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.