07 Magmatism PDF

GEL 50: Lecture 8
Magma and Igneous Rocks: Up from the Inferno

Igneous Rocks
An igneous rock forms from the progressive cooling of molten rock (aka
crystallization from a melt). It can occur either slowly beneath the
surface associated with a magma chamber, or it can occur rapidly on the
surface of the land or seafloor as lava ‘freezes’ to rock. (see the
Minerals notes on ‘crystallization from a melt’)
When magma rises up into the lithosphere, it can do two things: it can erupt
on the surface from a volcano or it can solidify at some depth beneath
the surface.
- igneous rock that solidifies beneath the surface is called intrusive igneous
rock and the process is called plutonism.
- igneous rock that solidifies on the surface of the land or along the seafloor
is called extrusive igneous rock and the process is called volcanism
(which we'll discuss separately).
The earliest rocks on Earth were igneous. The early Earth was so hot from
'heat of formation' generated by countless collisions with space debris
that its surface was likely molten.
- as Earth cooled with time, parts of this magma ocean began to solidify into
thin crusts (the first 'continents'). As the Earth cooled even more, the
entire mantle 'froze', forming a thick, semi-plastic shell around the
metallic core.
Igneous rocks are the most abundant on Earth, comprising all of the oceanic
crust (remember that all ocean crust forms at mid-ocean ridges) and
much of the continental crust.
- even though volcanism is a very common phenomenon on Earth's surface,
the vast majority of igneous rocks form beneath the surface by
plutonism.
Where and how is magma produced?

Magma forms in the uppermost asthenosphere and throughout the
lithosphere and crust where pressures from overlying rock are not as
great as deeper in the Earth.
- rock in the asthenosphere and deeper mantle is solid. It may be hot and
mobile and migrate slowly as a thick 'plastic', but it is nevertheless a
solid rock.
Classification of Igneous Rocks:
We use a two fold scheme of classifying igneous rock.
Texture-We use the texture of the rocks to tell us something about the
physical setting where the rocks formed. Igneous rocks that cool slowly
underground, plutonic rocks, have coarse gained crystals. Volcanic rocks
that erupt at the surface of the earth and cool more quickly have finer
gain sizes. Some rock start to cool and crystallize underground forming
some large crystals, but then erupt at the surface. This results in large
crystals in a matrix of finer-gained rock, which we call porphyritic
texture. Some volcanoes erupt explosively, so the rocks are not only
fine-grained or glassy, but will also be fragmented. We call these
volcanoclastic (Clastic means composed of clasts, or broken particles)
rocks.
Composition-the second part of our classification scheme involves the
composition of the rocks. We don’t need to carry a geochemistry lab in
the field to determine the composition, because we can infer the
composition from the minerals that make up the rock. The most
important compositional variable is the silica content of the rock. The
mineralogy of igneous rocks changes progressively as the silica content
changes, as illustrated by Fig. 4.4. We refer to rocks rich in Feldspar
and Silica as Felsic and rocks rich in Magnesium and Iron (Fe) as Mafic,
and define eight basic igneous rock types distinguished by composition
and intrusive/extrusive origin. One additional rock type, peridotite, only
occurs as an intrusive rock (the melting temperature is too high for it to
reach the surface as a volcanic rock, but peridotite lavas were able to
erupt when the earth was much hotter more than 2.5 billion years
ago). Peridotite is important because it is the rock type that makes up
the mantle, and partial melting of the peridotite mantle forms basalt, the
most common igneous rock type on earth.
-Many properties of igneous rocks vary systematically with the silica
content, including the amount of Mg and Fe, the amount of Na and K, the
melting temperature, the viscosity, and the amount of volatiles, like
water and carbon dioxide, that can dissolve in the magma. All of these
control how a magma will travel through the crust, and where and how it
might erupt.
Melting of mixtures:
- Pure phases have exact melting and freezing points, but rocks are
aggregates of minerals, so we need to understand how mixed phases
melt. Minerals can interact chemically with melts, just like salt can lower
the melting point of ice by dissolving in the melt water. This means that the
first melts from a rock can be chemically different than the bulk
composition of the rock. We need to understand this if we are to
understand the processes that give us the variety of igneous rock
compositions we observe in nature.
An important example of the behavior of mixtures when they melt is provide
by the phase diagram for plagioclase feldspar. Pure sodium end-member
plagioclase (Albite-NaAlSi3O8) melts at approximately 1118 °C to form a
liquid (melt or magma) with the same composition. Pure calcium end-member
plagioclase (anorthite-CaAl2Si2O8) melts at a higher temperature (~1553
°C). To determine what happens to intermediate compositions in the
plagioclase solid solution series, we need to do experiments where we melt
crystals (or cool melts) and measure the temperatures and compositions of
the melts and crystals. These experiments allow us to make a phase diagram
which shows the temperature at which the first melts form (i.e. the solidus-
below this temperature the rock is completely solid-there is no melt) and the
temperature above which we have no crystals, but only melt (i.e. the
liquidus). Horizontal lines (i.e. lines of constant temperature) connecting the
solidus to the liquidus show us the compositions of crystals and melt that can
coexisit at equilibrium (which requires that they be at the same
temperature). Examples of crystallization and melting of plagioclase are
given in the two diagrams below.
Three ways to melt solid rock:
1) decompression melting - rock in the asthenosphere and deeper mantle
remains solid because of the tremendous pressures at depth that
preclude melting, even though the temperatures may be very high.
- as hot mantle rock rises convectively into the lithosphere, the weight of
the overlying rock (i.e., pressure) decreases, permitting the rock to melt
to form a magma (so even though the absolute temperature is decreasing
upward, rock will begin to melt because the pressure is decreasing as
well)
- decompression melting occurs without the addition of extra heat
- decompression melting occurs at hot spots, like Hawaii where mantle
plumes of solid rock rise upward toward the surface, and also along mid-
ocean spreading centers, where asthenosphere rises upward to fill the
gap left as the plates are pulled apart.
- the mantle is composed of peridotite and when it partially melts (~10%
melting) under mid-ocean ridges it forms basaltic magma
2) addition of volatiles - volatiles are elements or compounds that exist as
liquids or gases at Earth's surface. Examples include water, CO2, N2, H2
and SO2. Deep in the Earth, volatiles can mix with hot, dry, solid rock
and break atomic bonds, weakening the rock and making it susceptible to
melting.
- volatiles are natural components of the Earth's interior and get
incorporated into the crystal lattice of some silicate minerals.
- ‘injections’ of volatiles into solid hot rock occurs along subduction zones
where seawater is carried downward within seafloor sediment on top of
the downgoing oceanic plate, and where hydrous minerals in altered
oceanic crust are metamorphosed to anhydrous minerals, releasing the
water.
- because of the addition of volatiles, the proper conditions for melting of
solid rock occur at depths of around 150 km along the subduction zone.
- the addition of volatiles permits rock to melt at much lower temperatures
than it would without the volatiles (at a depth of 20 km, the melting
temp of wet basalt is about 500°C lower than the melting temp of dry
basalt)
3) heat-transfer melting - as magma rises into overlying rock, heat is
transferred outward into the surrounding rock (called 'wall rock' or
‘country rock’). This infusion of heat may be great enough to melt the
wall rock so that it is incorporated into the magma.
- this process of assimilation changes the chemistry of the magma from its
original composition to one reflecting the composition of the wall rock
through which it rises.
- mantle-derived magmas may be around 1200°C. When they intrude into
crustal rock (~650-850°C), heat transfer may be sufficient to melt the
surrounding wall rock, particularly the more felsic rocks which make up
continental crust because the felsic rocks have lowere melting
temperatures.
- this process occurs at continental rifts where magma from the mantle
travels through overlying continental lithosphere and also at subduction
zones where magma generated above the downgoing plate travels upward
through continental lithosphere.
What determines the composition of magma?
The main processes of magmatic differentiation, which results in magmas
with different compositions, are fractional crystallization (which
proceeds according to Bowen’s reaction series), partial melting, and
magma mixing and assimilation.
- The reason we care is because the composition of a magma determines how

