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The accepted water-saturated solidus for granitic compositions (granitic water-saturated solidus, G-WSS) was largely determined >60 years ago. Significant experimental resources using modern approaches have been allocated to defining, refining, and parameterizing the solidus positions for other rock compositions, but limited work has been performed to accurately define G-WSS. Modern experimental and analytical techniques afford the opportunity to re-investigate the position of the G-WSS. Various thermobarometric applications to many granitic and rhyolitic composition rocks commonly return temperature estimates significantly lower than the widely accepted G-WSS determined largely by Tuttle and Bowen (1958). To evaluate the apparent discrepancies and help distinguish igneous from metamorphic processes recorded in granitic mineral assemblages, we performed experiments at temperatures ranging from 575 to 900°C and 0.5 to 10 kbar on 12 granitoid compositions composed of natural and synthetic starting materials. Most starting materials were melted in the presence of water at 10 kbar and 900°C in piston cylinders and quenched to room temperature in under one minute to produce water-saturated glasses for usage in subsequent crystallization experiments. The results of experiments on glass compositions were further validated in several runs using finely-ground crystalline starting materials. We ran crystallization experiments at P-T conditions spanning the accepted G-WSS. Decreasing experimental temperatures along each isobar caused systematic decreases in melt percentages until achieving complete crystallization at solidus conditions. A time-series of experiments at P-T conditions with ~20% melt did not reveal any kinetic effects on melt crystallization. All compositions investigated contained melt to temperatures ~75 to 100°C below the accepted G-WSS. Experimental results demonstrating that the G-WSS is significantly lower than unanimously accepted estimates will help us to better understand the storage conditions and evolution of silicic magmatic systems. Tuttle O, Bowen N (1958) Origin of Granite in the Light of Experimental Studies in the System NaAlSi3O8–KAlSi3O8–SiO2–H2O. Geological Society of America
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The transition from magmatic to hydrothermal crystallization conditions of a shallow-level granitic pluton
Abstract Many thermobarometric methods applied to granitic composition rocks that crystallized at < 5 kbar yield temperature estimates ~ 50 to 100 °C lower than the widely used haplogranite water-saturated solidus. To address thermobarometric discrepancies, we investigated a shallow-level granitic pluton that is not enriched in fluxing elements such as Li, B, P, or F. The Rito del Medio pluton (RDMP) near Questa, New Mexico contains numerous minerals and inclusions suitable for thermobarometric estimates, and it has abundant miarolitic cavities that represent the final crystallization stages. Occurrences of coexisting melt and fluid inclusions show that groundmass minerals crystallized from a water-saturated magma. After groundmass crystallization, the pluton transitioned to a fluid-dominated system manifested by the crystallization of freestanding minerals contained in the miarolitic cavities. The granite contains mica, feldspar, quartz, primary fluid inclusions in quartz, and accessory minerals including garnet with quartz inclusions. We used minerals and their inclusions in both paragenetic contexts to track changes in P, T, and mineral and fluid compositions that accompanied the magmatic-to-hydrothermal transition. Resultant univariant curves from thermobarometry for the groundmass minerals converge at ~ 1.9 to 2.1 kbar and ~ 590 to 625 °C indicating final magmatic crystallization. To address discrepancies between thermobarometric results and the haplogranite solidus, we performed crystallization experiments at 2 kbar, which show that RDMP compositions magmas complete crystallization at temperatures ~ 620–625 °C. Univariant curves for thermobarometric approaches applied to the RDMP miarolitic cavity minerals converge at ~ 1.5 to 2.1 kbar and ~ 500 to 525 °C defining the transition to hydrothermal crystallization conditions.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2120598
- PAR ID:
- 10657910
- Publisher / Repository:
- Springer Science + Business Media
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology
- Volume:
- 181
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 0010-7999
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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The granitic water-saturated solidus (G-WSS) is the lower temperature limit of magmatic mineral crystallization. The accepted water-saturated solidus for granitic compositions was largely determined >60 years ago1. More recent advances in experimental petrology, improved analytical techniques, and recent observations that granitic systems can remain active or spend a significant proportion of their lives at conditions below the traditional G-WSS2–5 necessitate a careful experimental investigation of the near-solidus regions of granitic systems. Natural and synthetic starting materials were melted at 10 kbar and 900°C with 48 wt% H2O to produce hydrous glasses for subsequent experiments at lower PT conditions