Phase relations of a high-Mg basalt from the Aleutian Island arc - Implications for primary island arc basalts and high-Al basalts

An experimental investigation of a primitive high-Mg basalt, MK-15, collected from lava flows of the Unalaska Island in the Aleutian Island arc has been conducted in order to study primary and parental island arc basalts and the development of island arc magmas. The results suggest a model in which high-Al basalts are generated by moderate amounts of crystal fractionation from more primitive (high Mg/Mg + Fe, lower Al2O3) basaltic magmas near the arc crust-mantle boundary. Somewhere between 20-30 depth, significant amounts of clinopyroxene and olivine, with lesser amounts of spinel and possibly amphibole, fractionate, forming layer of olivine-clinopyroxenite at the base of the arc crust.