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Can crystallization of olivine tholeiite give rise to potassic rhyolites?—an experimental investigation

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Abstract

Experiments were conducted to determine whether the rhyolites and basalts of the intraplate silica-saturated potassic suites could be genetically related through crystallization. Extreme crystallization (96–97%) of a high-MgO (10.62 wt%) olivine tholeiite from the Snake River Plain with an initial bulk water content of 0.4 wt% at a mid-crustal pressure of 4.3 kbar generated potassic rhyolitic liquids similar in major element chemistry to those found in the Quaternary rhyolite domes of the Snake River Plain and their plutonic equivalents in the Proterozoic Laramie Anorthosite Complex. Residual liquids comparable in composition to the bulk rock compositions of intermediate rocks found at the Craters of the Moon and Cedar Butte eruptive centers in the Snake River Plain are also generated along this crystallization path.

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Acknowledgment

This paper is dedicated to Prof. Ilmari Haapala with great appreciation for his many years of outstanding work on the potassic granites of Fennoscandia. The authors would like to thank S. A. Morse, C. W. Mandeville, and E. H. Christiansen for insightful and constructive reviews of this manuscript. The authors acknowledge the financial support of NSF grant EAR 0003443 to DHL and HN, and EG&G Idaho contract C84-110421 to MM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geosciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794-2100, USA

    Matthew L. Whitaker, Hanna Nekvasil & Donald H. Lindsley

  2. Department of Geology, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID, 83209, USA

    Michael McCurry

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  1. Matthew L. Whitaker
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  2. Hanna Nekvasil
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  3. Donald H. Lindsley
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  4. Michael McCurry
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Correspondence to Matthew L. Whitaker.

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Editorial responsibility: E. Christiansen

This paper constitutes part of a special issue dedicated to Bill Bonnichsen on the petrogenesis and volcanology of anorogenic rhyolites.

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Whitaker, M.L., Nekvasil, H., Lindsley, D.H. et al. Can crystallization of olivine tholeiite give rise to potassic rhyolites?—an experimental investigation. Bull Volcanol 70, 417–434 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-007-0146-1

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