Evolution of low-18O Icelandic crust

- Volcanic rocks from northeast Iceland have δ18O lower than typical MORB.
- Silicic rocks form by anatexis of fresh and hydrothermally altered basalt.
- Basaltic magmas do not directly interact with shallow hydrothermal fluids.
- They obtain low δ18O by mantle heterogeneity or low-volume crustal assimilation.
- Further study of older Icelandic basalts may elucidate the more likely source.

The Krafla central volcano in the neovolcanic zone of Iceland hosts a chemically diverse suite of magmas characterized by anomalously low δ18O values. A rhyolite magma intercepted by the Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) exploratory well at 2.1 km depth provided a unique opportunity to investigate the origins of an unerupted rhyolite melt in the primarily basaltic central volcano at Krafla. Here we compare whole rock hydrogen and oxygen isotopes of this melt to those of lavas within and near the caldera of the Krafla central volcano ranging from recent fissure eruptions to Plio--Pleistocene age (including analyses of 18 new samples, plus previously published values) in order to evaluate the petrogenesis of low-18O magmas within the neovolcanic zone of Iceland.Oxygen isotope values of the IDDP-1 melt (δ18O=+3.2±0.2‰) are within the range of Krafla eruptives that have a bimodal composition of olivine-tholeiite and rhyolite (δ18O=+1.6‰ to +4.5‰). Lavas show significantly more variability in hydrogen isotope values (δD=−161‰ to −92‰) than the IDDP-1 melt (−121±2‰), whose δD is comparable to local hydrothermal epidote (−127 to −108‰), and show significantly lower water contents than IDDP-1 (0.1-1.1 wt%, in contrast to ~1.8 wt%). Basaltic to dacitic lavas from the proximal Heidarspordur ridge volcanic zone have δ18O between +3.4‰ and +4.2‰ and δD between −105‰ and −99‰.Uniformity of oxygen isotopes in the Heidarspordur ridge lavas suggests that their magmatic compositional variations are a consequence of fractional crystallization. The δD of the glass sampled by IDDP-1 unequivocally identifies the source of silicic low-18O melts like those erupted from within the caldera of the Krafla volcano as anatexis of meteoric-hydrothermally altered basalts resulting from the intrusion of mantle-derived basaltic magma. Finally, mantle-derived basalts in both the Krafla central volcano and Heidarspordur ridge (MgO>5 wt%) have δ18O values lower than the typical MORB. There is convincing evidence favoring low-18O compositions in primitive Icelandic basalts as also being the result of assimilating meteoric hydrothermally altered Icelandic crust, particularly in the roots of central volcanic complexes, where high-level intrusions develop. Here hydrothermally altered basalts have a high probability of undergoing partial melting. If this is the case, we hypothesize that there should be a notable secular variation in the δ18O values of upper crustal igneous products of the Iceland mantle plume over the sub-aerial extrusive geologic history of Iceland, in which progressively younger lavas exhibit decreasing δ18O values. Synthesis of published oxygen isotope analyses of unaltered whole rock and mineral separates of lavas from Tertiary age to present lends support to this hypothesis.