Phenocryst

About: Phenocryst is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4132 publications have been published within this topic receiving 158441 citations.

Meteoric water in magmas.

Abstract: Oxygen isotope analyses of sanidine phenocrysts from rhyolitic sequences in Nevada, Colorado, and the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field show that δ18O decreased in these magmas as a function of time. This decrease in δ18O may have been caused by isotopic exchange between the magma and groundwater low in 18O. For the Yellowstone Plateau rhyolites, 7000 cubic kilometers of magma could decrease in δ18O by 2 per mil in 600,000 years by reacting with water equivalent to 3 millimeters of precipitation per year, which is only 0.3 percent of the present annual precipitation in this region. The possibility of reaction between large magmatic bodies and meteoric water at liquidus temperatures has major implications in the possible differentiation history of the magma and in the generation of ore deposits.

Development of the Long Valley, California, magma chamber recorded in precaldera rhyolite lavas of Glass Mountain

Abstract: Glass Mountain, California, consists of >50 km3 of high-silica rhyolite lavas and associated pyroclastic deposits that erupted over a period of >1 my preceding explosive eruption of the Bishop Tuff and formation of the Long Valley caldera at 0.73 Ma. These “minimum-melt” rhyolites yield Fe-Ti-oxide temperatures of 695–718°C and contain sparse phenocrysts of plagioclase+quartz+magnetite+apatite±sanidine, biotite, ilmenite, allanite, and zircon. Incompatible trace elements show similar or larger ranges within the Glass Mountain suite than within the Bishop Tuff, despite a much smaller range of major-element concentrations, largely due to variability among the older lavas (erupted between 2.1 and 1.2 Ma). Ratios of the most incompatible elements have larger ranges in the older lavas than in the younger lavas (1.2–0.79 Ma), and concentrations of incompatible elements span wide ranges at nearly constant Ce/Yb, suggesting that the highest concentrations of these elements are not the result of extensive fractional crystallization alone; rather, they are inherited from parental magmas with a larger proportion of crustal partial melt. Evidence for the nature of this crustal component comes from the presence of scarce, tiny xenocrysts derived from granitic and greenschist-grade metamorphic rocks. The wider range of chemical and isotopic compositions in the older lavas, the larger range in phenocryst modes, the eruption of magmas with different compositions at nearly the same time in different parts of the field, and the smaller volume of individual lavas suggest either that more than one magma body was tapped during eruption of the older lavas or that a single chamber tapped by all lavas was small enough that the composition of its upper reaches easily affected by new additions of crustal melts. We interpret the relative chemical, mineralogical, and isotopic homogeneity of the younger Glass Mountain lavas as reflecting eruptions from a large, integrated magma chamber. The small number of cruptions between 1.4 and 1.2 ma may have allowed time for a large magma body to coalesce, and, as the chamber grew, its upper reaches became less affected by new inputs of crustal melts, so that trace-element trends in magmas erupted after 1.2 Ma are largely controlled by fractional crystallization. The extremely low Sr concentrations of Glass Mountain lavas imply extensive crystallization in chambers at least hundreds of cubic kilometers in volume. The close similarity in Sr, Nd, and Pb isotopic ratios between the younger Glass Mountain lavas and unaltered Bishop Tuff indicates that they tapped the same body of magma, which had become isotopically homogenous by 1.2 Ma but continued to differentiate after that time. From 1.2 to 0.79 Ma, volumetric eruptive rates may have exceeded rates of differentiation, as younger Glass Mountain lavas become slightly less evolved with time. Early-erupted Bishop Tuff is more evolved than the youngest of the Glass Mountain lavas and is characterized by slightly different trace element ratios. This suggests that although magma had been present for 0.5 my, the composiional gradient exhibited by the Bishop Tuff had not been a long-term, steady-state condition in the Long Valley magma chamber, but developed at least in part during the 0.06-my hiatus between extrusion of the last Glass Mountain lava and the climactic eruption.

The geochemistry and petrogenesis of K-rich alkaline volcanics from the Batu Tara volcano, eastern Sunda arc

Abstract: Mineralogical, major and trace element, and isotopic data are presented for leucite basanite and leucite tephrite eruptives and dykes from the Batu Tara volcano, eastern Sunda arc. In general, the eruptives are markedly porphyritic with phenocrysts of clinopyroxene, olivine, leucite ±plagioclase±biotite set in similar groundmass assemblages. These K-rich alkaline volcanics have high concentrations of large-ion-lithophile (LIL), light rare earth (LRE) and most incompatible trace elements, and are characterized by high 87Sr/86Sr (0.70571–0.70706) and low 143Nd/ 144Nd (0.512609–0.512450) compared with less alkaline volcanics from the Sunda arc. They also display the relative depletion of Ti and Nb in chondrite-normalized plots which is a feature of subalkaline volcanics from the eastern Sunda arc and arc volcanics in general. Chemical and mineralogical data for the Batu Tara K-rich rocks indicate that they were formed by the accumulation of variable amounts of phenocrysts in several melts with different major and trace element compositions. The compositions of one of these melts estimated from glass inclusions in phenocrysts is relatively Fe-rich (100 Mg/(Mg + Fe2+)=48–51) and is inferred to have been derived from a more primitive magma by low-pressure crystal fractionation involving olivine, clinopyroxene and spinel. Mg-rich (mg ∼90) and Cr-rich (up to 1.7 wt. % Cr2O3) zones in complex oscillatory-zoned clinopyroxene phenocrysts probably also crystallized from such a magma. The marked oscillatory zoning in the clinopyroxene phenocrysts is considered to be the result of limited mixing of relatively ‘evolved’ with more primitive magmas, together with their phenocrysts, along interfaces between discrete convecting magma bodies.

