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Buoyant rise of anorthosite from a layered basic complex triggered by Rayleigh-Taylor instability: Insights from a numerical modeling study

  • Amal Bikash Mukherjee EMAIL logo , Subhasish Das , Dhrubajyoti Sen and Bikramjit Bhattacharya
Published/Copyright: April 2, 2020
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American Mineralogist
From the journal American Mineralogist Volume 105 Issue 4

Abstract

A major unsolved problem of the Proterozoic is the genesis and tectonic evolution of the massif type anorthosites. The idea of large-scale floating of plagioclase crystals in a basaltic magma chamber eventually generating massif type anorthosite diapirs from the floatation cumulates is not supported by observations of the major layered basic complexes of Proterozoic to Eocene age. In this paper, we test and propose a new genetic process of anorthosite diapirism through Rayleigh-Taylor instability. We have carried out a numerical modeling study of parallel, horizontal, multiple layers of norite and anorthosite, in a model layered basic complex, behaving like Newtonian or non-Newtonian power law fluids in a jelly sandwich model of the continental lithosphere. We have shown that in this pressure-temperature-rheology configuration the model lithosphere generates Rayleigh-Taylor instability, which triggers diapirism of the anorthosite. In our model, the anorthosite diapirs buoyantly rise through stages of simple, symmetrical upwelling and pronounced bulbous growth to a full-blown mushroom-like form. This is the growth path of diapirs in nearly all analog and numerical previous studies on diapirism. Our anorthosite diapirs fully conform to this path. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the progressive diapirism brings in striking internal changes within the diapir itself. In the process, the lowermost anorthosite layer rises displacing the upper norite and anorthosite layers as progressively stretched and isolated segments driven to the margin of the rising diapir—a feature commonly seen in natural anorthosite massifs. We propose that a large plume-generated basaltic magma chamber may be ponded at the viscous lower crust or ductile-plastic upper mantle or further down in the weaker mantle of the jelly sandwich type continental lithosphere. The magma may cool and crystallize very slowly and resolve into a thick-layered basic complex with anorthosite layers. Rheologically behaving like Newtonian or non-Newtonian power law fluids, the layers of the basic complex with built-in density inversions would generate RT (Rayleigh-Taylor) instability. The RT instability would trigger a buoyant rise of the unstable anorthosite from the layered complex. The upward driven anorthosite, accumulated as anorthosite plutons, would gradually ascend across the lower and middle crust as anorthosite diapirs.

Keywords: Anorthosite; layered complex; Rayleigh-Taylor instability; diapir; buoyant rise of anorthosite; Dynamics of Magmatic Processes

† Special collection papers can be found online at http://www.minsocam.org/MSA/AmMin/special-collections.html.

Acknowledgments

This paper has benefited from the reviews by three anonymous reviewers. We thank all of them.

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Received: 2019-01-31
Accepted: 2019-11-18
Published Online: 2020-04-02
Published in Print: 2020-04-28

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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  1. Buoyant rise of anorthosite from a layered basic complex triggered by Rayleigh-Taylor instability: Insights from a numerical modeling study
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  13. Memorial of Edward J. Olsen 1927–2020
https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2020-6985
Keywords for this article
Anorthosite; layered complex; Rayleigh-Taylor instability; diapir; buoyant rise of anorthosite; Dynamics of Magmatic Processes

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Buoyant rise of anorthosite from a layered basic complex triggered by Rayleigh-Taylor instability: Insights from a numerical modeling study
  2. Chemically oscillating reactions in the formation of botryoidal malachite
  3. Micro- and nano-size hydrogarnet clusters and proton ordering in calcium silicate garnet: Part I. The quest to understand the nature of “water” in garnet continues
  4. Micro- and nano-size hydrogarnet clusters in calcium silicate garnet: Part II. Mineralogical, petrological, and geochemical aspects
  5. Petrogenetic insights from chromite in ultramafic cumulates of the Xiarihamu intrusion, northern Tibet Plateau, China
  6. Enigmatic diamonds from the Tolbachik volcano, Kamchatka
  7. Volcanic SiO2-cristobalite: A natural product of chemical vapor deposition
  8. Mg diffusion in forsterite from 1250–1600 °C
  9. Alteration of magmatic monazite in granitoids from the Ryoke belt (SW Japan): Processes and consequences
  10. Smamite, Ca2Sb(OH)4[H(AsO4)2]·6H2O, a new mineral and a possible sink for Sb during weathering of fahlore
  11. The new K, Pb-bearing uranyl-oxide mineral kroupaite: Crystal-chemical implications for the structures of uranyl-oxide hydroxy-hydrates
  12. Changes in the cell parameters of antigorite close to its dehydration reaction at subduction zone conditions
  13. Memorial of Edward J. Olsen 1927–2020
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