Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Bernstein, S. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

High-pressure fractionation in rift-related basaltic magmatism: Faeroe plateau basalts

¹ Geological Museum, Øster Voldgade 5-7, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark

The lower 3000 m basalt stratigraphy on the Faeroe Islands shows strong positive correlation between degree of fractionation and Zr/Y ratio. This is ascribed to the presence of garnet in the cumulus assemblage during fractionation at the base of the continental crust or in the upper lithospheric mantle at 40-50 km depth. Later basaltic magmas fractionated at low pressures, which is a typical shift in fractionation regime among continental flood basalts. Seismic velocity (V_p) for the garnet-bearing high-pressure fractionates is in excess of 7 km/s. This is comparable to velocities observed in high-V_p bodies in the basal crust of Precambrian shields. High-pressure fractional crystallization of basaltic magmas may thus be an important process in generating the chemical complexity of continental flood basalts and has implications for crustal underplating.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. S. Fram and C. E. Lesher Generation and Polybaric Differentiation of East Greenland Early Tertiary Flood Basalts J. Petrology, February 1, 1997; 38(2): 231 - 275. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]