used to locate the G-WSS. We performed crystallization experiments and melting experiments at temperatures ranging from 575 to 800°C and 1, 6, 8, and 10 kbar on 12 granitoid compositions. First, we ran a series of isothermal crystallization experiments along each isobar at progressively lower temperatures until runs completely crystallized to identify apparent solidus temperatures. Geochemical analyses of quenched glass compositions demonstrate that progressive crystallization drives all starting compositions towards silica-rich, water-saturated rhyolitic/granitic melts (e.g., ~7578 wt% SiO2). After identifying the apparent solidus temperatures at which the various compositions crystallized, we then ran series of reversal-type melting experiments. With the goal of producing rocks with hydrous equilibrium microstructures, we crystallized compositions at temperatures ~10°C below the apparent solidus identified in crystallization experiments, and then heated isobarically to conditions that produced ~20% melt during the crystallization experiments. Importantly, crystallization experiments and heating experiments at the same PT conditions produced similar proportions of melt, crystals, and vapor. A time-series of experiments 230 days at PT conditions previously identified to produce ~10% to 20% melt did not reveal any kinetic effects on melt crystallization. Experiments at 6 to 10 kbar crystallized/melted at temperatures close to the published G-WSS. However, at lower pressures where the published G-WSS is strongly curved in PT space, all compositions investigated contained melt to temperatures ~75 to 100°C below the accepted G-WSS. The similarity of crystallization temperatures for the higher-pressure experiments to previously published results, similar phase proportions in melting and crystallization experiments, and the lack of kinetic effects on crystallization collectively suggest that our lower pressure constraints on the G-WSS are accurate. The new experimental results demonstrating that the lower-pressure G-WSS is significantly lower than unanimously accepted estimates will help us to better understand the storage conditions, evolution, and potential for eruption in mid- to upper-crustal silicic magmatic systems. (1) Tuttle, O.; Bowen, N. Origin of Granite in the Light of Experimental Studies in the System NaAlSi3O8–KAlSi3O8–SiO2–H2O; Geological Society of America Memoirs; Geological Society of America, 1958; Vol. 74. https://doi.org/10.1130/MEM74. (2) Rubin, A. E.; Cooper, K. M.; Till, C. B.; Kent, A. J. R.; Costa, F.; Bose, M.; Gravley, D.; Deering, C.; Cole, J. Rapid Cooling and Cold Storage in a Silicic Magma Reservoir Recorded in Individual Crystals. Science 2017, 356 (6343), 1154–1156. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aam8720. (3) Andersen, N. L.; Jicha, B. R.; Singer, B. S.; Hildreth, W. Incremental Heating of Bishop Tuff Sanidine Reveals Preeruptive Radiogenic Ar and Rapid Remobilization from Cold Storage. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2017, 114 (47), 12407–12412. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1709581114. (4) Ackerson, M. R.; Mysen, B. O.; Tailby, N. D.; Watson, E. B. Low-Temperature Crystallization of Granites and the Implications for Crustal Magmatism. Nature 2018, 559 (7712), 94–97. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0264-2. (5) Glazner, A. F.; Bartley, J. M.; Coleman, D. S.; Lindgren, K. Aplite Diking and Infiltration: A Differentiation Mechanism Restricted to Plutonic Rocks. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 2020, 175 (4). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-020-01677-1.more » « less
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Abstract The chemical and isotopic characteristics of a solidified pluton represent the integration of magmatic and sub-solidus processes operating across a range of spatial and temporal scales during pluton construction, crystallization, and cooling. Disentangling these processes and understanding where chemical and isotopic signatures were acquired requires the combination of multiple tools tracing processes at different time and length scales. We combine whole-rock oxygen and Sr-Nd isotopes, zircon oxygen isotopes and trace elements, and mineral compositions with published high-precision U-Pb zircon geochronology to evaluate differentiation within the bimodal Guadalupe Igneous Complex, Sierra Nevada, California (USA). The complex was constructed in ~300 k.y. between 149 and 150 Ma. Felsic magmas crystallized as centimeter- to meter-sized segregations in gabbros in the lower part of the complex and as granites and granophyres structurally above the gabbros. A central mingling zone separates the mafic and felsic units. Pluton-wide δ18O(whole-rock), δ18O(zircon), and Sr-Nd isotopic ranges are too large to be explained by in situ, closed-system differentiation, instead requiring open-system behavior at all scales. Low δ18O(whole-rock) and δ18O(zircon) values indicate assimilation of hydrothermally altered marine host rocks during ascent and/or emplacement. In situ differentiation processes operated on a smaller scale (meters to tens of meters) for at least ~200 k.y. via (1) percolation and segregation of chemically and isotopically diverse silicic interstitial melt from a heterogeneous gabbro mush; (2) crystal accumulation; and (3) sub-solidus, high-temperature, hydrothermal alteration at the shallow roof of the complex to modify the chemical and isotopic characteristics. Whole-rock and mineral chemistry in combination with geochronology allows deciphering open-system differentiation processes at the outcrop to pluton scale from magmatic to sub-solidus temperatures over time scales of hundreds of thousands to millions of years.more » « less
