A MODEL OF REVERSE DIFFERENTIATION AT DIKII-GREBEN VOLCANO, KAMCHATKA - PROGRESSIVE BASIC MAGMA VESICULATION IN A SILICIC MAGMA CHAMBER

Dikii Greben' Volcano is the largest modern volcano with silicic rocks in the Kurile-Kamchatka island arc. It consists of many domes and lava flows of rhyodacite, dacite and andesite which were erupted in a reverse differentiation sequence. Non-equilibrium phenocryst assemblages (quartz + Mg-rich olivine, An-rich + An-poor plagioclase etc.), abundance of chilled mafic pillows in the dacites and andesites, and linear variations of rock compositions in binary plots are considered as mineralogical, textural and geochemical evidence for mixing. Mafic pillows in volcanics have a lower density (because of high porosity) and contain the same non-equilibrium phenocryst assemblages as the host rocks. Their groundmass contains skeletal microlites of plagioclase and amphibole proving that the groundmass as well as the pillows themselves formed from a water-rich basaltic magma at depth. They are considered as supercooled, vesiculated floating drops of a hot hybrid layer in the magma chamber which formed after refilling. The lower density of the inclusions allows them to float in the host magma and to concentrate at the top of the chamber prior to eruption. Magma mingling was effected by mechanical disintegration of the inclusions in the host magma during eruption. The rhyodacitic and basic end-members of the mixing series cannot be linked by low-P fractionation though high-P, amphibole-rich fractionation is not excluded.