxes that are comparable to the ones that form large ore deposits. Yet, the main factors that control volatiles and metals solubilities during magma differentiation in the lithosphere, and the subsequent partitioning into a fluid/gas phases remain not fully understood. Thus, it is also still debated which chemical and/or physical mechanisms dictate whether magmatic systems end up producing large eruptions, barren plutons or intrusions associated with large ore deposits.

This Research Topic welcomes studies that examine the magmatic processes that control the evolution of volatiles and metals in subduction-related and intra-plate magmatic systems, from melt generation in the mantle, to final crystallization and fluid exsolution in the upper crust at the near surface. We also aim to improve our understanding of volatiles and metals solubilities in magmas, with a special emphasis on elements that are key to form ore deposits and/or susceptible to impact global climate (H2O, CO2, H2S, SO4, Cu, Au, Mo, Ag, Sn, W, Pb, Zn, Critical minerals).

We encourage studies within the fields of petrology, volcanology, and economic geology that focus on geological observations, experimental petrology, geochemistry, geochronology, geophysics, and numerical modelling to bring new insights into the evolution of these lithosphere-scale magmatic systems and how they drive the crustal volatile and metal budgets. To achieve this goal, this Research Topic aims to address 3 major questions:

1. What are the timescales and the role of magma supply rates, storage and pre-eruptive behaviour to initiate or prevent eruptions and the formation of ore deposits?

2. Which chemical and physical parameters lead magmatic processes to form large eruptions vs. large ore deposits?

3. What predicting tools can be developed studying active and fossil magmatic systems?

This Research Topic calls for a broad range of research in both arc and intraplate geological settings, which combine field observations on active and fossil magmatic systems, experimental petrology (including melt-metal partitioning, volatile solubilities, and ore-bearing fluid thermodynamic properties), elemental and isotopic geochemistry (whole-rock and/or in-situ mineral, melt and fluid), geochronology (U-Pb, noble gases, mineral diffusion), geophysics (imaging crustal melt reservoirs, major structural pathways); theoretical as well as numerical modelling (e.g. thermal magma modelling, reactive flow modelling).

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Frontiers in Earth Science

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