Chemical heterogeneity of Mt. Etna magmas in the last 15 ka. Inferences on their mantle sources

• We focus on the primitive basaltic magmas that bypassed Etna central conduits.
• Magma heterogeneities are linked to the melting of heterogeneous Hyblean-type mantle.
• None of the pre-1970s magmas are parent of present-day basalts.
• The ongoing selective alkali-enrichment of Etna magmas is a mantle source process.
• The decoupling of Rb–K and 87Sr–Cl reveals multistage events of mantle metasomatism.

Primitive basaltic magmas are crucial in the study of the geochemical heterogeneity documented in Etna magmas and their inferred mantle sources. We undertook a systematic sampling of the less evolved basalts (Mg# > 50) erupted over the last 15 ka, a time period which corresponds to the activity of the youngest volcanic edifice of Mt. Etna complex, i.e. Mongibello volcano. We focused on lava flows and pyroclastites emplaced during ‘deep-dyke fed’ (DDF) eruptions which were driven by the rapid ascent of deeply-rooted magma intrusions that bypassed the shallow plumbing system of the volcano. All the samples were analyzed by the same laboratory to avoid analytical bias, to build a comprehensive dataset on their major and trace element compositions and to propose a coherent framework for interpreting the geochemical fingerprints of present-day Etna basalts.Trace element modeling, together with literature data for Sr isotopes, gave insight into long-term magmatic processes related to different melting degrees of the heterogeneous mantle beneath Mt Etna. DDF magma batches provide good snapshots of their mantle source heterogeneities that point to the variable involvement of clinopyroxenitic lithology, Rb–87Sr–Cl-rich fluid component(s) possibly controlled by their source mineralogy, and slab-derived fluids selectively enriched in alkalis (Rb, K). The ongoing alkali (Rb, K) enrichment of the present-day magmas, well manifest since the 1970s, is decoupled from that of Sr and Cl. We propose that this process is linked to mantle source composition and is concomitant with changes in both volcanological and seismotectonic patterns of the volcano. There is no time evolution of DDF magma chemistry.