Comagmatic granophyric granite in the Fish Canyon Tuff, Colorado: Implications for magma-chamber processes during a large ash-flow eruption

Geology
By: , and 

Links

Abstract

The 27.8 Ma Fish Canyon Tuff, a vast ash-flow sheet (∼ 5000 km3) of uniform phenocryst-rich dacite, is representative of “monotonous intermediate” eruptions from a magma chamber that lacked compositional gradients. Sparse small fragments of comagmatic granophyre in late-erupted tuff and postcaldera lava, having mineral compositions indistinguishable from phenocrysts in the tuff and precaldera lava-like rocks, record complex events in the Fish Canyon chamber just prior to eruption. Sanidine phenocrysts in the granophyre preserve zoning evidence of mingling with andesitic magma, then shattering by decompression and volatile loss accompanying early Fish Canyon eruptions before overgrowth by granophyre. The textural and chemical disequilibria indicate that the eruption resulted from batholith-scale remobilization of a shallow subvolcanic chamber, contrary to previous interpretations of magma storage and phenocryst growth in the lower crust.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Comagmatic granophyric granite in the Fish Canyon Tuff, Colorado: Implications for magma-chamber processes during a large ash-flow eruption
Series title Geology
DOI 10.1130/0091-7613(1997)025<0915:CGGITF>2.3.CO;2
Volume 25
Issue 10
Year Published 1997
Language English
Publisher Geological Society of America
Description 4 p.
First page 915
Last page 918
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
Additional publication details