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Petrology And Major Element Geochemistry Of Basaltic Glasses From The Blanco Trough, Northeast Pacific, Glenn A. Gaetani

Geology Theses and Dissertations

The original electron microprobe analyses of suite of basaltic glasses recovered in 1968 by W.G. Melson and co-workers from the Blanco Trough have extremely unusual characteristics. Their compositions plot in a region of the normative Ol-Di-Pl-SiO2 tetrahedron which suggests that they represent liquids in equilibrium with an upper mantle assemblage of olivine + orthopyroxene at 10-15 kb. Given the present state of controversy surrounding the composition and depth of origin of primary MORB, natural examples of such liquids would be very important. The major element variations observed in the suite imply that the dominant phases are olivine and an iron-aluminum …