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Komatiite is a type of ultramafic mantle-derived volcanic rock. Komatiites have low silicon, potassium and aluminium, and high to extremely high magnesium content. Komatiite was named for its type locality along the Komati River in South Africa. True komatiites are very rare and essentially restricted to rocks of Archean age, with few Proterozoic or Phanerozoic komatiites known (although high-magnesian lamprophyres are known from the Mesozoic). This restriction in age is thought to be due to cooling of the mantle, which may have been up to 500 °C hotter during the early to middle Archaean (3.8 to 2.8 billion years ago). The early Earth had much higher heat production, due to the residual heat from planetary accretion, as well as the greater abundance of radioactive elements. Geographically, komatiites are restricted in distribution to the Archaean shield areas. Komatiites occur with other ultramafic and high-magnesian mafic volcanic rocks in Archaean greenstone belts. The youngest komatiites are from the island of Gorgona on the Caribbean oceanic plateau off the Pacific coast of Colombia. == Petrology == Magmas of komatiitic compositions have a very high melting point, with calculated eruption temperatures in excess of 1600 °C. Basaltic lavas normally have eruption temperatures of about 1100 to 1250 °C. The higher melting temperatures required to produce komatiite have been attributed to the presumed higher geothermal gradients in the Archean Earth. Komatiitic lava was extremely fluid when it erupted (possessing the viscosity close to that of water but with the density of rock). Compared to the basaltic lava of the Hawaiian plume basalts at ~1200 °C, which flows the way treacle or honey does, the komatiitic lava would have flowed swiftly across the surface, leaving extremely thin lava flows (down to 10 mm thick). The major komatiitic sequences preserved in Archaean rocks are thus considered to be lava tubes, ponds of lava etc., where the komatiitic lava accumulated. Komatiite chemistry is different from that of basaltic and other common mantle-produced magmas, because of differences in degrees of partial melting. Komatiites are considered to have been formed by high degrees of partial melting, usually greater than 50%, and hence have high MgO with low K2O and other incompatible elements. Kimberlite, another magnesium-rich igneous rock, is relatively rich in potassium and in other incompatible elements, and is thought to form as a result of less than one percent or so of partial melting fluxed by water and carbon dioxide. There are two geochemical classes of komatiite; aluminium undepleted komatiite (AUDK) (also known as Group I komatiites) and aluminium depleted komatiite (ADK) (also known as Group II komatiites), defined by their Al2O3/TiO2 ratios. These two classes of komatiite are often assumed to represent a real petrological source difference between the two types related to depth of melt generation. Al-depleted komatiites have been modeled by melting experiments as being produced by high degrees of partial melting at high pressure where garnet in the source is not melted, whereas Al-undepleted komatiites are produced by high degrees of partial melts at lesser depth. However, recent studies of fluid inclusions in chrome spinels from the cumulate zones of komatiite flows have shown that a single komatiite flow can be derived from the mixing of parental magmas with a range of Al2O3/TiO2 ratios, calling into question this interpretation of the formations of the different komatiite groups. Komatiites probably form in extremely hot mantle plumes. Boninite magmatism is similar to komatiite magmatism but is produced by fluid-fluxed melting above a subduction zone. Boninites with 10–18% MgO tend to have higher large-ion lithophile elements (LILE: Ba, Rb, Sr) than komatiites. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「komatiite」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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