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TEXTURAL AND MICROANALYSIS OF IGNEOUS ROCKS: TOOLS ...

TEXTURAL AND MICROANALYSIS OF IGNEOUS ROCKS: TOOLS ...

TEXTURAL AND MICROANALYSIS OF IGNEOUS ROCKS: TOOLS ...

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magma compositions [23, 39, 98]. A sensible approach then for constraining the<br />

processes of shallow magma evolution is to decipher the textural and compositional<br />

record of these processes recorded in individual crystals e.g., [37].<br />

In this work I employ an integrated textural and microanalytical approach to<br />

constrain shallow magma evolution during the formation of Detroit Seamount by<br />

1) identification of crystal populations with related physical growth histories and<br />

2) understanding the provenance of these crystals. Textural and microanalyti-<br />

cal studies focused on plagioclase have been used to elucidate basaltic to silicic<br />

magma evolution processes (e.g., [5, 6, 16, 39, 135]). Plagioclase contains mea-<br />

surable quantities of select incompatible trace elements, including the light rare<br />

earth elements (LREE). When preceded on the liquidus only by olivine, which<br />

does not appreciably fractionate the REE or other incompatible trace elements<br />

[5], plagioclase crystals carry valuable compositional clues about primitive magma<br />

compositions. In this study I use major, minor, and trace element abundances<br />

measured in plagioclase by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and laser abla-<br />

tion ICP-MS (LA-ICP-MS) to invert chemical compositions of parental (equilib-<br />

rium) magmas. Accurate partition coefficient data are critical for this inversion.<br />

Plagioclase partition coefficients must be applied carefully because anorthite (An<br />

= 100*[Ca/(Ca+Na)]) content has a dominant influence on cation substitution<br />

[7, 10]. Combined with accurate partition coefficients, inferred parent magma<br />

compositions provide insight into magma evolution beyond what is revealed by<br />

whole-rock data alone.<br />

88

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