SILICA-rich lavas, erupted at island-arc or continental volcanoes, are
often produced by a complex process involving the assimilation of cru
st into a crystallizing, mantle-derived basaltic magma1. The different
strontium, neodymium and oxygen isotopic compositions of mantle-deriv
ed magmas and continental crust provide a powerful method for tracing
the different contributions to continental silicic magmas, and for und
erstanding the parameters controlling the composition and volume of er
upted magma1-4. In the large rhyolite eruptive centres of the western
United States, the largest-volume, explosive rhyolite eruptions have m
ore mantle-like Nd isotope ratios than other silicic lavas from the sa
me centre2-4, a relationship that has been interpreted as reflecting i
ncreased influx of mantle-derived basaltic magma to a crustal magma ch
amber before large-volume eruptions1. 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 km3) than in one small-volume (0.02 km3) eruption. We
accordingly suggest that, in small-volume systems like Unzen, where t
he timescales for magma-chamber evolution are of the order of decades,
isotope data such as those presented here might be used in volcanic h
azard evaluation.