Abstract
New chemical and modal analyses are presented of magmatic rocks and pyroxenes nodules from the Somma-Vesuvius volcano and of trachytes from the surrounding area. Geochemical evidence is employed in checking the generally accepted suggestion that magma composition develops from that of trachyte into phonolitic tephrite and finally into tephritic leucitite (vesuvite) by assimilation of dolomite.
At the Somma stage of the volcano, phonolitic tephrites (tephritic phonolites) alone have been produced. Vesuvius lavas (tephritic leucitites) are comparatively high in K2O, CaO, F, Cl, Mn, Cu, Sr and Ba and low in SiO2 and Nb. The formation of vesuvites by assimilation of dolomitic sedimentary rocks, combined with gravity-separation of early-formed pyroxenes from a trachytic or tephritic magma, is improbable as shown by chemical balances between the respective igneous and sedimentary rocks.
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This study was initiated with the encouragement of Prof. K. H. Wedepohl, to whom the writer is particularly indebted for many suggestions and discussions. The writer wishes to express his gratitude to Prof. H. C. Barnes who kindly corrected the English of the manuscript. The generous help and the suggestions of many colleagues of the Mineralogische Anstalten der Universität Göttingen are gratefully aknowledged. The writer wishes to thank the Professors A. Scherillo and A. Parascandola for samples as well as for informations on the Vesuvian area. This study was supported by a NATO fellowship of the Italian CNR and by a grant of the German DFG for which the writer wishes to thank in this place.
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Savelli, C. The problem of rock assimilation by Somma-Vesuvius magma. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 16, 328–353 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00371529
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00371529