Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Experimental study on the effects of temperature cycling on coarsening of plagioclase and olivine in an alkali basalt

  • Published:
Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We conducted experiments on an alkali basalt at 1-atmosphere in order to investigate the effects of temperature cycling on crystal coarsening. Experiments at 1,150 °C near the Ni–NiO buffer indicate that coarsening of plagioclase and olivine crystals is greatly accentuated by temperature cycling. For a given experiment duration, crystal number density decreases with temperature cycle amplitude and average crystal size increases with increasing amplitude. We observed little correlation between cycle period and crystal number density or average crystal size. We suggest that dissolution and size-proportional crystal growth during repeated heating and cooling decrease crystal number density and increase average crystal size. These experiments indicate that the texture of silicate minerals can be modified by temperature cycling and that phenocrysts may develop quicker in silicate magmas when the magma temperature is cycled.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Annen C (2009) From plutons to magma chambers: thermal constraints on the accumulation of eruptible silicic magma in the upper crust. Earth Planet Sci Lett 284:409–416

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Annen C, Blundy JD, Sparks RSJ (2006) The genesis of intermediate and silicic magmas in deep crustal hot zones. J Petrol 47:505–539

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Best MG (1982) Igneous and metamorphic petrology. WH Freeman and Company, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Bindeman IN (2003) Crystal sizes in evolving silicic magma chambers. Geology 31:367–370

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blundy J, Cashman K (2008) Petrologic reconstruction of magmatic system variables and processes. Rev Mineral Geochem 69:179–239

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brandeis G, Jaupart C, Allegre CJ (1984) Nucleation, crystal growth and the thermal regime of cooling magmas. J Geophys Res 89:10161–10177

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown PM, Myerson AS (1989) The growth, dissolution and aging of terephthalic acid crystals. Am Inst Chem Eng J 35:1749–1752

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brugger CR, Hammer JE (2010) Crystal size distribution analysis of plagioclase in experimentally decompressed hydrous rhyodacite magma. Earth Planet Sci Lett 200:246–254

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cabane H, Laporte D, Provost A (2001) Experimental investigation of the kinetics of Ostwald ripening of quartz in silicic melts. Contrib Miner Petrol 142:361–373

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cabane H, Laporte D, Provost A (2005) An experimental study of Ostwald ripening of olivine and plagioclase in silicate melts: implications for the growth and size of crystals in magmas. Contrib Miner Petrol 150:37–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Canning TF, Randolph AD (1967) Some aspects of crystallization theory: systems that violate McCabe’s delta L law. AIChE J 13:5–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cashman KV, Marsh BD (1988) Crystal size distribution (CSD) in rocks and the kinetics and dynamics of crystallization II: Makaopuhi lava lake. Contrib Miner Petrol 99:292–305

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Colbeck SC (1982) An overview of seasonal snow metamorphism. Rev Geophys Space Phys 20:45–61

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coleman DS, Gray W, Glazner AF (2004) Rethinking the emplacement and evolution of zoned plutons: geochronologic evidence for incremental assembly of the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite, California. Geology 32:433–436

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis JW, Coleman DS, Gracely JT, Gaschnig R, Stearns M (2012) Magma accumulation rates and thermal histories of plutons of the Sierra Nevada batholith, CA. Contrib Miner Petrol 163:449–465

    Google Scholar 

  • Donhowe DP, Hartel RW (1996) Recrystallization of ice cream during controlled accelerated storage. Int Dairy J 6:1191–1208

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunbar N, Cashman K, Dupre R (1994) Crystallization processes of anorthoclase phenocrysts in the Mount Erebus magmatic system: evidence from crystal composition, crystal size distributions and volatile contents of melt inclusions. In: Kyle PR (ed) Volcanological and environmental studies of Mount Erebus, Antarctica. Antarctica Research Series 66:129–146

  • Eberl DD, Kile DE, Drits VA (2002) On geological interpretations of crystal size distributions: constant vs. proportionate growth. Am Mineral 87:1235–1241

    Google Scholar 

  • Elkins-Tanton LT (2012) Magma oceans in the inner solar system. Annu Rev Earth Planet Sci 40:113–139

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fornaciai A, Landi P, Armienti P (2009) Dissolution/crystallization kinetics recorded in the 2002–2003 lavas of Stromboli (Italy). Bull Volcanol 71:631–641

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Francis P, Oppenheimer C, Stevenson D (1993) Endogenous growth of persistently active volcanoes. Nature 366:554–557

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garside J, Mullin JW, Das SN (1974) Growth and dissolution kinetics of potassium sulfate crystals in an agitated vessel. Ind Eng Chem Fundam 13:299–305

