Abstract

Lithium (Li) plays an increasingly important role in society with ever greater reliance on rechargeable batteries for a variety of uses from handheld electronic devices to electric vehicles. Seemingly, there is a relationship between the locations of economic Li deposits and silicic magmatism, however relatively little is known about the behaviour of Li in silicic magmatic systems. This talk will initially discuss how the unusual geochemical properties of Li allow it to remain mobile into the post-eruptive realm and how this mobility obscures ‘true’ magmatic signatures. Subsequently, the talk will focus on situations where Li does preserve information about magmatic and eruptive processes and speculate about what Li may be able to reveal about the magmatic-hydrothermal transition.