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null (Ed.)The textures of outcrop and near-surface exposures of the massive magnetite orebodies (>90 vol % magnetite) at the Plio-Pleistocene El Laco iron oxide-apatite (IOA) deposit in northern Chile are similar to basaltic lava flows and have compositions that overlap high- and low-temperature hydrothermal magnetite. Existing models— liquid immiscibility and complete metasomatic replacement of andesitic lava flows—attempt to explain the genesis of the orebodies by entirely igneous or entirely hydrothermal processes. Importantly, those models were developed by studying only near-surface and outcrop samples. Here, we present the results of a comprehensive study of samples from outcrop and drill core that require a new model for the evolution of the El Laco ore deposit. Backscattered electron (BSE) imaging, electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) were used to investigate the textural and compositional variability of magnetite and apatite from surface and drill core samples in order to obtain a holistic understanding of textures and compositions laterally and vertically through the orebodies. Magnetite was analyzed from 39 surface samples from five orebodies (Cristales Grandes, Rodados Negros, San Vicente Alto, Laco Norte, and Laco Sur) and 47 drill core samples from three orebodies (Laco Norte, Laco Sur, and Extensión Laco Sur). The geochemistry of apatite from eight surface samples from three orebodies (Cristales Grandes, Rodados Negros, and Laco Sur) was investigated. Minor and trace element compositions of magnetite in these samples are similar to magnetite from igneous rocks and magmatic-hydrothermal systems. Magnetite grains from deeper zones of the orebodies contain >1 wt % titanium, as well as ilmenite oxyexsolution lamellae and interstitial ilmenite. The ilmenite oxyexsolution lamellae, interstitial ilmenite, and igneous-like trace element concentrations in titanomagnetite from the deeper parts of the orebodies are consistent with original crystallization of titanomagnetite from silicate melt or high-temperature magmatic-hydrothermal fluid. The systematic decrease of trace element concentrations in magnetite from intermediate to shallow depths is consistent with progressive growth of magnetite from a cooling magmatic-hydrothermal fluid. Apatite grains from surface outcrops are F rich (typically >3 wt %) and have compositions that overlap igneous and magmatic-hydrothermal apatite. Magnetite and fluorapatite grains contain mineral inclusions (e.g., monazite and thorite) that evince syn- or postmineralization metasomatic alteration. Magnetite grains commonly meet at triple junctions, which preserve evidence for reequilibration of the ore minerals with hydrothermal fluid during or after mineralization. The data presented here are consistent with genesis of the El Laco orebodies via shallow emplacement and eruption of magnetite-bearing magmatic-hydrothermal fluid suspensions that were mobilized by decompression- induced collapse of the volcanic edifice. The ore-forming magnetite-fluid suspension would have rheological properties similar to basaltic lava flows, which explains the textures and presence of cavities and gas escape tubes in surface outcrops.more » « less
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Abstract While basaltic volcanism is dominant during rifting and continental breakup, felsic magmatism may be a significant component of some rift margins. During International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 396 on the continental margin of Norway, a graphite‐garnet‐cordierite bearing dacitic unit (the Mimir dacite) was recovered in two holes within early Eocene sediments on Mimir High (Site U1570), a marginal high on the Vøring Transform Margin. Here, we present a comprehensive textural, petrological, and geochemical study of the Mimir dacite in order to assess its origin and discuss the geodynamic implications. The major mineral phases (garnet, cordierite, quartz, plagioclase, alkali feldspar) are hosted in a fresh rhyolitic, vesicular, glassy matrix that is locally mingled with sediments. The major element chemistry of garnet and cordierite, the presence of zircon inclusions with inherited cores, and thermobarometric calculations all support an upper crustal metapelitic origin. While most magma‐rich margin models favor crustal anatexis in the lower crust, thermobarometric calculations performed here show that the Mimir dacite was produced at upper‐crustal depths (<5 kbar, 18 km depth) and high temperature (750–800°C) with up to 3 wt% water content. In situ U‐Pb analyses on zircon inclusions give a magmatic crystallization age of 54.6 ± 1.1 Ma, consistent with emplacement that post‐dates the Paleocene‐Eocene Thermal Maximum. Our results suggest that the opening of the Northeast Atlantic was associated with a phase of low‐pressure, high‐temperature crustal anatexis preceding the main phase of magmatism.more » « less
