Cumulate nodules as evidence for convective fractionation in a phonolite magma chamber

The physical mechanism by which chemical zonation develops in magma chambers has been controversial partly because unambiguous geological constraints have been lacking. The 11,000 years B.P. eruption of Laacher See Volcano produced a zoned tephra deposit and also ejected crystal-rich nodules which provide a snapshot of the materials crystallising at the magma chamber margins. New data on petrography and chemical compositions of nodules, their cumulate minerals and interstitial glasses are used to deduce the chemical evolution of the phonolite melt due to fractional crystallisation of the mineral assemblages. These data, together with those on the vertical zonation of the melt in the bulk of the chamber, are shown to be consistent with a model of stratification of the chamber by convective fractionation, in which a thin boundary layer of residual melt from fractional crystallisation ascends at the chamber side and accumulates at the roof. Crystallisation could have provided buoyancy to drive convection by enriching incompatible volatile components (mainly water) in the residual melt. Available fluid dynamic studies of single- and double-diffusive boundary layers are used to assess convection in the Laacher See chamber. The boundary layer is likely to have been: (1) laminar, which implies that the density gradient in the chamber steepened upwards; (2) in the counterflow regime, in which compositional and thermal layers flow in opposite directions; and (3) thin ( 10 cm), estimated from theory for a flat wall, suggesting that wall morphology could be important in determining boundary layer characteristics. Estimates of mass transfer rates due to this mechanism suggest that the chamber could have become stratified in a time of the order of 10³ years.