Magma Generation Comparison - Ocean Island (DeBarba and Scheland, 2015)
Item
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Title
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Magma Generation Comparison - Ocean Island (DeBarba and Scheland, 2015)
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Description
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As with the physiography of the two localities the magma generation process does not differ much. The general mechanism of melting through continual thermal energy is the same. The difference lies in what kinds of melts occur at the different localities. This falls under the category of geochemistry. The two localities produce slightly different melts in a compositional sense. This may be due to differences in the thermal budgets of the two plumes. The Hawaiian plume may be hotter resulting more tholeiitic melts. The Samoan Islands are also closer to a subduction zone. This may affect the magma compositionally, but likely has little to no first degree effects on the processes that allow melt to form in the plume head.
As the plume head stalls at the base of the lithosphere the conditions cross various mineral solidi allowing crystals to form films of melt around their rims (Fig. 1). Once enough melt fraction as formed it detaches from the source rock and begins rising as its own discernible magmatic system.
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Subject
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The processes behind magma generation at the Samoan and Hawaiian Islands
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Creator
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Cullen Scheland
