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Andesite
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Andesite is an igneous, volcanic rock, of intermediate composition, with aphanitic to porphyritic texture. The mineral assemblage is typically dominated by plagioclase plus pyroxene and/or hornblende. Magnetite, zircon, apatite, ilmenite, biotite, and garnet are common accessory minerals. Alkali feldspar may be present in minor amounts. The quartz-feldspar abundances in andesite and other volcanic rocks are illustrated in QAPF diagrams.
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Andesite is an igneous, volcanic rock, of intermediate composition, with aphanitic to porphyritic texture. The mineral assemblage is typically dominated by plagioclase plus pyroxene and/or hornblende. Magnetite, zircon, apatite, ilmenite, biotite, and garnet are common accessory minerals. Alkali feldspar may be present in minor amounts. The quartz-feldspar abundances in andesite and other volcanic rocks are illustrated in QAPF diagrams. Relative alkali and silica contents are illustrated in TAS diagrams.
Classification of andesites may be refined according to the most abundant phenocryst. Example: hornblende-phyric andesite, if hornblende is the principal accessory mineral.
Andesite can be considered as the extrusive equivalent of plutonic diorite. Andesites are characteristic of subduction zones, such as the western margin of South America. The name andesite is derived from the Andes mountain range.
Genesis of andesite
Andesite is typically formed at convergent plate margins. Intermediate volcanic rocks are created via several processes:
- Dehydration melting of peridotite and fractional crystallization
- Melting of subducted slab containing sediments
- Magma mixing between felsic rhyolitic and mafic basaltic magmas in an intermediate reservoir prior to emplacement or eruption.
Via fractional crystallisation
Andesitic magma in island arc regions (i.e., active oceanic margins) comes from the interplay of the subducting plate and the mantle wedge, the wedge-shaped region above the subducting plate.
Water in the subducted oceanic lithosphere 'boils off' from the slab by dehydration of hydrous minerals such as amphibole, zeolites, chlorite etc, which are formed in the oceanic lithosphere during hydrothermal circulation at the mid-ocean-ridge. As these minerals are subjected to Barrovian Facies Sequence or Franciscan Facies Sequence metamorphism during subduction, they change to more stable, anhydrous forms, releasing water and soluble elements into the overlying wedge of mantle.
The slab itself, or the overlying mantle wedge, may melt. If the slab melts, it may include subducted sediment as well. The water and initial slab melts rise into the mantle wedge, prompting melting of the peridotite to produce basaltic magma with a distinctive enrichment of soluble elements (e.g., K, Ba, and Pb) compared to insoluble elements (e.g., Nb and Ti).
On its way to the surface, the melt stalls and cools, enabling the fractional crystallization of silica poor minerals, thus raising the silica content of the remaining melt and resulting in andesitic magma.
Via magma mixing
Basaltic magma may also mix with rhyolitic magma. This usually occurs in continental arc areas such as the Andes, where the high geothermal gradient above the subducted plate, and hydrothermal flows within the mantle wedge may create an underplate of softened, partially molten continental crust of intermediate or felsic composition. Basaltic magmas intruded into this anomalously hot zone will prompt partial melting of the crust, and may mix with these melts to produce intermediate compositions, typically andesite to trachyte in composition.
Alternatively, the basaltic melt may heat up the overlying arc, prompting partial melting, and may even assimilate sediments, previous volcanic rocks, etcetera, whilst undergoing fractional crystallisation. These rocks are subordinate due to the difficulty in assimilating sufficient cold material by magmas without cooling to a degree that they become immobile.
Ultimately, the resultant composition of andesite and intermediate magmas is the result of fractional crystallisation, assimilation, partial melting and contamination by the subducted slab. These may take considerable effort to resolve the individual components.
In 2009, researchers revealed that andesite was found in two meteorites (numbered GRA 06128 and GRA 06129) that were discovered in the Graves Nunatak Icefield during the US Antarctic Search for Meteorites 2006/2007 field season. This possibly points to a new mechanism to generate andesite crust.
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