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VolcanicPlutonic Connection
Cerro Galan ignimbrite, Argentina, a
~1,000 km3 dacite
deposit from a supereruption 2 million
years ago.
DOI: 10.2113/gselements.12.2.91
E LEMENTS , V OL . 12,
PP.
9196
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0.08
Relative
Area, % 0.04
0
-8
Oceans
-4
AA LVC
BB
CC
DD
Continents
0
Elevation, km
0.16
Oceans
n=16,294
0.12
Relative
0.08
Probability
Continental
North America
0.04
n=26,313
0
40
FIGURE 2
50
60
wt % SiO2
70
80
(TOP) Distribution of elevation for oceans and continents on the Earth. Most oceanic topography lies at
36 km depth, whereas half of the dry land on the Earth is below
370 m elevation. ( BOTTOM ) Distribution of silica (SiO2) in igneous
rocks from the ocean basins and western North America. The
occurrence of abundant igneous rocks with SiO2 >55 wt% on the
continents, and particularly the almost complete restriction of silicic
igneous rocks (SiO2 >66 wt%) there, contributes to the relatively
high elevations of the continents. ELEVATION DATA FROM E AKINS AND
SHARMAN (2012); COMPOSITIONAL DATA FROM PETDB (OCEANS) AND NAVDAT
(NORTH A MERICA), BOTH ACCESSIBLE THROUGH WWW.EARTHCHEM.ORG.
FIGURE 1
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ENIGMAS
Overview
Here is a short list of current enigmas.
Supereruptions show that huge magma bodies must exist,
at least transiently, but geophysical surveys have yet to
locate any present-day huge, eruptible magma bodies.
Phase equilibria suggest that rhyolite magmas last equilibrate with a quartzfeldspar residue at shallow levels in
the crust, but the plutons that should be the residue after
rhyolite extraction do not have the expected complementary geochemical signature.
Precise geochronology of silicic plutons requires that
they grew in increments, but the boundaries between
such increments can rarely be seen in the field.
Thermal models indicate that magma must accumulate
extremely rapidly to form a large eruptible magma body,
but such accumulation rates are inconsistent with measured rates of geodetic movement.
Geophysical Imaging
and the Elusive Magma Chamber
Magma chambers like those in FIGURE 4 must exist at some
level in the crust before large eruptions. However, they
may be ephemeral and, thus, difficult to capture in the
present-time snapshots that geophysical methods provide.
Seismology has undergone rapid advancements, including
increases in computing power and the development of large
organized efforts such as ORFEUS and IRIS (using the US
National Science Foundations EarthScope USArray). New
geodetic techniques, such as continuous global positioning
system (GPS) and interferometric synthetic aperture radar,
provide real-time data on deforming magmatic systems,
thereby providing a method to examine dynamic processes.
Pritchard and Gregg (2016 this issue) discuss the wide range
of geophysical methods available for observing magmatic
systems.
0.03
Volcanic
n = 29,019
0.02
0.01
0
0.03
0.02
Plutonic
n = 11,156
0.01
0
40
45
50
55
60
wt% SiO2
65
70
75
80
FIGURE 3
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FIGURE 4
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10
10
nh
yd
ro
u
Viscosity, Pa s
108
106
104
102
s
Ba
50
alt
wt%
+5
l
yo
ite
O
H2
60
wt% SiO2
70
80
FIGURE 5
Geochronologic Timescales
Recent UPb geochronology observations have led to a
paradigm shift about how silicic intrusions form. Whereas
compositional zoning of the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite in
Yosemite (California, USA) led Bateman and Chappell
(1979) to suggest inward crystallization of a pluton-sized
magma chamber, precise dating has shown that this set of
intrusions crystallized over 810 My, greatly exceeding the
thermal cooling time (~105 y) of such a magma chamber
(Coleman et al. 2004). This led to the idea that plutons
may form by small increments over timescales on the order
of 105 10 6 years. Coleman et al. (2016 this issue) show
that through the use of multiple geochronology systems,
detailed timetemperature histories of plutons can be
determined.