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Girolami MW, Rousseau RW (1985) Size-dependent crystal growth—a manifestation of growth rate dispersion in the potassium alum—water system. AIChE J 31:1821–1828

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glazner AF, Mills RD (2012) Statistics of two-dimensional cuts through objects with a fractal size distributions: application to xenoliths, breccias, and enclaves. Geosphere 8:902–918

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glazner AF, Bartley JM, Law B, Coleman DS (2011) The granite aqueduct and advection of water and heat through plutonic terranes. AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammer JE, Rutherford MJ (2002) An experimental study of the kinetics of decompression-induced crystallization in silicic melts. J Geophys Res 107(1):8–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanley EJ, Dewitt DP, Roy RF (1978) The thermal diffusivity of eight well-characterized rocks for the temperature range 300–1000 K. Eng Geol 12:31–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Higgins MD (1998) Origin of anorthosite by textural coarsening: quantitative measurements of a natural sequence of textural development. J Petrol 39:1307–1323

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Higgins MD (1999) Origin of megacrysts in granitoids by textural coarsening: a crystal size distribution (CSD) study of microcline in the Cathedral Peak Granodiorite, Sierra Nevada, California. Geol Soc Lond Special Public 168:207–219

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Higgins MD (2000) Measurement of crystal size distributions. Am Mineral 85:1105–1116

    Google Scholar 

  • Higgins MD (2002) A crystal size-distribution study of the Kiglapait layered mafic intrusion, Labrador, Canada: evidence for textural coarsening. Contrib Miner Petrol 144:314–330

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Higgins MD (2011a) Textural coarsening in igneous rocks. Int Geol Rev 53:354–376

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Higgins MD (2011b) Quantitative petrological evidence for the origin of K-feldspar megacrysts in dacites from Taapaca volcano, Chili. Contrib Miner Petrol 162:709–723

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Higgins MD, Chandrasekharam D (2007) Nature of sub-volcanic magma chambers, Deccan Province, India: evidence from quantitative textural analysis of plagioclase megacrysts in Giant Plagioclase Basalts. J Petrol 48:885–900

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hintzmann W, Müller-Vogt G (1969) Crystal growth and lattice parameters of rare-earth doped yttrium phosphate, arsenate and vanadate prepared by the oscillating temperature flux technique. J Cryst Growth 5:274–278

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes WT (1986) Geochemical evolution of basalts from Amboy and Pisgah lava fields, Mojave Desert, California. MS Thesis, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

  • Huppert HE, Sparks RSJ (1988) The generation of granitic magmas by intrusion of basalt into the continental crust. J Petrol 29:599–624

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson BR, Glazner AF (2010) Formation of K-feldspar megacrysts in granodioritic plutons by thermal cycling and late-stage textural coarsening. Contrib Miner Petrol 159:599–619

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kendall K (1978) The impossibility of comminuting small particles by compression. Nature 272:710–711

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kile DE, Eberl DD (2003) On the origin of size-dependent and size-independent crystal growth: influence of advection and diffusion. Am Mineral 88:1514–1521

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirkpatrick RJ (1977) Nucleation and growth of plagioclase, Makaopuhi and Alae lava lakes, Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii. Geol Soc Am Bull 88:78–84

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lesher CE, Cashman KV, Mayfield JD (1999) Kinetic controls on crystallization of Tertiary North Atlantic basalt and implications for the emplacement and cooling history of lava at Site 989, Southeast Greenland rifted margin. Proc Ocean Drilling Program 163:135–148

    Google Scholar 

  • Lofgren GE (1973) Experimental crystallization of synthetic plagioclase at prescribed cooling rates. EOS Trans AGU 54:482

    Google Scholar 

  • Lofgren GE (1980) Experimental studies on the dynamic crystallization of silicate melts. In: Hargraves RB (ed) The physics of magmatic processes. Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp 487–551

    Google Scholar 

  • Lofgren GE, Donaldson CH, Williams RJ, Mullins O, Usselman TM (1974) Experimentally produced textures and mineral chemistry of Apollo 15 quartz normative basalts. Lunar Planet Sci Conf 5:549–568

    Google Scholar 

  • Lundstrom CC, Marshak S, DeFrates J, Mabon J (2011) Alternative processes for developing fabric and mineral compositional zoning in intrusive rocks. Int Geol Rev 53:377–405

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mangan MT (1990) Crystal size distribution systematics and the determination of magma storage times: the 1959 eruption of Kilauea Volcano. J Volcanol Geoth Res 44:295–302

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marsh BD (1998) On the interpretation of crystal size distributions in magmatic systems. J Petrol 39:553–599

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin D, Griffiths RW, Campbell IH (1987) Compositional and thermal convection in magma chambers. Contrib Miner Petrol 96:465–475

