ORIGIN OF MODAL AND RHYTHMIC IGNEOUS LAYERING BY SEDIMENTATION IN A CONVECTING MAGMA CHAMBER

EXPERIMENTAL investigations of convecting, particle-laden fluids show two regimes for convection driven by cooling from above1. In very dilute suspensions, convection will maintain a homogeneous distribution of particles throughout the convecting layer provided that particle fall velocities are small compared with turbulent fluid velocities. Above a critical concentration, convection is unable to keep the particles suspended, so the particles settle, leaving behind a layer of convecting fluid virtually free of particles. Here we apply these results to cooling magma chambers, in which crystallization leads to an increase in suspended crystal content with time. Discrete sedimentation events are predicted each time the concentration exceeds the critical value. For common igneous minerals, critical concentrations are very small (typically 0.002-0.03 wt %) and layers of the order of centimetres to a few metres thick will result. Because minerals of different density and size have different critical concentrations and settling velocities, complex fluctuations in sedimentation rate and mineral proportions can occur in a multi-component melt. This may lead to either regular repetitive cycles or more complex fluctuations. The process is confined to low-viscosity magmas, such as basalts, in which the crystals are able to separate from the active thermal boundary layer during convection.