Volcanic and magmatic outgassing mechanisms can determine eruptive behavior of shallow silicic magma bodies. Most outgassing mechanisms proposed take place along conduit margins, where the highest strain rates drive ascending magma to brittle failure. However, these mechanisms do not account for outgassing large volumes of magma away from the conduit walls. Here, we present a continuum of porosity preserved in the microcrystalline rhyolitic Sandfell laccolith, Eastern Iceland. Three stages in the continuum are described: porous flow bands, pore channels, and fracture bands. These deformation features are present throughout the entire exposed volume of the Sandfell laccolith in meter-long band geometries, ranging from mm- to dm-scale thickness, and interlayered with coherent, undeformed rhyolite. Using microstructural analytical methods and drawing on the result of previous experimental studies, we show that emplacement-related deformation induced strain partitioning around a crystal content of 45 % that resulted in the segregation of melt-rich and melt-poorer flow bands. Subsequent deformation induced by continued magma emplacement caused strain partitioning in the melt-rich flow bands. Depending on strain rate, different types of deformation features developed, through dilation or porosity redistribution (porous flow bands), cavitation (pore channels), or tensile fracture (fracture bands). Porous flow bands have permeability values ∼4 orders of magnitude higher than undeformed rhyolite. Pore channels and fracture bands have much larger length scales, and so permeability increases dramatically in those systems. Hence, the abundance and interconnectivity of deformation features preserved in the Sandfell laccolith provided an efficient outgassing mechanism for the bulk of the intrusion. Outgassing due to viscous-brittle magma deformation during magma emplacement should therefore be considered for crystal-rich magmas, e.g., during effusive lava dome extrusion.

How the Earth’s crust accommodates magma emplacement influences the signals that can be detected by monitoring volcano seismicity and surface deformation, which are routinely used to forecast volcanic eruptions. However, we lack direct observational links between deformation caused by magma emplacement and monitoring signals. Here we use field mapping and photogrammetry to quantify deformation caused by the emplacement of at least 2.5 km³ of silicic magma in the Reyðarártindur pluton, Southeast Iceland. Our results show that magma emplacement triggered minor and local roof uplift, and that magma reservoir growth was largely aseismic by piecemeal floor subsidence. The occurrence and arrangement of fractures and faults in the reservoir roof can be explained by magmatic overpressure, suggesting that magma influx was not fully accommodated by floor subsidence. The tensile and shear fracturing would have caused detectable seismicity. Overpressure eventually culminated in eruption, as evidenced by exposed conduits that are associated with pronounced local subsidence of the roof rocks, corresponding to the formation of an asymmetric graben at the volcano surface. Hence, the field observations highlight processes that may take place within silicic volcanoes, not accounted for in widely used models to interpret volcanic unrest.

Granitic magma bodies form in the ephemeral part of magma mush systems and are emplaced by a variety of mechanisms in different tectonic settings. This study investigates how granitic magma emplacement processes and tectonomagmatic interactions assert control over the architecture of mush state pluton-scale magma transport pathways. The 1.45 Ga shallow-crustal Götemar pluton is a 4.5 km diameter circular pluton that consists of three granite units: a coarse-grained red granite, a medium-grained pale to red granite, and fine-grained pale microgranite sheets. We employed geological mapping supported by Anisotropy of Magnetic Susceptibility (AMS) to examine the magmatic and regional tectonic controls on late-stage magma transport in the Götemar granitic magma mush system. Multiple parallel arcuate subhorizontal microgranite and medium-grained granite sheets (from 0.1 to 10s of meters thick) were mapped within the pluton. The arcuate sheets pinch out from the northern part of the pluton toward the SE inferring magma propagation direction. A dominant set of vertical granitic sheets within the granite body strikes NW-SE. The AMS fabrics are contact-parallel in the main medium-grained granite body and indicate inflation. Within the microgranite sheets, the AMS fabrics are parallel to the sheet strike and support a sheet propagation direction to the SE. The Götemar pluton displays a clear link between arcuate (concentric) magma-transporting sheets and concentric strain-partitioning related to the intrusion of medium-grained granite magma. The vertical magma sheet orientations are consistent with an NE-SW extensional stress field that is associated with the extensional back-arc stress regime of the contemporary Hallandian Orogen.