Plagioclase buoyancy in oceanic basalts: Chemical effects |
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| Authors: | Don Elthon |
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| Institution: | Department of Geosciences, University of Houston—University Park, Houston, Texas 77004 USA |
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| Abstract: | Certain petrological features of oceanic volcanic and plutonic rocks are not completely consistent with previously proposed models of crystal fractionation or magma mixing. For example, Sr is often higher in the differentiated basalts of a suite of aphyric rocks than in the relatively primitive basalts even though the differentiated basalts have apparently been produced by crystallization of large amounts of plagioclase with olivine and clinopyroxene. Additionally, oceanic basalts and gabbroic rocks often contain plagioclase crystals in excess of the appropriate cotectic proportions. Certain differentiated oceanic basaltic glasses and aphyric rocks crystallize plagioclase as the liquidus mineral, which would seem inconsistent with the strongly cotectic nature of the olivine + plagioclase + liquid surface.It is proposed here that plagioclase in mid-ocean ridge magma chambers separates from the basaltic liquid that it crystallizes in at a slower rate than does co-crystallizing olivine or pyroxene. Magma mixing in which a portion of the plagioclase remains suspended in the liquid during crystallization results in much more complex liquid lines of descent in mixed magmas and appears to resolve the apparent discrepancies noted above. |
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