AgeSpectraAnalyst: A MATLAB based package to model zircon age distributions in silicic magmatic systems


Loading...

Date

2023-12

Publication Type

Journal Article

ETH Bibliography

yes

Citations

Altmetric

Data

Abstract

In the last decade, improvements in the analytical precision achievable by zircon U-Pb geochronological techniques have allowed to resolve complexities of zircon crystallization histories in magmatic rocks to an unprecedented level. A number of studies have strived to link resolvable dispersion in zircon age spectra of samples from fossil magmatic systems to the physical parameters of their parent magma bodies. However, the methodologies developed have so far been limited to reproduce the effect of simple thermal histories on the final distribution of zircon ages. In this work we take a more nuanced approach, fine-tuning a thermodynamics-based zircon saturation model to predict the relative distribution of zircon ages in samples from silicic magma reservoirs experiencing open-system processes (e.g. heat/mass addition, mechanical mixing). Employing the MATLAB package (AgeSpectraAnalyst) presented in this contribution: • Users can forward model the effect that diverse thermal histories and mechanical mixing processes characteristic of silicic magma bodies have on zircon age distributions as measured by high-precision, chemical abrasion thermal ionization mass spectrometry (CA-ID-TIMS) U-Pb geochronology. • Zircon CA-ID-TIMS datasets from silicic magmatic systems can be easily compared with model output to gain semi-quantitative information on thermo-mechanical history of the system of interest. • We demonstrated (Tavazzani et al., in press) that distribution of high-precision zircon ages in crystallized remnants of shallow (∼ 250 MPa), silicic magma reservoirs can discriminate between systems that experienced catastrophic, caldera-forming eruptions and systems that underwent monotonic cooling histories.

Publication status

published

Editor

Book title

Journal / series

Volume

11

Pages / Article No.

102406

Publisher

Elsevier

Event

Edition / version

Methods

Software

Geographic location

Date collected

Date created

Subject

Zircon; Open-system; Rhyolite-MELTS; Monte Carlo; Granites; Rhyolites; Caldera; Eruption

Organisational unit

09656 - Chelle-Michou, Cyril / Chelle-Michou, Cyril check_circle
03958 - Bachmann, Olivier / Bachmann, Olivier check_circle

Notes

Funding

Related publications and datasets