Modal Petrology and Geostatistics of the Blue Hills Igneous Complex, Boston, Massachusetts, by Rietveld X-ray Diffraction: Multi-scalar Investigation of Volcanic and Intrusive Relationships
Abstract
The Blue Hills Igneous Complex of eastern Massachusetts consists of mildly peralkaline volcanic and intrusive units including the Quincy Granite, the Blue Hills Porphyry, and a set of mainly pyroclastic rhyolite flow units traditionally called the Aporhyolite. Similar whole-rock chemistry has led most workers to assume that they are related rocks, despite some unclear field relationships. Kaktins (1976) divided the volcanic rocks into six units, but buried contacts do not permit confidence in either their number or stratigraphic position. To test a new method of modal analysis of these rocks, thirty-five samples were crushed, ground to approximately 5 micrometers, spray-dried to produce randomly oriented powder, and analyzed by x-ray diffraction. A constant eleven-phase Rietveld starting model was applied to the x-ray spectra, and then refined to produce a modal database of phase proportions in each sample. Geostatistical analysis with GIS software delineates a number of trends, with statistical measures of uncertainty. Aegirine in volcanics decreases in abundance with distance south from the E-W contact of volcanic rocks and granite. Riebeckite is found in the granite (both as veins and as apparently magmatic crystals) and the porphyry, but is less abundant or absent among the volcanic rocks. Where both amphibole and pyroxene are present, they are negatively correlated. The goal is to develop an additional tool for correlation of volcanic rocks, one based on mineral proportions in both aphanitic and phaneritic rocks.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004AGUFM.V21B0614B
- Keywords:
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- 8439 Physics and chemistry of magma bodies;
- 3600 MINERALOGY AND PETROLOGY (replaces