Nature Geoscience 2017-07-10

A reverse energy cascade for crustal magma transport

Leif Karlstrom, Scott R. Paterson, A. Mark Jellinek

Index: 10.1038/ngeo2982

Full Text: HTML

Abstract

Direct constraints on the ascent, storage and eruption of mantle melts come primarily from exhumed, long-frozen intrusions. These structures, relics of a dynamic magma transport network, encode how Earth’s crust grows and differentiates over time. Furthermore, they connect mantle melting to an evolving distribution of surface volcanism. Disentangling magma transport processes from the plutonic record is consequently a seminal but unsolved problem. Here we use field data analyses, scaling theory and numerical simulations to show that the size distribution of intrusions preserved as plutonic complexes in the North American Cordillera suggests a transition in the mechanical response of crustal rocks to protracted episodes of magmatism. Intrusion sizes larger than about 100 m follow a power-law scaling expected if energy delivered from the mantle to open very thin dykes and sills is transferred to intrusions of increasing size. Merging, assimilation and mixing of small intrusions into larger ones occurs until irreversible deformation and solidification dissipate available energy. Mantle magma supply over tens to hundreds of thousands of years will trigger this regime, a type of reverse energy cascade, depending on the influx rate and efficiency of crustal heating by intrusions. Identifying regimes of magma transport provides a framework for inferring subsurface magmatic processes from surface patterns of volcanism, information preservation in the plutonic record, and related effects including climate.