Is there any means that granite can be produced from basaltic magma?
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Is there any means that granite can be produced from basaltic magma?
Possibly, but not in large quantity. As the higher temperature (and simpler) minerals crystalise out of a magma melt, the silica content rises. In certain circumstances this may lead to the production of a granitic magma. It is probably more likely to be erupted as rhyolite. Most granites are generated through metamorphism and in some cases melting of continental crust.
One large caveat on this: I'm laying out the thinking on granite from basalt as it was envisaged forty years ago. Since then my interest has focused on basalt formation and I doubt if I have read more than one paper on granite origin in that time, so this scenario may now have been discarded. (Though it makes perfect sense to me still.)
Edit: Now you've starte me thinking. It almost certainly needs at least some assimilation of country rock to account for Rare Earth and isotope abundances. Damn, you've just added at least a year to the age I have to live to in order to answer all the questions I want answers for, but I'll forgive you and say welcome to the forum.
You mean, like The Eagles?Quote:
Originally Posted by John Galt