Evidence for the mixing of granitic and basaltic magmas in the Pleasant Bay layered intrusion, coastal Maine
- Franklin and Marshall Coll., Lancaster, PA (United States). Geology Dept.
The Pleasant Bay layered intrusion has the shape of a shallow basin about 200 km[sup 2] in area and crops out along the coast of Maine between Bar Harbor and Machias. This intrusion evolved as repeated replenishments of basaltic magma were emplaced into a silicic magma chamber (Wiebe, in press). These replenishments surged into the chamber through fractures, spreading laterally on a floor of silicic cumulates and beneath silicic magma. This produced a sequence of layers (up to 100 m thick) that grade from chilled basalt at the base to gabbroic, dioritic, or granitic emulates at the top. This study focuses on two layers, each of which grades from chilled gabbro at the base to quartz syenite at the top. Petrography and geochemistry suggest that mechanical mixing and other interactions between two stably stratified magmas were responsible for much of this variation. Plagioclase grains typically have corroded calcic cores (An[sub 52--56]) that decrease in size upward and sodic rims (An[sub 32--36]) that thicken upward. Larger plagioclase grains at higher levels often have K-spar cores. Scarce large zircon, apatite, and biotite crystals in the lower parts of the layers are often corroded. The apatites have dark pleochroic halos, suggesting they crystallized from a liquid enriched in U and Th. The silicic melt was likely the source of K and H[sub 2]O needed to crystallize hornblende and biotite. The large corroded zircon, apatite, and biotite crystals, as well as much of the hornblende, probably grew at an interface between separately convecting silicic and basaltic magmas.
- OSTI ID:
- 5588221
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9303211-; CODEN: GAAPBC
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 25:2; Conference: 28. annual Geological Society of America (GSA) Northeastern Section meeting, Burlington, VT (United States), 22-24 Mar 1993; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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