A system is presented whereby volcanic rocks may be classified chemically as follows:I. Subalkaline Rocks:A. Tholeiitic basalt series:Tholeiitic picrite-basalt; tholeiite; tholeiitic andesite.B. Calc-alkali series:High-alumina basalt; andesite; dacite; rhyolite.II. Alkaline Rocks:A. Alkali olivine basalt series:(1) Alkalic picrite–basalt; ankaramite; alkali basalt; hawaiite; mugearite; benmorite; trachyte.(2) Alkalic picrite–basalt; ankaramite; alkali basalt; trachybasalt; tristanite; trachyte.B. Nephelinic, leucitic, and analcitic rocks.III. Peralkaline Rocks:pantellerite, commendite, etc.

A Guide to the Chemical Classification of the Common Volcanic Rocks

Geochemical discrimination of different magma series and their differentiation products using immobile elements

Naming materials in the magma/igneous rock system

Analysis of the sedimentary, volcanic, structural, and metamorphic chronology in mountain belts, and consideration of the implications of the new global tectonics (plate tectonics), strongly indicate that mountain belts are a consequence of plate evolution. It is proposed that mountain belts develop by the deformation and metamorphism of the sedimentary and volcanic assemblages of Atlantic-type continental margins. These assemblages result from the events associated with the rupture of continents and the expansion of oceans by lithosphere plate generation at oceanic ridges. The earliest assemblages thus developed are volcanic rocks and coarse clastic sediments deposited in fault-bounded troughs on a distending and segmenting continental crust, subsequently split apart and carried away from the ridge on essentially aseismic continental margins. As the continental margins move away from the ridge, nonvolcanic continental shelf and rise assemblages of orthoquartzite-carbonate, and lutite (shelf), and lutite, slump deposits, and turbidites (rise) accumulate. This kind of continental margin is transformed into an orogenic belt in one of two ways. If a trench develops near, or at, the continenal margin to consume lithosphere from the oceanic side, a mountain belt (cordilleran type) grows by dominantly thermal mechanisms related to the rise of calc-alkaline and basaltic magmas. Cordilleran-type mountain belts are characterized by paired metamorphic belts (blueschist on the oceanic side and high temperature on the continental side) and divergent thrusting and synorogenic sediment transport from the high-temperature volcanic axis. If the continental margin collides with an island arc, or with another continent, a collision-type mountain belt develops by dominantly mechanical processes. Where a continent/island arc collision occurs, the resulting mountains will be small (e.g., the Tertiary fold belt of northern New Guinea), and a new trench will develop on the oceanic side of the arc. Where a continent/continent collision occurs, the mountains will be large (e.g., the Himalayas), and the single trench zone of plate consumption is replaced by a wide zone of deformation. Collision-type mountain belts do not have paired metamorphic belts; they are characterized by a single dominant direction of thrusting and synorogenic sediment transport, away from the site of the trench over the underthrust plate. Stratigraphic sequences of mountain belts (geosynclinal sequences) match those asciated with present-day oceans, island arcs, and continental margins.

Mountain belts and the new global tectonics

Every large eruption of nonbasaltic magma taps a magma reservoir that is thermally and compositionally zoned. Most small eruptions also tap parts of heterogeneous and evolving magmatic systems. Several kinds of compositionally zoned ash flow tuffs provide examples of preemptive gradients in T and ƒO2, in chemical and isotopic composition, and in the variety, abundance, and composition of phenocrysts. Such gradients help to constrain the mechanisms of magmatic differentiation operating in each system. Roofward decreases in both T and phenocryst content suggest water concentration gradients in magma chambers. Wide compositional gaps are common features of large eruptions, proving the existence of such gaps in a variety of magmatic systems. Nearly all magmatic systems are ‘fundamentally basaltic’ in the sense that mantle-derived magmas supply heat and mass to crustal systems that evolve a variety of compositional ranges. Feedback between crustal melting and interception of basaltic intrusions focuses and amplifies magmatic anomalies, suppresses basaltic volcanism, produces and sustains crustal magma chambers, and sometimes culminates in large-scale diapirism. Degassing of basalt crystallizing in the roots of these systems provides a flux of He, CO2, S, halogens, and other components, some of which may influence chemical transport in the overlying, more silicic zones. Basaltic magmas become andesitic by concurrent fractionation and assimilation of partial melts over a large depth range during protracted upward percolation in a plexus of crustal conduits. Zonation in the andesitic-dacitic compositional range develops subsequently within magma chambers, primarily by crystal fractionation. Some dacitic and rhyolitic liquids may separate from less-silicic parents by means of ascending boundary layers along the walls of convecting magma chambers. Many rhyolites, however, are direct partial melts of crustal rocks, and still others fractionate from crystal-rich intermediate parents. The zoning of rhyolitic magma is accomplished predominantly by liquid state thermodiffusion and volatile complexing; liquid structural gradients may be important, and thermal gradients across magma chamber boundary layers are critical. Intracontinental silicic batholiths form where extensional tectonism favors coalescence of crustal partial melts instead of hybridization with the intrusive basaltic magma. Cordilleran batholiths, however, result from prolonged diffuse injection of the crust by basalt that hybridizes, fractionates, and preheats the crust with pervasive mafic to intermediate forerunners, culminating in large-scale diapiric mobilization of partially molten zones from which granodioritic magmas separate. Much of the variability among magmatic systems probably reflects the depth variation of relative rates of transport of magma, heat, and volatile components, as controlled in turn by the orientation and relative magnitudes of principal stresses in the lithosphere, the thickness and composition of the affected crust, and variations in the rate and longevity of basaltic magma supply. Extension of the lithosphere may reduce the susceptibility of basaltic magmas to hybridization in the crust, but it can also enhance the role of mantle-derived volatiles in chemical transport.

