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Cooling history and differentiation of a thick North Mountain Basalt flow (Nova Scotia, Canada)

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Abstract

A thick (<175 m) North Mountain Basalt flow at McKay Head, Nova Scotia (Canada) shows ∼25-cm-thick differentiated layers separated by ∼130 cm of basalt in its upper 34m. Upper layers (∼5 m below the lava top) are highly vesicular whereas lower ones are pegmatitic and contain a thin (∼2 cm) rhyolite band. The layering of the flow closely resemble that of some Hawaiian lava lakes. The eesicular basalts and mafic pegmatites are inferred to be liquid-rich segregations which drained into horizontal cracks that formed within a crystalline mush. The cracks resulted from a thermal contraction associated with cooling and shrinkage of the mush. Rhyolites were formed by in situ differentiation. Gas overpressures fractured the pegmatites and gas effervescence filter pressing forced silicarich residual liquid from pegmatite interstices into the fractures creating bands. Chemical differences between the pegmatitic layers and early formed, highly differentiated upper vesicular layers may reflect a role for volatiles in the differentiation process along with crystal fractionation.

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Author notes

  1. J D Greenough

    Present address: Department of Geological Sciences, University of British Columbia, Okanagan College, 1000 K.L.O. Road, V1Y 4X8, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, Mount Allison University, EOA 3CO, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada

    J D Greenough

  2. Department of Geology, Saint Mary's University, B3H 3C3, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

    J Dostal

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  1. J D Greenough
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Greenough, J.D., Dostal, J. Cooling history and differentiation of a thick North Mountain Basalt flow (Nova Scotia, Canada). Bull Volcanol 55, 63–73 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00301120

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00301120

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