Gravitational sorting of phenocrysts in some Icelandic intrusive sheets

Abstract

Some thin basaltic intrusive sheets in south-eastern Iceland consist in cross-section of a porphyritic central zone sharply bounded by non-porphyritic margins. Within the porphyritic zone phenocrysts of plagioclase, augite and olivine are arranged in two main layers, an upper layer containing mostly plagioclase phenocrysts, and a lower layer containing concentrations of augite and olivine phenocrysts. The phenocrysts are considered to have been gravitationally sorted during the passage through the sheets of a highly fluid and strongly flowing porphyritic basalt magma.