GLOSSARY
Dacite: Relatively high-silica volcanic rock containing
~6570 wt% SiO2 .
Granite, granitoids: Plutonic rocks composed predominantly
of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase feldspar,
typically in subequal amounts.
Ignimbrite: A deposit formed from a pyroclastic flow.
Magma: Although the defi nition of this fundamental
geologic substance is disturbingly vague, the American
Geosciences Institute Glossary of Geology defi nition
is appropriate here: naturally occurring molten or
partially molten rock material, generated within the
Earth and capable of intrusion and extrusion.
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Thermal Timescales
The upper crust is a thermal boundary layer set by the
Earths surface temperature. Thus, magmas residing within
a few kilometers of the surface are rapidly cooled once
emplaced. This constraint is at the root of many of the
enigmas listed above, because, although observations may
suggest an upper-crustal differentiation process, cooling
models place strong temporal constraints on how long
these processes have to operate. For instance, because of
rapid upper-crustal cooling, thermal models require that
magma must be added at vertical accumulation rates >10
mm/y in order to make an eruptible magma body (Schpa
and Annen 2013). Such high rates are difficult to reconcile with geodetic, geophysical, and petrological data from
volcanic areas. Blundy and Annen (2016 this issue) discuss
the constraints imposed by heat flow and cooling on both
pluton emplacement and volcanic magma chamber growth.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The volcanicplutonic connection of silicic rocks remains
mysterious, despite decades of work in a variety of fields.
Current observations from petrology, geochronology,
thermal modeling, geophysical techniques, and geochemistry lead to contradictory interpretations. The importance
and potential impacts of understanding this connection
range from discerning how Earths continental crust
formed to predicting volcanic eruptions. As with Saxes
blind men trying to decipher an elephant, deciphering
the message from silicic rocks will require integrating all
possible observations to fi nally reveal our silicic elephants
true form.
REFERENCES
Bateman PC, Chappell BW (1979)
Crystallization, fractionation, and
solidification of the Tuolumne intrusive series, Yosemite National Park,
California. Geological Society of
America Bulletin 90: 465-482
Blundy JD, Annen CJ (2016) Crustal
magmatic systems from the perspective
of heat transfer. Elements 12: 115-120
Bowen NL (1928) The Evolution of the
Igneous Rocks. Princeton University
Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 332 pp
Campbell IH, Taylor SR (1983) No water,
no granites; no oceans, no continents.
Geophysical Research Letters 10:
1061-1064
Coleman DS, Gray W, Glazner AF (2004)
Rethinking the emplacement and evolution of zoned plutons: geochronologic
evidence for incremental assembly
of the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite,
California. Geology 32: 433-436
Coleman DS, Mills RD, Zimmerer MJ
(2016) The pace of plutonism. Elements
12: 97-102
Eakins BW, Sharman GF (2012)
Hypsographic curve of Earths surface
from ETOPO1. NOAA National
Geophysical Data Center, Boulder, CO
Frazer RE, Coleman DS, Mills RD (2014)
Zircon U-Pb geochronology of the
Mount Givens Granodiorite; implications for the genesis of large volumes
of eruptible magma. Journal of
Geophysical Research: Solid Earth 119:
2907-2924
Giordano D, Russell JK, Dingwell DB
(2008) Viscosity of magmatic liquids:
a model. Earth and Planetary Science
Letters 271: 123-134
Glazner AF, Coleman DS, Mills RD (2015)
The volcanic-plutonic connection. In:
Breitkreuz C, Rocchi S (eds) Physical
Geology of Shallow Magmatic Systems:
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Adam Kent and Gerhard Wrner for thoughtful
reviews that significantly improved the paper, and Bernie
Wood for editorial handling. This work was supported by
National Science Foundation grants EAR-0312691, 0336070,
0538129, and 062210 to AFG and grants EAR-1019632,
0944169 and OCE-1060754 to CCL.
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