Relationship between eruption volume and neodymium isotopic composition at Unzen volcano

SILICA-rich lavas, erupted at island-arc or continental volcanoes, are often produced by a complex process involving the assimilation of crust into a crystallizing, mantle-derived basaltic magma 1 . The different strontium, neodymium and oxygen isotopic compositions of mantle-derived magmas and continental crust provide a powerful method for tracing the different contributions to continental silicic magmas, and for understanding the parameters controlling the composition and volume of erupted magma 1–4 . In the large rhyolite eruptive centres of the western United States, the largest-volume, explosive rhyolite eruptions have more mantle-like Nd isotope ratios than other silicic lavas from the same centre 2–4 , a relationship that has been interpreted as reflecting increased influx of mantle-derived basaltic magma to a crustal magma chamber before large-volume eruptions 1 . Here we report isotope data for lavas from Unzen volcano, which suggest a similar relationship: the Nd isotope composition is more mantle-like in three larger-volume dacite eruptions (>0.1 km 3 ) than in one small-volume (0.02 km 3 ) eruption. We accordingly suggest that, in small-volume systems like Unzen, where the timescales for magma-chamber evolution are of the order of decades, isotope data such as those presented here might be used in volcanic hazard evaluation.