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C. R. Bacon

Publications and source records attributed to C. R. Bacon.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
USGS1989

Crystallization of accessory phases in magmas by local saturation adjacent to phenocrysts

Accessory minerals commonly occur attached to or included in the major crystalline phases of felsic and some intermediate igneous rocks. Apatite is particularly common as inclusions, but Fe-Ti oxides, pyrrhotite, zircon, monazite, chevkinite and xenotime are also known from silicic rocks. Accessories may nucleate near the host crystal/ liquid interface as a result of local saturation owing to formation of a differentiated chemical boundary layer in which accessory mineral solubility would be lower than in the surrounding liquid. Differentiation of this boundary layer would be greatest adjacent to ferromagnesian phenocrysts, especially Fe-Ti oxides; it is with oxides that accessories are most commonly associated in rocks. A boundary layer may develop if the crystal grows more rapidly than diffusion can transport incorporated and rejected elements to and from the phenocryst. Diffusion must dominate over convection as a mode of mass transfer near the advancing crystal/liquid interface in order for a boundary layer to exist. Accumulation of essential structural constituent elements of accessory minerals owing to their slow diffusion in evolved silicate melt also may force local saturation, but this is not a process that applies to all cases. Local saturation is an attractive mechanism for enhancing fractionation during crystallization differentiation. If accessory minerals attached to or included in phenocrysts formed because of local saturation, their host phenocrysts must have grown rapidly when accessories nucleated in comparison to lifetimes of magma reservoirs. Some inconsistencies remain in a local saturation origin for accessory phases that cannot be evaluated without additional information.

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta↗
USGS1988

Compositional evolution of the zoned calcalkaline magma chamber of Mount Mazama, Crater Lake, Oregon

The climactic eruption of Mount Mazama has long been recognized as a classic example of rapid eruption of a substantial fraction of a zoned magma body. Increased knowledge of eruptive history and new chemical analyses of ∼350 wholerock and glass samples of the climactic ejecta, preclimactic rhyodacite flows and their inclusions, postcaldera lavas, and lavas of nearby monogenetic vents are used here to infer processes of chemical evolution of this late Pleistocene — Holocene magmatic system. The 6845±50 BP climactic eruption vented ∼50 km 3 of magma to form: (1) rhyodacite fall deposit; (2) welded rhyodacite ignimbrite; and (3) lithic breccia and zoned ignimbrite, these during collapse of Crater Lake caldera. Climactic ejecta were dominantly homogeneous rhyodacite (70.4±0.3% SiO 2 ), followed by subordinate andesite and cumulate scoriae (48–61% SiO 2 ). The gap in wholerock composition reflects mainly a step in crystal content because glass compositions are virtually continuous. Two types of scoriae are distinguished by different LREE, Rb, Th, and Zr, but principally by a twofold contrast in Sr content: High-Sr (HSr) and low-Sr (LSr) scoriae. HSr scoriae were erupted first. Trace element abundances indicate that HSr and LSr scoriae had different calcalkaline andesite parents; basalt was parental to some mafic cumulate scoriae. Parental magma compositions reconstructed from scoria wholerock and glass data are similar to those of inclusions in preclimactic rhyodacites and of aphyric lavas of nearby monogenetic vents. Preclimactic rhyodacite flows and their magmatic inclusions give insight into evolution of the climactic chamber. Evolved rhyodacite flows containing LSr andesite inclusions were emplaced between ∼30000 and ∼25000 BP. At 7015±45 BP, the Llao Rock vent produced a zoned rhyodacite pumice fall, then rhyodacite lava with HSr andesite inclusions. The Cleetwood rhyodacite flow, emplaced immediately before the climactic eruption and compositionally identical to climactic rhyodacite (volatile-free), contains different HSr inclusions from Llao Rock. The change from LSr to HSr inclusions indicates replenishment of the chamber with andesite magma, perhaps several times, in the latest Pleistocene to early Holocene. Modeling calculations and wholerock-glass relations suggest than: (1) magmas were derived mainly by crystallization differentiation of andesite liquid; (2) evolved preclimactic rhyodacite probably was derived from LSr andesite; (3) rhyodacites contain a minor component of partial melt from wall rocks, and (4) climactic and compositionally similar rhyodacites probably formed by mixing of evolved rhyodacite with HSr derivative liquid(s) after replenishment of the chamber with HSr andesite magma. Density considerations permit a model for growth and evolution of the chamber in which andesite recharge magma ponded repeatedly between cumulates and rhyodacite magma. Convective cooling of this andesite resulted in rapid crystallization and upward escape of buoyant derivative liquid which mixed with overlying, convecting rhyodacite. The evolved rhyodacites were erupted early in the chamber's history and(or) near its margins. Postcaldera andesite lavas may be hybrids composed of LSr cumulates mixed with remnant climactic rhyodacite. Younger postcaldera rhyodacite probably formed by fractionation of similar andesite and assimilation of partial melts of wallrocks. Uniformity of climactic rhyodacite suggests homogeneous silicic ejecta from other volcanoes resulted from similar replenishment-driven convective mixing. Calcalkaline pluton compositions and their internal zonation can be interpreted in terms of the Mazama system frozen at various times in its history.

