In contrast to continent/continent collision, arc-continent collision generates very short-lived orogeny because the buoyancy-driven impedance of the subduction of continental lithosphere, accompanied by arc/suprasubduction-zone ophiolite obduction, is relieved by subduction polarity reversal (flip). This tectonic principle is illustrated by the early Ordovician Grampian Orogeny in the British ...

Two major types of passive margins are recognized, i.e. volcanic and non-volcanic, without proposing distinctive mechanisms for their formation. Volcanic passive margins are associated with the extrusion and intrusion of large volumes of magma, predominantly mafic, and represent distinctive features of Larges Igneous Provinces, in which regional fissural volcanism predates localized syn-magmati...

—The mid-Tertiary-age volcanoes, dikes, and sills of the Navajo volcanic field are classic and geologically-distinctive landforms of the Colorado Plateau. They are the products of structurally-controlled magma ascent, explosive eruptions, and deep post-eruptive exhumation. Igneous rock types include potassic lamprophyres, serpentinized tuffs, and exotic mafic and ultramafic intrusives. These ro...

[1] Orbital images from the MESSENGER spacecraft show that ~27% of Mercury’s surface is covered by smooth plains, the majority (>65%) of which are interpreted to be volcanic in origin. Most smooth plains share the spectral characteristics of Mercury’s northern smooth plains, suggesting they also share their magnesian alkali-basalt-like composition. A smaller fraction of smooth plains interprete...

Plio–Pleistocene (3.4–0.125 Ma) post-plateau magmatism in the Meseta del Lago Buenos Aires (MLBA; 46.7jS) in southern Patagonia is linked with the formation of asthenospheric slab windows due to ridge collision along the Andean margin f 6 Ma ago. MLBA post-plateau lavas are highly alkaline (43–49% SiO2; 5–8% Na2O+K2O), relatively primitive (6–10% MgO) mafic volcanics that have strong OIB-like g...

Magnetic anomalies may be used to constrain magma ascent and are useful as precursors to eruptions especially when correlated with other geophysical and geochemical data. In this paper we present multiparameter data on the magnetics, dome morphology, geochemistry and seismicity associated with the December 2000^January 2001 eruptions, the largest of the recent eruptions at Popocatepetl Volcano....

Plagioclase-rich reaction zones occur around numerous aluminous crustal xenoliths within a suite of Palaeogene sub-volcanic basic sheets on the Isle of Mull, NW Scotland. The xenoliths consist of a glassy core, containing mullite needles, generated from the melting of pelitic source rocks. Thick plagioclase mantles grew at the interface between the aluminous liquid and the enclosing basaltic ma...

Palaeoproterozoic high-K I-type granites, high-level porphyry intrusions, and felsic volcanic rocks of the Whitewater Volcanics dominate the Hooper and Lamboo Complexes in the Kimberley region of northwestern Australia. The granites, porphyries and volcanic rocks are gradational into each other in the field, and they have the same mineralogy, similar major and trace element abundances, and indi...

[1] We present a new global survey of the purest anorthosite (PAN) rock using the Spectral Profiler onboard Kaguya. We found that PAN rocks are widely distributed over the Moon, including the Feldspathic Highland Terrain and the south and north polar regions. All PAN sites are associated with huge impact structures with diameters larger than 100 km. Based on the global distributions of PAN and ...

Kinetic and fluid dynamic constraints on deepseated magma migration rates suggest ascent velocities in the range 10 to 30 m/s, 10 -1 to 10m/s and 10 -2 to 5m/s for kimberlitic, garnet peridotite-bearing and spinel peridotite-bearing alkalic magmas. These rates virtually demand translithospheric magma transport by a fracture as opposed to diapiric mechanism. The hypothesis that volatile exsoluti...