6533b82bfe1ef96bd128e33b

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Reaction path models of magmatic gas scrubbing

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description

Gas-water-rock reactions taking place within volcano-hosted hydrothermal systems scrub reactive, water-soluble species (sulfur, halogens) from the magmatic gas phase, and as such play a major control on the composition of surface gas manifestations. A number of quantitative models of magmatic gas scrubbing have been proposed in the past, but no systematic comparison of model results with observations from natural systems has been carried out, to date. Here, we present the results of novel numerical simulations, in which we initialized models of hydrothermal gas-water-rock at conditions relevant to Icelandic volcanism. We focus on Iceland as an example of a "wet" volcanic region where scrubbing is widespread. Our simulations were performed (using the EQ3/6 software package) at shallow (temperature100°C. We find that this range of model gas compositions reproduces well the (H2O-CO2-STOT) compositional range of reservoir waters and surface gas emissions in Iceland. From this validation of the model in an extreme end-member environment of high scrubbing, we conclude that EQ3/6-based reaction path simulations offer a realistic representation of gas-water-rock interaction processes occurring underneath active magmatic-hydrothermal systems.