The effects of heterogeneity in magma water concentration on the development of flow banding and spherulites in rhyolitic lava

This study focuses on the origin of flow-banded rhyolites that consist of compositionally similar darker and lighter flow bands of contrasting texture and color. Infrared radiation was used to obtain Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra from which water concentrations were calculated, and to map variations in water concentrations across zones of spherulites and glass from the ~ 23 million year old Sycamore Canyon lava flow of southern Arizona. Lighter-colored, thicker flow bands consist of gray glass, fine-grained quartz, and large (1.0 to 1.5 mm) spherulites. Darker-colored, thinner flow bands consist of orange glass and smaller (0.1 to 0.2 mm) spherulites. The centers of both large and small spherulites are occupied by either (1) a quartz or sanidine crystal, (2) a granophyric intergrowth, or (3) a vesicle. Mapping of water concentration (dominantly OH− in glass and OH− and H2O in sanidine crystals) illustrates fluctuating water availability during quenching of the host melt. Textures of large spherulites in the lighter (gray) bands in some cases indicate complex quenching histories that suggest that local water concentration controlled the generation of glass versus crystals. Small spherulites in darker (orange) bands have only one generation of radiating crystal growth. Both the glass surrounding spherulites, and the crystals in the spherulites contain more water in the gray flow bands than in the orange flow bands. Flow banding in the Sycamore Canyon lava flow may have originated by the stretching of a magma that contained pre-existing zones (vesicles or proto-vesicles) of contrasting water concentration, as the magma flowed in the conduit and on the surface. Variation in the original water concentration in the alternating layers is interpreted to have resulted in differences in undercooling textures in spherulites in the lighter compared to the darker flow bands.