TEXTURAL AND MICROANALYSIS OF IGNEOUS ROCKS: TOOLS ...

explosive eruption vs. mild effusive eruption) as well as how seriously an eruption
will impact the surrounding human population e.g., [65]. This human factor has
been an impetus for extensive studies of active volcanoes like Mt. Vesuvius due to
the threat this volcano poses to the densely populated city of Naples, Italy. More
pertinent to the work described here is the fact that efforts to fully understand
and mitigate volcanic hazards has lead to creative new textural and microana-
lytical schemes to improve the accuracy of our view of how magmas evolve in
the shallow crust [105]. The overarching purpose of the work detailed in this
dissertation is to constrain the physical and chemical details of shallow magma
evolution in basaltic systems with an emphasis large igneous provinces (LIPs).
In this chapter I will introduce contemporary views of magma chambers, magma
dynamics, magma evolution, LIPs and their global significance, microanalytical
approaches, CSDs, and three focused research projects where I applied textural
and/or microanalytical approaches to better understand fundamental processes of
shallow basaltic magma evolution.
1.2 Crustal Magma Chambers
Rarely can one confidently identify detailed physical processes that
drive petrologic diversity. Part of the difficulty originates in the construction
of physical and chemical models; they often appear as fundamentally
different enterprises. – G.W. Bergantz [4]
Modeling magma chamber architecture and magma chamber processes is com-
plicated by our inability to directly observe these subterranean environments as
they are active. The architecture of magma chambers and/or magma chamber
systems are depicted drastically different, as suggested by [4], whether modeled
using chemical (i.e., using isotopic, major, and trace element data) or physical
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