Basalts and Phase Diagrams: An Introduction to the Quantitative Use of Phase Diagrams in Igneous Petrology

In this newly revised and expanded edition the reader finds both an introduction to igneous petrology and an exposition of the quantitative use of phase diagrams in understanding the origin and crystallization history of basic magmas. The book provides a step-by- step analysis of crystallization and melting in a limited number of geologically significant phase diagrams. The limiting processes of fractional and equilibrium melting and fractional and equilibrium crystallization are rigorously examined. Examples of the use of phase diagrams are drawn from the literature of layered intrusions, redox equilibria in iron-bearing systems, and the high pressure equilibria of melting in the mantle.

ISBN-13: 9783030978808

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: Springer

Publication Date: 03-18-2024

Pages: 452

S. A. Morse is Research Professor of Petrology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Previously he has held positions as Hydrographer for the Blue Dolphin Labrador Expeditions; Petrologist for British the Newfoundland Exploration Ltd.; Mineralogist for the US Army Cold Regions Lab, Hanover, NH; Associate Professor of Geology at Franklin & Marshall College; and Professor of Geology, University of Massachusetts until his retirement in 1998. He is the recipient of the Carnegie Arctic Scholarship from McGill University, the Peacock Memorial Prize from the Walker Mineralogical Club, Toronto, a Carnegie Corporation Fellowship, a Life Member, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. Professor Morse is credited with discovering and making important contributions to the Kiglapait Layered Intrusion in Labrador, used as a guide to igneous fractionation processes in the earth and planets; linear partitioning in binary solutions; mineral/melt partition coefficients; anorthosites as guides to chemical and crustal evolution of the earth; the crystallization of terrestrial planets; melting relations of rocks; theoretical and experimental petrology; multiphase Rayleigh fractionation; internal reservoirs of large magma chambers; intensive parameters of mafic magmas; inner and outer core boundaries of the Earth; the petrology of sapphirine granulites; and optical mineralogy. He is the author of 5 books and 82 research articles.

Table of Contents

Mineralogy and Chemistry of Basalts.- Crystals and Melts.- The Phase Rule as a Tool.- Diopside and Anorthite: Supposedly a Binary Eutectic System.- Plagioclase: The System An-Ab.-Diopside-Albite: A Complex System.- Diopside-Anorthite-Albite.- Forsterite-Diopside-Anorthite: A Basaltic Analog.- Incongruent Melting: The System Forsterite-Silica.- Forsterite-Anorthite-Silica: Incongruent Melting in a Ternary System.- Forsterite-Diopside-Silica: Pyroxenes and their Reactions.- Layered Intrusions: A First Glance.- Nepheline-Silica and the Rest of the Basalt Tetrahedron.- Potassium: Petrogeny's Residual System and Ternary Feldspars.- Iron and Oxygen.- Iron-Bearing Olivines and Pyroxenes.- The Effects of High Pressure.- Effects of Volatiles at High Pressure.- Some Applications to Basalt Magma Genesis.