Kinetic Controls on Formation of Textures in Rapidly Cooled Rocks

The crystallization of silicate melts is a complex process involving melts usually produced by partial melting and cooling environments that are rapid in volcanic lavas or so slow as to be auto-metamorphic in plutonic regimes. The volcanic lavas are amenable to laboratory study as are chondrules that comprise the bulk of chondritic meteorites. Dynamic crystallization studies of basalt and chondrule melts have shown that nucleation has a more profound effect on the final texture than the cooling or crystal growth rates. The sequence of crystal shapes grown at increasing degrees of supercooling (DELTA T) or cooling rate demonstrates the effect of increasing growth rate. Equant or euhedral crystals become skeletal, then dendritic and ultimately spherulitic indicating the nucleation temperature and the DELTA T when growth began. Because crystals cannot grow until they nucleate, cooling rate does not always correlate with crystal growth rate and thus crystal shape. Silicate melts cooled at the same rate can have drastically different textures depending on the temperature of nucleation. A dynamic crystallization study of basaltic rocks shows that basaltic lavas must erupt with sufficient crystals present in the melt to act as nuclei and foster growth. With nuclei present, growth will begin when the temperature drops below the liquidus temperature and typical basaltic textures such as intersertal, intergranular or subophitic will form. If nuclei are not present, crystallization will not begin immediately and the DELTA T will increase until embryos in the melts become nuclei. The DELTA T present when grow begins dictates the growth rate and the crystal shapes and thus the rock texture. If nucleation is delayed, growth will take place at high DELTA T and the crystals will favor skeletal or dendritic shapes. Chondrules are usually considered crystallized melt droplets and clearly some are, but most are not. Most chondrules have porphyritic textures that cannot develop from totally melted droplets because nucleation is delayed during cooling and growth occurs at high DELTA T and the resulting textures are dendritic or spherulitic. The porphyritic textures will develop only if the chondrule is partially molten and begins to crystallize immediately upon cooling. Chondrule compositions are close to komatiites and these studies bear on the origin of their textures as well.