Oregon↗
USGS1986

Deformation of poorly consolidated sediment during shallow emplacement of a basalt sill, Coso Range, California

A 150-m-long, wedge-shaped unit of folded and faulted marly siltstone crops out between undeformed sedimentary rocks on the north flank of the Coso Range, California. The several-meter-thick blunt end of this wedge abuts the north margin of a basaltic sill of comparable thickness. Chaotically deformed siltstone crops out locally at the margin of this sill, and at one locality breccia pipes about one meter in diameter crosscut the sill. The sill extends about 1 km south up the paleoslope, where it merges through continuous outcrop with a lava flow that in turn extends 1.4 km to a vent area marked by more than 100 m of agglutinate and scoria. Apparently, lava extruded at this vent flowed onto unconsolidated sediments, burrowed into them, and fed a sill at about 40 m depth within the sedimentary sequence. The sill initially propagated by wedging between sedimentary beds, but eventually began to push some beds ahead of itself, forming a remarkable train of folds in the process. The sediments apparently were wet at the time of sill emplacement, because hydrothermal alteration is common near the contact between the two rock types and because the breccia pipes that crosscut the sill apparently resulted from phreatic explosions of pore water heated at the base of the cooling sill. Comparison of deformation of the host material at the Coso locality with that reportedly caused by emplacement of sills elsewhere indicates that the character of deformation differs greatly among the various localities. The specific response of host material depends upon such parameters as initial properties of magma and host material, rate of sill growth and attendant rate of strain of host material, and depth of sill emplacement. Some properties may change considerably during an intrusive-deformational episode, thus complicating accurate reconstruction of such an event.

Bulletin of Volcanology↗
USGS1986

Lithic breccia and ignimbrite erupted during the collapse of Crater Lake Caldera, Oregon

The climactic eruption of Mount Mazama (6845 y.B.P.) vented a total of ∼50 km 3 of compositionally zoned rhyodacitic to basaltic magma from: (a) a single vent as a Plinian pumice fall deposit and the overlying Wineglass Welded Tuff, and (b) ring vents as ignimbrite and coignimbrite lithic breccia accompanying the collapse of Crater Lake caldera. New field and grain-size data for the ring-vent products are presented in this report. The coarse-grained, poorly bedded, clast-supported lithic breccia extends as far as 18 km from the caldera center. Like the associated ignimbrite, the breccia is compositionally zoned both radially and vertically, and silicic, mixed, and mafic types can be recognized, based on the proportion of rhyodacitic pumice. Matrix fractions in silicic breccias are depleted of fines and are lithic- and crystal-enriched relative to silicic ignimbrite due to vigorous gas sorting during emplacement. Ignimbrite occurs as a proximal veneer deposit overlying the breccia, a medial (∼ 8 to ∼ 25 km from the caldera center), compositionally zoned valley fill as much as > 110 m thick, and an unzoned distal (⪖ 20 km) facies which extends as far as 55 km from the caldera. Breccia within ∼ 9 km of the caldera center is interpreted as a coignimbrite lag breccia formed within the deflation zone of the collapsing ring-vent eruption columns. Expanded pyroclastic flows of the deflation zone were probably vertically graded in both size and concentration of blocks, as recently postulated for some turbidity currents. An inflection in the rate of falloff of lithic-clast size within the lithic breccia at ∼ 9 km may mark the outer edge of the deflation zone or may be an artifact of incomplete exposure. The onset of ring-vent activity at Mt. Mazama was accompanied by a marked increase in eruptive discharge. Pyroclastic flows were emplaced as a semicontinuous stream, as few ignimbrite flow-unit boundaries are evident. As eruption from the ring vents progressed, flow-runout distance and the extent of breccia deposition decreased due to (a) greater internal flow friction, and (b) decreasing eruption column heights. Effect (b) probably resulted from a progressive decrease in magmatic gas content and discharge rate. Waning discharge may have been promoted by the tapping of more viscous, crystal-rich magma, collapse of conduit walls, and declining caldera collapse rate.

Oregon↗
USGS1984

Magmatic inclusions in rhyolites, contaminated basalts, and compositional zonation beneath the Coso volcanic field, California

Basaltic lava flows and high-silica rhyolite domes form the Pleistocene part of the Coso volcanic field in southeastern California. The distribution of vents maps the areal zonation inferred for the upper parts of the Coso magmatic system. Subalkalic basalts (<50% SiO 2 ) were erupted well away from the rhyolite field at any given time. Compositional variation among these basalts can be ascribed to crystal fractionation. Erupted volumes of these basalts decrease with increasing differentiation. Mafic lavas containing up to 58% SiO 2 , erupted adjacent to the rhyolite field, formed by mixing of basaltic and silicic magma. Basaltic magma interacted with crustal rocks to form other SiO 2 -rich mafic lavas erupted near the Sierra Nevada fault zone. Several rhyolite domes in the Coso volcanic field contain sparse andesitic inclusions (55–61% SiO 2 ). Pillow-like forms, intricate commingling and local diffusive mixing of andesite and rhyolite at contacts, concentric vesicle distribution, and crystal morphologies indicative of undercooling show that inclusions were incorporated in their rhyolitic hosts as blobs of magma. Inclusions were probably dispersed throughout small volumes of rhyolitic magma by convective (mechanical) mixing. Inclusion magma was formed by mixing (hybridization) at the interface between basaltic and rhyolitic magmas that coexisted in vertically zoned igneous systems. Relict phenocrysts and the bulk compositions of inclusions suggest that silicic endmembers were less differentiated than erupted high-silica rhyolite. Changes in inferred endmembers of magma mixtures with time suggest that the steepness of chemical gradients near the silicic/mafic interface in the zoned reservoir may have decreased as the system matured, although a high-silica rhyolitic cap persisted. The Coso example is an extreme case of large thermal and compositional contrast between inclusion and host magmas; lesser differences between intermediate composition magmas and inclusions lead to undercooling phenomena that suggest smaller ΔT. Vertical compositional zonation in magma chambers has been documented through study of products of voluminous pyroclastic eruptions. Magmatic inclusions in volcanic rocks provide evidence for compositional zonation and mixing processes in igneous systems when only lava is erupted.

California↗