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Dynamic development of mineral layering and crystal alignments by pulsed magmatic flow in crystal mush of an upper-crustal diabase sill
  • LeeAnn Srogi,
  • Nikolas Watson,
  • Timothy Lutz
LeeAnn Srogi
West Chester University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Nikolas Watson
West Chester University
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Timothy Lutz
West Chester University
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Abstract

Magmatic structures are well-preserved in a 201.5 Ma diabase sill (PA, USA, equivalent to the Palisades sill) formed as part of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province during rifting of Pangea. The sill was emplaced at ~6 km depth and tilted ~20° NNW by post-magmatic fault movement. Detailed mush structures are exposed in a dimension stone quarry with walls cut parallel and perpendicular to the strike of the sill. Light gray, plagioclase-rich layers (PLR) a few mm thick contain up to 75% modal plag and are underlain by more pyroxene-rich layers with larger orthopyx antecrysts up to 1 mm length. PLR are sub-parallel to sill margins, have dm-m lateral dimensions, and spaced 0.33 m apart on average. Magma replenishments < 1m thick cross-cut plag-pyx layers at low angles and have basal load-cast-like structures. Since mafic replenishments have PLR at their tops and similar thickness to PLR spacing, we interpret all PLR as having formed by emplacement of small-volume magma pulses bearing ~30% larger pyx and smaller plag antecrysts. This model is similar to Petford and Mirhadizadeh (R Soc Open Sci, 2017) for the Basement sill, Antarctica. Upward migration of mafic melts in pipe-like channels (cm to dm wide) disrupted plag-pyx layers to form dm-scale graben-like and slump-like structures that resemble sediment liquefaction. Channelized flow late in sill development may have been enhanced by seismicity (Davis et al., JVGR, 2007). Diabase micro-structures are similar to published experimental results and numerical simulations of flow and shear-thinning in particle-rich slurries (e.g., Cimarelli et al., G3, 2011; Ishibashi, JVGR, 2009; Deubelbeiss et al., G3, 2011). These include layers such as the plag-pyx couplets and orientations of euhedral plag around pyx phenocrysts. Plag long-axis orientations and tiling indicators in the PLR have strike-parallel and strike-normal components in vertical and plan views consistent with flow alignment in the plane perpendicular to the stress gradient. Plag chemical zoning patterns, limited deformation, and long-axis orientations parallel to inclined layer margins also indicate magmatic flow rather than compaction. Mineral x-ray maps are used to derive initial crystal fraction and aspect ratios for modeling relative viscosity and explore compositional aspects of layer development.