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Quaternary acid magma in New Zealand

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Abstract

The voluminous Pleistocene—Recent Taupo rhyolites typically contain phenocrysts of plagioclase (oligoclase-labradorite), quartz, titanomagnetite, ilmenite, and ferromagnesian silicates. Ferromagnesian assemblages correlate with well defined Fe-Ti oxide equilibration temperature ranges and allow the rhyolites to be subdivided as follows: (1) Cummingtonite (c)—calcic hornblende (hb)—orthopyroxene (opx); 725–755°C, (2) Hb-opx, 750–825°C, (3) Biotite-hb-(c-opx), 720–765°C, (4) Opx-clinopyroxene (cpx), 860–915°C, (5) Fe olivine-opx-cpx, one sample with temperature of 900°C. Plagioclase and orthopyroxene phenocryst compositions typically exhibit a range of composition up to ∼20 mol.%.

Calculated average phenocryst equilibration pressures (P total) range between 0.5–4.9 kb, and average 2.2 kb (∼7–8 km depth), indicating upper crustal crystallization. These calculations are very sensitive to variations in phenocryst composition. Calculated \(/_{{\text{H}}_2 {\text{O}}} \) for the amphibole and biotite-bearing rhyolites indicate phenocryst equilibration under \(P_{{\text{H}}_2 {\text{O}}} \simeq P_{{\text{total}}} \), with \(X_{{\text{H}}_2 {\text{O}}} \)∼0.17–0.24 (5–8 wt. %). The precipitation of cummingtonite is thus temperature dependent, the upper limit being close to 760°C.

Eruptive mechanisms of the lavas, pumices, and ash-flow deposits are evidently not primarily controlled by temperature, P total, \(P_{{\text{H}}_2 {\text{O}}} \), or crystal content of the magmas, and explanations must lie in kinetic and fluid dynamic behavior of the magmas. For the Taupo rhyolites, it is suggested that the critical size of a magma body (i.e. Rayleigh number) is a controlling factor in that it will influence the convective regime; fully turbulent convection is deduced to have occurred within the larger magma bodies. One consequence is intense vesiculation, prior to eruption, within the uppermost zones of these magma chambers, and the voluminous pumice deposits are believed to emanate from such chambers. Oscillatory compositional zoning within pyroxene phenocrysts is consistent with magma convection.

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  1. A. Ewart

    Present address: Dept. of Geology and Mineralogy, University of Queensland, 4067, St. Lucia, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

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  1. Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of California, 94720, Berkeley, California

    A. Ewart, W. Hildreth & I. S. E. Carmichael

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  2. W. Hildreth
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  3. I. S. E. Carmichael
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Ewart, A., Hildreth, W. & Carmichael, I.S.E. Quaternary acid magma in New Zealand. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 51, 1–27 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00403509

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