San Quintín Volcanic Field, Baja California Norte, México: Geology, petrology, and geochemistry

Abstract: The San Quintin Volcanic Field (SQVF) is unique for the Baja California peninsula as the only known location of intraplate-type mafic alkalic volcanism and the only known source of peridotitic and granulitic xenoliths. It consists of 10 distinct Quaternary volcanic complexes. The oldest cones mainly erupted primitive magmas (Mg # > 64)(Mg # = 100 × Mg/(Mg + (0.85 × FeTotal))), which carried occasional small xenoliths. As the SQVF evolved with time, differentiated magmas (Mg # < 64) became increasingly common, but primitive magmas, virtually devoid of xenoliths and unusually rich in olivine phenocrysts, dominanted at the youngest cones. Abundances of incompatible elements declined during evolution of the SQVF, implying a temporal increase in the extent of partial melting in the mantle, or progressive exhaustion of these elements in the source. Samples from two cones, Mazo and Ceniza, show relatively low Ce/Pb, eNd, and 206Pb/204Pb and high 87Sr/86Sr, which we interpret as evidence for crustal contamination of these magmas. Small isotopic variations for the other cones are collectively interpreted to reflect involvement of at least three mantle components beneath the SQVF. Ranges in isotopic composition overlap for primitive and differentiated rocks, supporting fractional crystallization as the mechanism for deriving the latter from the former. Most differentiated rocks can be successfully modeled by fractional crystallization of olivine, plagioclase, clinopyroxene, and spinel from primitive parents. The largest and most abundant xenoliths were carried by differentiated magmas, indicating that fractional crystallization took place within the mantle, below the level of peridotite entrainment, and reflecting the importance of fractionation-elevated volatile contents for driving these differentiated magmas rapidly to the surface. Primitive rocks of the SQVF are unusual compared to other reported intraplate-type mafic alkalic suites from around the world in having relatively high Al2O3 and Yb, as well as low La/Yb and CaO/Al2O3. These characteristics and trends of rising Al2O3 and falling CaO with decreasing incompatible element abundances are all consistent with origins for the SQVF primitive magmas by progressive partial melting of spinel lherzolite at unusually shallow levels in the mantle.

Origin of broken phenocrysts in ash-flow tuffs

Abstract: Surprisingly little attention has been devoted to the textural nature of phenocrysts of feldspar and quartz in tuff. Although many geologists have briefly alluded to “broken” phenocrysts, none have addressed their origin in any detail. Petrographic study of 117 cooling units in the middle Tertiary ash-flow province of the Great Basin, United States, provides a basis for characterization of the shapes and for interpretation of the origin of felsic phenocrysts in ash-flow tuffs. Although not proven to be wholly ineffective, breakage of phenocrysts by mutual impact in the erupting magma and pyroclastic flow is doubtful for at least four reasons. First, the statistical probability of mutual collision between phenocrysts diminishes exponentially as their proportion to vitroclasts diminishes (e.g., only 1% probability for 10% phenocrysts); collision is less likely if pyroclasts move by laminar rather than turbulent flow. Second, the coating of glass and/or melt on the phenocrysts provides a cushion that absorbs the impact force. Third, plagioclases broken by impact in the laboratory have unusual shapes unlike those seen in Great Basin tuffs. Fourth, euhedral phenocrysts of feldspar are commonplace in many Great Basin tuffs, and in some they constitute a significant proportion of the phenocrysts, indicating that mutual impact does not modify all intratelluric crystals during explosive eruption. The two most populated categories of phenocryst shape in Great Basin tuffs probably correspond to what has been previously called “broken” phenocrysts. Somewhat less than half of the plagioclase and many sanidine phenocrysts are subhedral to anhedral. These are similar in shape, size, and composition to grains in polycrystalline aggregates within the same thin section. Kindred aggregates and discrete phenocrysts could have been derived from holocrystalline to partly crystalline material in the magma chamber that was disaggregated to varying extents during explosive eruption. More than half of the plagioclase and all of the quartz phenocrysts in Great Basin tuffs consist of irregularly shaped fragments with cuspate, embayed outlines, resembling pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, which we call phenoclasts. Inclusions of glass are common and are especially evident in larger, more or less whole crystals. Textural features of some phenocrysts in cognate pumice clasts in the tuffs reveal that they broke apart while still in the vesiculating but unfragmented magma. As the erupting magma decompressed, vesiculation of the melt that was entrapped at higher pressures as inclusions within the phenocrysts blew them apart, forming the phenoclasts. Shapes of felsic phenocrysts in volcanic rocks provide insight into their mode of emplacement. Euhedral phenocrysts are common in ash-flow tuffs as well as lava flows. Phenoclasts, however, are diagnostic of ash-flow tuffs, because they do not occur in Plinian ash-fall deposits and are rare in lava flows. These textural contrasts are useful for interpretation of generally older, but in any case altered and recrystallized, volcanic rocks. In such rocks, critical groundmass features and field relations that could provide clues to their origin have been obscured, but the shapes of relict phenocrysts are commonly well preserved.