USGS2025
The Laguna del Maule (LdM) volcanic field has produced >100 explosive and extrusive events over the past 17 ka. More than two-thirds of these have been silicic, with most being postglacial rhyolites (72–78 % SiO 2 ) concentrated near the eponymous lake (LdM), an extraordinary anomaly in the Quaternary Andes and unprecedented in this 1.5–Ma-old volcanic field as a whole. The postglacial field includes >70 separate vents distributed over ∼360 km 2 that together produced the many distinct eruptive events, of which 55 are rhyolitic (73 %−77 % SiO 2 ), 18 are rhyodacitic (68 %−72 % SiO 2 ), 4 are dacitic (63 %–66 % SiO 2 ), 26 are intermediate (54–62 % SiO 2 ), and 2 are true basalts (50 %–53 % SiO 2 ). Of these, most originated from single-vent domes, cones, or craters that erupted effusive and/or explosive products, each with relatively short lifespans. Some originated from multi-vent centers, the largest one being the Barrancas complex southeast of the lake, which has as many as 18 vents that erupted over as much as 10 kyr. The LdM basin itself is ringed by 13 separate silicic centers, many of which are also multi-vent and built over time by multiple explosive and extrusive events. These surround the lake, near the middle of which is the vent for the high-silica rhyolite Plinian eruption that produced the “ Rhyolite of Laguna del Maule ”, which was the first and largest silicic event from the postglacial field. Explosive and effusive products from all these events have been put in a time-stratigraphic framework supported by radiocarbon dating and chemical analyses to reconstruct the postglacial eruptive history. Correlations of pyroclastics to eruptive vents have provided a spatial-temporal framework that helps characterize the magmatic system beneath the LdM field. Distribution of both silicic and mafic vents support the likelihood that two separate magmatic systems produced the postglacial eruptions in the volcanic field—one in the Laguna del Maule basin and the other at the Barrancas complex—with a cluster of silicic vents at each and mafic vents situated between the two. Vent distributions, compositions of eruptive products, and temporal and spatial trends of eruptive units suggest that the abundant rhyodacitic and mafic units in the LdM basin have no common magma reservoir, but instead each had its own evolutionary trend. In contrast, there is enough affinity among some of the rhyolitic units in the Basin to imply magmatic connections and/or continuity that span both time and space, although neither geographic proximity nor temporal similarity have singular control on LdM-basin rhyolite compositions. Compositional trends through time at the Barrancas center suggest the rhyolitic eruptions at West and East Barrancas were derived from separate, zoned reservoirs that were tapped in batches, not permitting development of a large high-silica reservoir such as that beneath the LdM basin.
Laguna del Maule lake basin↗