Observations on white island volcano,New Zealand

White Island is a complex of two overlapping cones constructed of lava flows, agglomerates and unconsolidated and unsorted ash and tuff beds. Remnants of a welded-tuff flow have been found on the north-east flank of the volcano. Since the extrusion of the youngest lava flow the young cone has been breached to the south-east and deeply eroded. White Island lavas are porphyritic augite-hypersthene-labradorite andesites. One young lava flow is unusually rich in Na₂O and contains groundmass sodian ferroaugite instead of the normal augite and hypersthene. The unusual groundmass features of this andesite are believed to be the result of contamination. Volcanic, plutonic and gneissic xenoliths have been found in the White Island lavas. Three new analyses of White Island andesites are given together with an electron microprobe analysis of a groundmass glass from one of the andesites. The White Island andesites are believed to have formed from the hybridisation of a primary mantle-derived andesitic magma with crustal material below the base of the Mesozoic New Zealand Geosyncline.