ALBERT

Description: The uptake of anthropogenic emission of carbon dioxide is resulting in a lowering of the carbonate saturation state and a drop in ocean pH. Understanding how marine calcifying organisms such as coralline algae may acclimatize to ocean acidification is important to understand their survival over the coming century. We present the first long-term perturbation experiment on the cold-water coralline algae, which are important marine calcifiers in the benthic ecosystems particularly at the higher latitudes. Lithothamnion glaciale, after three months incubation, continued to calcify even in undersaturated conditions with a significant trend towards lower growth rates with increasing pCO2. However, the major changes in the ultra-structure occur by 589 µatm (i.e. in saturated waters). Finite element models of the algae grown at these heightened levels show an increase in the total strain energy of nearly an order of magnitude and an uneven distribution of the stress inside the skeleton when subjected to similar loads as algae grown at ambient levels. This weakening of the structure is likely to reduce the ability of the alga to resist boring by predators and wave energy with severe consequences to the benthic community structure in the immediate future (50 years).

Description: Highlights: • Whole-rock, mineral and isotope chemical data of Cerro Machín Volcano. • Mixing of distinct mafic and silic melts produced hybrid magma. • Amphibole thermobarometry indicates resident magma reservoir at 13 ± 2 km depth. • Dacites have adakitic geochemical signature. The last known eruption at Cerro Machín Volcano (CMV) in the Central Cordillera of Colombia occurred ∼900 years BP and ended with the formation of a dacitic lava dome. The dome rocks contain both normally and reversely zoned plagioclase (An24–54), unzoned and reversely zoned amphiboles of dominantly tschermakite and pargasite/magnesio-hastingsite composition and olivine xenocrysts (Fo = 85–88) with amphibole/clinopyroxene overgrowth, all suggesting interaction with mafic magma at depth. Plagioclase additionally exhibits complex oscillatory zoning patterns reflecting repeated replenishment, fractionation and changes in intrinsic conditions in the magma reservoir. Unzoned amphiboles and cores of the reversely zoned amphiboles give identical crystallization conditions of 910 ± 30 °C and 360 ± 70 MPa, corresponding to a depth of about 13 ± 2 km, at moderately oxidized conditions (fO2 = +0.5 ± 0.2 ΔNNO). The water content in the melt, calculated based on amphibole chemistry, is 7.1 ± 0.4 wt.%. Rims of the reversely zoned amphiboles are relatively enriched in MgO and yield higher crystallization temperatures (T = 970 ± 25 °C), slightly lower melt H2O contents (6.1 ± 0.7 wt.%) and overlapping pressures (410 ± 100 MPa). We suggest that these rims crystallized following an influx of mafic melt into a resident magma reservoir at mid-crustal depths, further supported by the occurrence of xenocrystic olivine. Crystallization of biotite, albite-rich plagioclase and quartz occurred at comparatively low temperatures (probably 〈800 °C) during early stages of ascent or storage at shallower levels. Based on amphibole mineral chemistry, the felsic resident melt had a rhyolitic composition (71 ± 2 wt.% SiO2), whereas the hybrid magma, from which the amphibole rims crystallized, was dacitic (64 ± 3 wt.% SiO2). The bulk rock chemistry of the CMV lava dome dacites is homogenous. They have elevated (La/Nb)N ratios of 3.8–4.5, typical for convergent margin magmas, and display several geochemical characteristics of adakites. Both Sr and Nd isotope compositions (87Sr/86Sr ∼0.70497, 143Nd/144Nd ∼0.51267) are among the most radiogenic observed for the Northern Volcanic Zone of the Andes. They are distinct from oceanic crust that has been subducted in the region, pointing to a continental crustal control on the isotope composition and hence the adakitic signature, possibly in a crustal “hot zone”