Experimental study on the effects of temperature cycling on coarsening of plagioclase and olivine in an alkali basalt

Abstract

We conducted experiments on an alkali basalt at 1-atmosphere in order to investigate the effects of temperature cycling on crystal coarsening. Experiments at 1,150 °C near the Ni–NiO buffer indicate that coarsening of plagioclase and olivine crystals is greatly accentuated by temperature cycling. For a given experiment duration, crystal number density decreases with temperature cycle amplitude and average crystal size increases with increasing amplitude. We observed little correlation between cycle period and crystal number density or average crystal size. We suggest that dissolution and size-proportional crystal growth during repeated heating and cooling decrease crystal number density and increase average crystal size. These experiments indicate that the texture of silicate minerals can be modified by temperature cycling and that phenocrysts may develop quicker in silicate magmas when the magma temperature is cycled.