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Cooling processes of a dolerite sill inferred from the variations in plagioclase aspect ratio, Atsumi District, north-eastern Japan

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Abstract

The upper Kayaoka sheet in the Atsumi area, Northeast Japan, has an alkaline-basaltic composition. The modal olivine and Ni enrichment in the lower part of the sheet indicates the accumulation of early formed olivine crystals. Overall, the average aspect ratio of plagioclase increases from the central part of the sheet toward both the top and bottom margins. The average aspect ratios of plagioclase and calculated crystallisation times at each height of the sheet, except for the lowermost margin, are roughly plotted near the regression line drawn based on those from many sills in previous research. However, we observed that the average aspect ratios of plagioclase in some horizons of the central part of the sheet exhibit an offset from the regression line. The olivine analcite dolerite in the central part of the sheet is rich in zeolite amygdules and glassy mesostasis with a quench texture. These observations suggest that the cooling rate in the central part of the sheet was faster compared with assuming conductive cooling only. A plausible mechanism for the rapid cooling at the centre of the sheet is heat transport by the convection of seawater that has infiltrated the columnar joint.

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Acknowledgments

This study is a part of the first author’s master’s thesis at Akita University. The authors are grateful to Prof. T. Ohba for his valuable discussions. The authors would like to thank Prof. S. Hayashi for permission to use the equipment to prepare thin sections and glass beads for XRF. We also thank Prof. M. Holness for valuable discussions. KK thanks the people of Oguni Furusato Fureaimura ‘Tateyama-so’ in Yamagata Prefecture for providing accommodation when he conducted the geological survey and sampling of the rocks. This research was financially supported by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) (19K03984) and Leading Program of Graduate School ‘New Frontier Leader Program for Rare-metals and Resources’ from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). We thank the two reviewers for their constructive suggestions and criticisms for improving the paper and Seung Ryeol Lee for editorial handling.

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  1. J-POWER Design Co., Ltd., 2-16-2 Soto-Kanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 101-0021, Japan

    Kentaro Kondo

  2. Department of Earth Resource Science, Faculty of International Resource Sciences, Akita University, Akita, 010-8502, Japan

    Takashi Hoshide

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  1. Kentaro Kondo
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  2. Takashi Hoshide
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Correspondence to Takashi Hoshide.

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Kondo, K., Hoshide, T. Cooling processes of a dolerite sill inferred from the variations in plagioclase aspect ratio, Atsumi District, north-eastern Japan. Geosci J 26, 183–199 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12303-021-0038-y

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