explosive associated volcanism may be.
All magmas have unique compositions based on their particular places of
origin and their pathways upward toward the surface. They are
dominated by O and Si (the two most abundant elements in the Earth's
mantle and crust), but they also contain significant amounts of Al, Fe, Mg,
Ca, Na, and K.
Earth's mantle consists of peridotite, ~45% SiO2 (silica) [and ~40% MgO
(magnesium oxide) plus FeO (iron oxide)]
Oceanic crust consists of basaltic rock ~50% silica, [and ~20% MgO plus
FeO, and ~25% CaO (calcium oxide) and Al2O3 (aluminum oxide)]
Continental crust consists of granodioritic rock ~65% silica, [and ~10% MgO
and FeO, and ~15% CaO and Al2O3]
Magmas are distinguished on the basis of their silica (SiO2) content, and the
minerals that form as magmas crystallize reflects the compositon.
1) mafic magma - magmas originating in the mantle are low in silica (about
50% silica) and are called mafic for their high magnesium and iron
content.
- magmas associated with mid-ocean spreading centers and hot spots come
directly from the mantle and are thus mafic.
- volcanism associated with mafic magmas tends to be relatively non-
explosive
2) intermediate magma - magmas derived from the mantle (originally mafic)
may differentiate and may interact with wall rock of the continental
lithosphere (naturally higher in silica content), changing their silica
content to intermediate amounts (~55-60%).
- magmas associated with convergent subduction zones commonly have
intermediate compositions due to addition of volatiles and heat-transfer
melting
- volcanism associated with intermediate magmas tends to be explosive
3) silicic magma - magmas that have undergone significant fractionation or
interaction with silica-rich continental rock may attain silica contents of
70%.
- these high-silica magmas are commonly associated with continental rifts
where heat-transfer melting occurs between the low-silica melt and the
high-silica continental crust and continental margin subduction zones.
- volcanism associated with silicic magmas tends to be highly explosive.
  

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GEL 50: Lecture 8

Magma and Igneous Rocks: Up from the Inferno

Where and how is magma produced?

- The reason we care is because the composition of a magma determines how

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