Gradients in silicic magma chambers: Implications for lithospheric magmatism

Quaternary basalt magmas in the Circum-Pacific belt and island arcs and also in Indonesia change continuously from less alkalic and more siliceous type (tholeiite) on the oceanic side to more alkalic and less siliceous type (alkali olivine basalt) on the continental side. In the northeastern part of the Japanese Islands and in Kamchatka, zones of tholeiite, high-alumina basalt, and alkali olivine basalt are arranged parallel to the Pacific coast in the order just named, whereas in the southwestern part of the Japanese Islands, the Aleutian Islands, northwestern United States, New Zealand, and Indonesia, zones of high-alumina basalt and alkali olivine basalt are arranged parallel to the coast. In the Izu-Mariana, Kurile, South Sandwich and Tonga Islands, where deep oceans are present on both sides of the island arcs, only a zone of tholeiite is represented. Thus the lateral variation of magma type is characteristic of the transitional zone between the oceanic and continental structures. Because the variation is continuous, the physico-chemical process attending basalt magma production should also change continuously from the oceanic to continental mantle. Suggested explanations for the lateral variation assuming a homogeneous mantle are: 1) Close correspondence between the variations of depth of earthquake foci in the mantle and of basalt magma type in the Japanese Islands indicates that different magmas are produced at different depths where the earthquakes are generated by stress release: tholeiite at depths around 100 km, high-alumina basalt at depths around 200 km, and alkali olivine basalt at depths greater than 250 km. 2) Primary olivine tholeiite magma is produced at a uniform level of the mantle (100–150 km), and on the oceanic side of the continental margin, it leaves the source region immediately after its production and forms magma reservoirs at shallow depths, perhaps in the crust, where it undergoes fractionation to produce SiO2-oversaturated tholeiite magma, whereas on the continental side, the primary magma forms reservoirs near the source region and stays there long enough to be fractionated to produce alkali olivine basalt magma, and in the intermediate zone, the primary magma forms reservoirs at intermediate depths where it is fractionated to produce high-alumina basalt magma.

Lateral variation of basalt magma type across continental margins and Island Arcs

High-alumina Basalt

Three petrographic provinces can be recognized in the Cenozoic volcanic fields of Japan and surrounding areas A province of a tholeiite series lies on the Pacific side of the Japanese Islands and includes the Izu Islands, whereas that of an alkali rock series occupies the Japan Sea side of the Islands with a narrow offshoot extending across central Honsyū (Honshū) and a continuation westward to Korea and Manchuria A province of a calc-alkali rock series is superposed on the two provinces and occupies the greater part of the Japanese Islands exclusive of the Izu Islands and the islands in the Japan Sea southwest of Honsyū and north of Kyūsyū (Kyūshū) The boundary lines between the tholeiite and alkali provinces are located very closely to those between the areas where earthquakes occur at depths shallower than about 200 km and those for deeper ones It is suggested that the parental tholeiite magma is produced by partial melting of the periodotite layer at depths shallower than 200 km In the Izu Islands, except Nii-zima(Nii-jima) and Kōzu-sima(Kōzu-shima) close to Honsyū, the magma erupts to the surface without assimilating granitic material because the granitic layer is absent, resulting in volcanoes made up exclusively of the tholeiite series The parental alkali olivine basalt magma is produced by partial melting of the peridotite layer at depths greater than 200 km In the Japan Sea region, Korea, and Manchuria, it erupts to the surface without assimilating the granitic material, although it passes through a thick granitic layer, resulting in volcanoes made up exclusively of the alkali series However, in the Cenozoic orogenic belt of the Japanese Islands, both types of parental magma assimilate granitic material during passage to the surface and erupt to form volcanoes of the calc-alkali series

Origin of cenozoic petrographic provinces of Japan and surrounding areas

The hypothesis that andesite magmas originate from basalt magmas through fractionation is supported for the following reasons: 1) A close association of andesite and dacite with basalt in many volcanoes and a complete gradation in chemistry and mineralogy throughout this suite. 2) Formation of andesite magmas from basalt magmas by differentiation in situ of some intrusive and extrusive bodies. 3) Agreement between the calculated compositions of solid materials to be subtracted from basalt magmas to yield andesite magmas and the observed mineralogy of phenocrysts in these rocks. 4) Higher alkali contents in andesite and dacite associated with high-alumina basalt than in those associated with tholeiite. 5) A complete gradation from the high iron concentration trend of basalt magma fractionation (Skaergaard) to the low or noniron concentration trend (the calc-alkali series) which can be ascribed to the difference of the stage of magnetite crystallization. 6) Similarity between the orogenic rock suite and plateau basalts in the preferential eruption of magmas of middle fractionation stage, givin rise to the great volume of andesite in the orogenic belts and iron-rich basalt in the plateau lavas. Petrological and seismic refraction studies suggest that a great volume of gabbroic materials are present in the lower crust underneath the volcanic belts as a complementary material for the andesite lavas. The island arc structure would develop by repeated eruption of andesite on the surface and by thickening of the oceanic crust underneath the arc due to the addition of gabbroic materials. The suitable portion of the lower crust may be subjected to partial melting to produce granitic magma in the later stage of development of the arc, successively changing it to a part of the adjacent continent.

Hisashi Kuno

Papers

Lateral variation of basalt magma type across continental margins and Island Arcs

High-alumina Basalt

Origin of cenozoic petrographic provinces of Japan and surrounding areas

Origin of andesite and its bearing on the Island arc structure

Chemistry of ultramafic nodules and their bearing on the origin of basaltic magmas