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mills RD (2013) The effect of thermal cycling on crystal-liquid separation during lunar magma ocean differentiation. In: 44th Lunar and planetary science conference (abstract #2317)

  • Mills RD, Ratner JJ, Glazner AF (2011) Experimental evidence for crystal coarsening and fabric development during temperature cycling. Geology 39:1139–1142

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oishi Y, Terai R, Ueda H (1975) Oxygen diffusion in liquid silicates and relation to their viscosity. In: Cooper AR, Heuer AH (eds) Mass transport phenomena in ceramics. Plenum Press, New York, pp 297–310

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Pirsson LV (1913) Rocks and rock minerals: a manual of the elements of petrology without the use of the microscope. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Pupier E, Duchene S, Toplis MJ (2008) Experimental quantification of plagioclase crystal size distribution during cooling of basaltic liquid. Contrib Miner Petrol 155:555–570

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Randolph AD, Larson MA (1971) Theory of particulate processes. Academic Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Salisbury MJ, Bohrson WA, Clynne MS, Ramos FC, Hoskin P (2008) Multiple plagioclase crystal populations identified by crystal size distribution and in situ chemical data: implications for timescales of magma chamber processes associated with the 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak, CA. J Petrol 49:1755–1780

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scheel HJ, Elwell D (1972) Stable growth rates and temperature programming in flux growth. J Cryst Growth 12:153–161

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schiavi F, Walte N, Keppler H (2009) First in situ observation of crystallization processes in a basaltic-andesitic melt with the moissanite cell. Geology 37:963–966

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shimizu N, Kushiro I (1984) Diffusivity of oxygen in jadeite and diopside melts at high pressures. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 48:1295–1303

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simakin AG, Bindeman IN (2008) Evolution of crystal sizes in the series of dissolution and precipitation events in open magma systems. J Volcanol Geoth Res 177:997–1010

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Solomatov VS (2000) Fluid dynamics of a terrestrial magma ocean. In: Canup RM, Righter K (eds) Origin of the Earth and Moon. University of Arizona Press, Phoenix, p 555

  • Turcotte DL, Schubert G (2002) Geodynamics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Underwood E (1970) Quantitative stereology. Addison-Wesley, Massachusetts

    Google Scholar 

  • Ussler W, Glazner AF (1989) Phase equilibria along a basalt-rhyolite mixing line: implications for the origin of calc-alkaline intermediate magmas. Contrib Miner Petrol 101:232–244

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Voorhees PW (1985) The theory of Ostwald ripening. J Stat Phys 38:231–252

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker D, Kirkpatrick RJ, Longhi J, Hays JF (1976) Crystallization history of lunar picritic basalt sample 12002: phase-equilibria and cooling-rate studies. Geol Soc Am Bull 87:646–656

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waters C, Boudreau AE (1996) A reevaluation of crystal-size distributions in chromite cumulates. Am Mineral 81:1452–1459

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson EB (1982) Basalt contamination by continental crust: some experiments and models. Contrib Miner Petrol 80:73–87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wright TL, Okamura RT (1977) Cooling and crystallization of tholeiitic basalt, 1965 Makaopuhi lava lake, Hawaii. United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 1004, 78 pp

  • Zieg MJ, Lofgren GE (2006) An experimental investigation of texture evolution during continuous cooling. J Volcanol Geoth Res 154:74–88

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by National Science Foundation Grant EAR-1052813. The Martin Fund of the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of North Carolina, the Geological Society of America, Sigma Xi, and the Mary Lily Kenan Flagler Bingham Professorship. R.M. acknowledges the NASA Postdoctoral Program and Justin Simon for support. Colin McKinney provided expertise with control systems. Kent Ross assisted with the FE-SEM work. Informal reviews by Alan Boudreau, Drew Coleman, Ryan Frazer, and Breck Johnson on earlier versions of this manuscript helped clarify the content. Journal reviews by Ariel Provost, Pietro Armienti, and editor Jon Blundy greatly improved the quality of the final publication. We also thank Jon Blundy for his editorial handling of the manuscript.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Ryan D. Mills

    Present address: Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Directorate, NASA-JSC, Houston, TX, 77058, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-3315, USA

    Ryan D. Mills & Allen F. Glazner

Authors
  1. Ryan D. Mills
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Allen F. Glazner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ryan D. Mills.

Additional information

Communicated by J. Blundy.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mills, R.D., Glazner, A.F. Experimental study on the effects of temperature cycling on coarsening of plagioclase and olivine in an alkali basalt. Contrib Mineral Petrol 166, 97–111 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-013-0867-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-013-0867-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation