Journal of Mineralogical and Petrological Sciences
Online ISSN : 1349-3825
Print ISSN : 1345-6296
ISSN-L : 1345-6296
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Crystal settling and crystal growth of olivine in magmatic differentiation − the Murotomisaki Gabbroic Complex, Shikoku, Japan
Takashi HOSHIDEMasaaki OBATATakashi AKATSUKA
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2006 Volume 101 Issue 5 Pages 223-239

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Abstract

The Murotomisaki Gabbroic Complex is a sill-like layered intrusion of up to 220 m in thickness and is located at Cape Muroto, Kochi Prefecture, Japan. There are several olivine-rich zones within the intrusion, which may have been formed through accumulation of olivine crystals. However, up to now it has not been clear as to whether all of the olivine-rich zones formed in this way. To clarify this, we reinvestigated the layered structure by collecting a consistent data set of modal composition, crystal size, and crystal number density of olivine from throughout the intrusion. It was found out that nearly all of the olivine crystals, in terms of crystal numbers, occur in the basal olivine-rich zone (within 40 m of the base of the intrusion), and the average value of the crystal number density of olivine throughout the entire intrusion coincides with the crystal number density of olivine in the outermost parts of the lower and upper chilled margins. Hence, we conclude that most primary olivine phenocrysts within the magma settled under the influence of gravity and accumulated to form the basal olivine-rich zone. The crystal number density of olivine within the mid-level zones (40-100 m from the base of the intrusion) is much less than the initial values, as indicated by values recorded in the chilled margins. It is proved that the increase of the olivine mode within this zone is attributed not to the crystal accumulation of olivine but to the increase of the crystal size of olivine, i.e., the crystal growth. In this way, considering the mode, crystal size, and crystal number density of olivine throughout the intrusion, the olivine-rich zones within the intrusion can be classified, in terms of their origin, as either crystal accumulation zone (AC zone) or crystal growth zone (GR zone). The growth of olivine crystals in the GR zone was apparently accompanied by an increase in MgO, FeO, and MnO concentrations to levels well above initial (i.e., the chilled marginal) values. This enrichment suggests that crystal growth occurred within a chemically open system in the sense that the increase in MgO content within the GR zone arose from material transfer between the boundary layer (the GR zone) and the overlying magma.

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© 2006 Japan Association of Mineralogical Sciences
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