Continental rifts typically contain large amounts of basalt and rhyolite. Your answer to Exercise 5.10b explained the origin of the basalt, but fractional crystallization of mafic magma can produce only a very small amount of felsic magma. Explain the origin of the large volumes of felsic magma in continental rifts.
Continental rifts typically contain large amounts of basalt and rhyolite. Your answer to Exercise 5.10b explained the origin of the basalt, but fractional crystallization of mafic magma can produce only a very small amount of felsic magma. Explain the origin of the large volumes of felsic magma in continental rifts.
Applications and Investigations in Earth Science (9th Edition)
9th Edition
ISBN:9780134746241
Author:Edward J. Tarbuck, Frederick K. Lutgens, Dennis G. Tasa
Publisher:Edward J. Tarbuck, Frederick K. Lutgens, Dennis G. Tasa
Chapter1: The Study Of Minerals
Section: Chapter Questions
Problem 1LR
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Transcribed Image Text:## 5.5.4 Plate-Tectonic Settings of Felsic Rocks (Granite and Rhyolite)
Granite and rhyolite are most abundant on the continents—in continental volcanic arcs, continental collision zones, continental rifts, and continental hot spots. They form largely by partial melting of the upper (granitic) layer of continental lithosphere and to a lesser extent by differentiation of mafic magmas. Some rhyolite and granite forms in subduction zones by differentiation of mafic and intermediate magmas or by assimilation. Only very small amounts of felsic igneous rock are found in the oceans, mostly rhyolite in oceanic hot-spot islands, formed by extreme fractional crystallization.
### Exercise 5.12: Origin of Granite and Rhyolite in Continental Rifts
Name: ____________________________________
Course: ____________________________________
Section: __________ Date: _________________
Continental rifts typically contain large amounts of basalt and rhyolite. Your answer to Exercise 5.10b explained the origin of the basalt, but fractional crystallization of mafic magma can produce only a very small amount of felsic magma. Explain the origin of the large volumes of felsic magma in continental rifts.
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(Page reference: 131, Chapter 5.5: Igneous Rocks and Plate Tectonics)
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