Abstract
Crystal textures of volcanic rocks record the processes involved in magma storage and eruptive ascent. Syn-eruptive crystallization, in which groundmass crystals form and grow according to environmental factors such as thermodynamic undercooling, strongly influences the texture of erupted magma. This stage is difficult to isolate for study in natural rocks, but well-suited for laboratory experiments because the chemical compositions and crystallization timescales of eruptive processes can be emulated. This study examines the incipient stages of plagioclase crystallization in hydrous rhyodacite magma undergoing decompression-driven degassing. Experimental samples in which crystal growth at both near-equilibrium and far-from equilibrium conditions were examined using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) analysis to ascertain crystallographic lattice orientations of individual crystals. The crystal orientation investigation affirms a common assumption invoked in textural studies of crystal number density: contiguous crystals with parallel faces are crystallographically continuous, whereas contiguous crystals with non-parallel faces have unrelated crystal lattice orientations and as such, represent separate crystals. In the highly undercooled sample, twinning is identified in ~87% of the crystals examined; in the near-equilibrium sample, 38% of the crystals are twinned. We find that the observed twinning is unlikely to be the result of deformation, transformation, or synneusis, but rather a result of growth defects introduced during the incipient stages of crystallization. We suggest internal structural defects (twins) control macroscopic morphological defects (embayments, swallowtails, and melt inclusions) as a result of the high energy of the twin plane boundary. Formation of twins during the incipient stages of plagioclase crystallization is the single most important factor contributing to anhedral morphologies of feldspar microlites growing during magma decompression, and plays a role in the development of some plagioclase-hosted melt inclusions.
© 2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Anhydrite: An important sulfur binder limiting the climatic impact of subaerial volcanic eruptions
- Tweed, twins, and holes
- The chemical behavior of fluids released during deep subduction based on fluid inclusions
- In situ observation of the pyroxene-majorite transition in Na2MgSi5O12 using synchrotron radiation and Raman spectroscopy of Na-majorite
- Prevalence of growth twins among anhedral plagioclase microlites
- Intrinsic conditions of magma genesis at the Lunar Crater Volcanic Field (Nevada), and implications for internal plumbing and magma ascent
- A rock fragment related to the magnesian suite in lunar meteorite Allan Hills (ALHA) 81005
- Trinitite redux: Mineralogy and petrology
- Pauloabibite, trigonal NaNbO3, isostructural with ilmenite, from the Jacupiranga carbonatite, Cajati, São Paulo, Brazil
- Kojonenite, a new palladium tin telluride mineral from the Stillwater Layered Igneous Intrusion, Montana, U.S.A.
- Cathodoluminescence dependence on feldspar mineral structure and implications for forensic geology
- Non-invasive assessment of the formation of tourmaline nodules by X-ray microtomography and computer modeling
- Alkali influence on the water speciation and the environment of protons in silicate glasses revealed by 1H MAS NMR spectroscopy
- Carbonate mineralization in percolated olivine aggregates: Linking effects of crystallographic orientation and fluid flow
- The catalytic effect of bound extracellular polymeric substances excreted by anaerobic microorganisms on Ca-Mg carbonate precipitation: Implications for the “dolomite problem”
- Experimental study along the magnesio-hornblende–glaucophane join
- Direct observation of Ca-Na ordering and structure polarity in Ca-rich intermediate plagioclase feldspar with incommensurate modulated structure
- Stability and adhesion of calcite/montmorillonite assembly
- Experimental and modeled chlorine solubilities in aluminosilicate melts at 1 to 7000 bars and 700 to 1250 °C: Applications to magmas of Augustine Volcano, Alaska
- Cation order-disorder in Fe-bearing pyrope and grossular garnets: A 27Al and 29Si MAS NMR and 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy study
- Trace and minor elements in galena: A reconnaissance LA-ICP-MS study
- A refined monoclinic structure for a variety of “hydrohematite”
- Mössbauer spectroscopic study of natural eosphorite, [(Mn,Fe)AlPO4(OH)2H2O]
