The magma mixing origin of mantled feldspars

Abstract

The key to mantled feldspar genesis is epitaxial nucleation of plagioclase on K-feldspar or K-feldspar on plagioclase. Once this nucleation takes place there is a relatively straightforward process of crystal growth yielding “rapakivi” and “antirapikivi” textures. The most common mantling is plagioclase on K-feldspar which occurs in both volcanic and plutonic environments. In the volcanic environment the morphology of the plagioclase overgrowth typically is dendritic, though in subvolcanic and shallow plutonic environments dendritic growth is followed by a more or less continuous non-cellular shell of plagioclase. In the plutonic environment, early stages of plagioclase overgrowth also tend to be dendritic, although with coarser-grained characteristics. Dendritic morphology is thus a common denominator in rapakivi genesis. Since growth of dendritic plagioclase is clearly related to marked undercooling in silicate melt systems its occurrence in many volcanic rocks is to be expected. Equivalent quenching in the plutonic environment requires a cooling mechanism independent of conductive heat transfer to wallrock and also independent of effective cooling related to sudden loss of volatile phases that could only occur late in the crystallization of most magmas and therefore after much dendritic plagioclase had already formed. Internal quenching of portions of magma systems must occur if mafic magma is abruptly mixed with felsic magma. Such magma mixing yields a heterogeneous system at first, one that is in a drastic state of disequilibrium and tending to force nucleation of one feldspar type on the surface of another resulting in epitaxial crystallization of dendritic plagioclase on K-feldspar. Mantling of one feldspar type by another during magma mixing is paralleled by dendritic growth zones in coexisting plagioclase crystals.

Mantling textures occur in hybrid rocks of magma mixing origin. Some of the hybrid rocks are fine-grained, mafic-rich, and may contain phenocrysts of quartz, plagioclase, and K-feldspar. They occur as rounded inclusions in calc-alkaline granites and granodiorites. The host plutons themselves commonly have mantled feldspars or at least plagioclase with the unusual zoning characteristics commonly accompanying rapakivi texture. Magma-mixing tends to occur in batches so that hybrid crystal-melt systems, the calc-alkaline granitic plutons, become intrusive into earlier hybrid crystal-melt systems, represented by the mafic-rich inclusions.