A magmatic model of Medicine Lake Volcano, California

Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth
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Abstract

Medicine Lake volcano is a Pleistocene and Holocene shield volcano of the southern Cascade Range. It is located behind the main Cascade arc in an extensional tectonic setting where high-alumina basalt is the most commonly erupted lava. This basalt is parental to the higher-silica calc-alkaline and tholeiitic lavas that make up the bulk of the shield. The presence of late Holocene, chemically identical rhyolites on opposite sides of the volcano led to hypotheses of a large shallow silicic magma chamber and of a small, deep chamber that fed rhyolites to the surface via cone sheets. Subsequent geophysical work has been unable to identify a large silicic magma body, and instead a small one has apparently been recognized. Some geologic data support the geophysical results. Tectonic control of vent alignments and the dominance of mafic eruptions both in number of events and volume throughout the history of the volcano indicate that no large silicic magma reservoir exists. Instead, a model is proposed that includes numerous dikes, sills, and small magma bodies, most of which are too small to be recognized by present geophysical methods.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title A magmatic model of Medicine Lake Volcano, California
Series title Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth
DOI 10.1029/JB093iB05p04412
Volume 93
Issue B5
Year Published 1988
Language English
Publisher American Geophysical Union
Description 9 p.
First page 4412
Last page 4420
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