Origin of megacrysts in granitoids by textural coarsening: A
Crystal Size
Distribution (CSD) Study of Microcline in the Cathedral Peak
Granodiorite,
Sierra Nevada, California.
Microcline megacrysts in the Cathedral Peak granidiorite.
In this slab
100 mm square the microcline has been stained orange.
Microcline megacrysts in the Cathedral Peak Granodiorite and other
parts
of the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite were formed by textural coarsening
(Ostwald
Ripening) of earlier formed crystals. The early-formed crystals
nucleated
and grew in an environment of increasing undercooling, probably
during
the ascent of the magma. Emplacement of the magma into warm
host-rocks
promoted textural coarsening. Crystals smaller than a certain size
(the
critical size) dissolved in the interstitial melt whilst larger
crystals
grew. Microcline was most sensitive to this effect as the magma
temperature
was buffered close to its liquidus for a long period by the release
of
latent heat of crystallisation. Positive feedback between textural
coarsening
and magma permeability channeled the flow of interstitial melt to
produce
a heterogeneous distribution of megacrysts. Megacryst growth was
halted
when cooling resumed at the end of the intrusive cycle. K-feldspar
nucleation
was then renewed and K-feldspar crystals grew to form part of the
groundmass.
It was the particular thermal history of this pluton that promoted
textural
coarsening – chemically similar plutons that lack megacrysts
probably did
not have the pause during cooling that was necessary for the
development
of this texture.
Higgins, M.D., 1999, Origin of megacrysts in granitoids by
textural
coarsening: A Crystal Size Distribution (CSD) Study of Microcline
in the
Cathedral Peak Granodiorite, Sierra Nevada, California., in
Fernandez,
C., and Castro, A., eds., Understanding Granites: Integrating
Modern and
Classical Techniques. Special Publication 158: London, Geological
Society
of London, p. 207-219.