Dynamic development of mineral layering and crystal alignments by pulsed
magmatic flow in crystal mush of an upper-crustal diabase sill
Abstract
Magmatic structures are well-preserved in a 201.5 Ma diabase sill (PA,
USA, equivalent to the Palisades sill) formed as part of the Central
Atlantic Magmatic Province during rifting of Pangea. The sill was
emplaced at ~6 km depth and tilted ~20°
NNW by post-magmatic fault movement. Detailed mush structures are
exposed in a dimension stone quarry with walls cut parallel and
perpendicular to the strike of the sill. Light gray, plagioclase-rich
layers (PLR) a few mm thick contain up to 75% modal plag and are
underlain by more pyroxene-rich layers with larger orthopyx antecrysts
up to 1 mm length. PLR are sub-parallel to sill margins, have dm-m
lateral dimensions, and spaced 0.33 m apart on average. Magma
replenishments < 1m thick cross-cut plag-pyx layers at low
angles and have basal load-cast-like structures. Since mafic
replenishments have PLR at their tops and similar thickness to PLR
spacing, we interpret all PLR as having formed by emplacement of
small-volume magma pulses bearing ~30% larger pyx and
smaller plag antecrysts. This model is similar to Petford and
Mirhadizadeh (R Soc Open Sci, 2017) for the Basement sill, Antarctica.
Upward migration of mafic melts in pipe-like channels (cm to dm wide)
disrupted plag-pyx layers to form dm-scale graben-like and slump-like
structures that resemble sediment liquefaction. Channelized flow late in
sill development may have been enhanced by seismicity (Davis et al.,
JVGR, 2007). Diabase micro-structures are similar to published
experimental results and numerical simulations of flow and
shear-thinning in particle-rich slurries (e.g., Cimarelli et al., G3,
2011; Ishibashi, JVGR, 2009; Deubelbeiss et al., G3, 2011). These
include layers such as the plag-pyx couplets and orientations of
euhedral plag around pyx phenocrysts. Plag long-axis orientations and
tiling indicators in the PLR have strike-parallel and strike-normal
components in vertical and plan views consistent with flow alignment in
the plane perpendicular to the stress gradient. Plag chemical zoning
patterns, limited deformation, and long-axis orientations parallel to
inclined layer margins also indicate magmatic flow rather than
compaction. Mineral x-ray maps are used to derive initial crystal
fraction and aspect ratios for modeling relative viscosity and explore
compositional aspects of layer development.