The Gold Flat Tuff, Nevada: Insights into the Evolution of Peralkaline Silicic Magmas.
Author ORCID Identifier
John C. White 
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5107-6847
Department
Physics, Geosciences, and Astronomy
Department Name When Scholarship Produced
Geosciences
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Winter 1-2019
Abstract
The Gold Flat Tuff is the youngest (9.15 Ma) ash-flow sheet erupted from the Black Mountain Volcanic Centre, southwest Nevada, USA. This paper explores some aspects of the very complex nature of the tuff's magmatic plumbing system. The main body of the deposit is a mixed magma product, comprising pantelleritic and comenditic melts derived from independently evolving reservoirs, and antecrysts and enclaves derived from a range of basic to intermediate sources. Metre-scale cognate xenoliths point to the presence of alkali feldspar accumulation zones. The pantellerite contains phenocrysts of fluorite and chevkinite-(Ce). The inferred intermediate magma component contains perrierite-(Ce) phenocrysts. The pantellerite has unusually high contents of F (≤2.2 wt%), F + Cl (≤2.9 wt%) and ZrO2 (≤1.04 wt%). The high halogen contents may have influenced the evolution of the strongly peralkaline magma. The crystallization conditions are poorly constrained but those for the pantelleritic magma may have been close to water-saturation (>4 wt% melt water) at temperatures ~740 °C and fO2 around FMQ.
Recommended Citation
Macdonald, R., Bagiński, B., Belkin, H.E., White, J.C., Noble, D.C., 2019, The Gold Flat Tuff, Nevada: Insights into the Evolution of Peralkaline Silicic Magmas. Lithos, v. 328-329, p. 1-13. (doi: 10.1016/j.lithos.2019.01.017)
Journal Title
Lithos
