Lithium enrichment in rhyolite magmas of intracontinental calderas

Benson, T.R., Coble, M.A., Rytuba, J.J., and Mahood, G.A., 2017, Lithium enrichment in rhyolite magmas of intracontinental calderas: Nature Communications, v. 8, p. 270. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-00234-y

In this study the authors demonstrated that lake sediments within intracontinental rhyolitic calderas have the potential to host large lithium clay deposits, a material of great economic value due to the rising demand for lithium-ion batteries. Quartz-hosted melt inclusions from rhyolitic ignimbrites and lavas erupted through felsic continental crustal material were found to contain Li concentrations similar to those observed in rare-metal granites (>1000 ppm), whereas rhyolites erupted through thinner mafic crust have considerably less Li enrichment. Over 100 large Cenozoic calderas have been identified in western North America, of which the largest and youngest are likely to host large volumes of Li clay resources.