- P-V-T equation of state of Ca3Cr2Si3O12 uvarovite garnet by using a diamond-anvil cell and in-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction
- Possible new Ca-REE-Bi phosphate minerals from a tungsten-rich calcsilicate skarn, Sierra Nevada Mountains, California
- Klebelsbergite, Sb4O4SO4(OH)2: Stability relationships, formation in Nature, and refinement of its structure
- Balestraite, KLi2VSi4O10O2, the first member of the mica group with octahedral V5+
- Prediction of enthalpies of formation of hydrous sulfates
- Complete substitution of Fe2+ by Mg in Fe4O5: The crystal structure of the Mg2Fe2O5 end-member
- The effect of H2O on F and Cl solubility and solution mechanisms of in aluminosilicate melts at high pressure and high temperature
- The elasticity of MgAl2O4–MnAl2O4 spinels by Brillouin scattering and an empirical approach for bulk modulus prediction
- Synthesis of stoichiometric nickel aluminate spinel nanoparticles
- New Mineral Names
- Book Review
- American Mineralogist thanks the year 2014 reviewers
Articles in the same Issue
- Anhydrite: An important sulfur binder limiting the climatic impact of subaerial volcanic eruptions
- Tweed, twins, and holes
- The chemical behavior of fluids released during deep subduction based on fluid inclusions
- In situ observation of the pyroxene-majorite transition in Na2MgSi5O12 using synchrotron radiation and Raman spectroscopy of Na-majorite
- Prevalence of growth twins among anhedral plagioclase microlites
- Intrinsic conditions of magma genesis at the Lunar Crater Volcanic Field (Nevada), and implications for internal plumbing and magma ascent
- A rock fragment related to the magnesian suite in lunar meteorite Allan Hills (ALHA) 81005
- Trinitite redux: Mineralogy and petrology
- Pauloabibite, trigonal NaNbO3, isostructural with ilmenite, from the Jacupiranga carbonatite, Cajati, São Paulo, Brazil
- Kojonenite, a new palladium tin telluride mineral from the Stillwater Layered Igneous Intrusion, Montana, U.S.A.
- Cathodoluminescence dependence on feldspar mineral structure and implications for forensic geology
- Non-invasive assessment of the formation of tourmaline nodules by X-ray microtomography and computer modeling
- Alkali influence on the water speciation and the environment of protons in silicate glasses revealed by 1H MAS NMR spectroscopy
- Carbonate mineralization in percolated olivine aggregates: Linking effects of crystallographic orientation and fluid flow
- The catalytic effect of bound extracellular polymeric substances excreted by anaerobic microorganisms on Ca-Mg carbonate precipitation: Implications for the “dolomite problem”
- Experimental study along the magnesio-hornblende–glaucophane join
- Direct observation of Ca-Na ordering and structure polarity in Ca-rich intermediate plagioclase feldspar with incommensurate modulated structure
- Stability and adhesion of calcite/montmorillonite assembly
- Experimental and modeled chlorine solubilities in aluminosilicate melts at 1 to 7000 bars and 700 to 1250 °C: Applications to magmas of Augustine Volcano, Alaska
- Cation order-disorder in Fe-bearing pyrope and grossular garnets: A 27Al and 29Si MAS NMR and 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy study
- Trace and minor elements in galena: A reconnaissance LA-ICP-MS study
- A refined monoclinic structure for a variety of “hydrohematite”
- Mössbauer spectroscopic study of natural eosphorite, [(Mn,Fe)AlPO4(OH)2H2O]
- P-V-T equation of state of Ca3Cr2Si3O12 uvarovite garnet by using a diamond-anvil cell and in-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction
- Possible new Ca-REE-Bi phosphate minerals from a tungsten-rich calcsilicate skarn, Sierra Nevada Mountains, California
- Klebelsbergite, Sb4O4SO4(OH)2: Stability relationships, formation in Nature, and refinement of its structure
- Balestraite, KLi2VSi4O10O2, the first member of the mica group with octahedral V5+
- Prediction of enthalpies of formation of hydrous sulfates
- Complete substitution of Fe2+ by Mg in Fe4O5: The crystal structure of the Mg2Fe2O5 end-member
- The effect of H2O on F and Cl solubility and solution mechanisms of in aluminosilicate melts at high pressure and high temperature
- The elasticity of MgAl2O4–MnAl2O4 spinels by Brillouin scattering and an empirical approach for bulk modulus prediction
- Synthesis of stoichiometric nickel aluminate spinel nanoparticles
- New Mineral Names
- Book Review
- American Mineralogist thanks the year 2014 reviewers