Assignment: Plutons and Volcanoes:

Outline:
 What is a Pluton?
 How is a Pluton formed?
 Methods of Pluton Emplacement
 What is a Volcano?
 How is a Volcano formed?
 Tectonic Behavior in Volcanoes
 References

WHAT IS A PLUTON?

An underground igneous body, once cooled and solidified deep within the crust is called a pluton. Plutons
are formed by felsic/granitic magma that is high in silica content. Due to higher silica content it’s more
viscous before reaching the surface and forms large plutonic structures. Most of the magma is emplaced
and crystalizes at depth which is why plutonic igneous rocks are deep within the crust. When magma rises
through the crust, it forcefully displaces preexisting crustal rocks referred to as host or country rock. The
structures that result from the emplacement of magma into preexisting rocks are called intrusions or
plutons.
Intrusions are known to occur in a great variety of sizes and shapes. Some of the Pluton structures are:
 Sill
 Laccolith
 Dikes
 Batholith
Some plutons are tabular whereas some are massive. Some plutons cut across sedimentary strata
whereas some form when magma is injected between sedimentary layers.
So Plutons are classified as tabular or massive and discordant (cut across sedimentary structures)
or concordant (form parallel to sedimentary structures). Tabular intrusive bodies are produced
when magma is forcibly injected into a fracture or zone of weakness, such as a bedding surface.
Dikes are discordant bodies that cut across bedding surfaces or other structures in the host rock.
By contrast, sills are nearly horizontal, concordant bodies that form when magma exploits
weaknesses between sedimentary beds. In general, dikes serve as tabular conduits that transport
magma, whereas sills store magma. Massive plutons which are exposed more than 100km on the
Earth’s surface are the batholiths which are made up of felsic or andesitic magma.

As the granitic magma cool it crystallizes and forms plutonic rock that rises to the surface after
intrusive rocks are exposed to erosion to form intrusions.
After millions of years of uplifting and erosion a batholith (pluton) is exposed at the surface.

FORMATION OF PLUTONS:
To form a large pluton, a huge volume of granitic magma must rise through continental crust. If you
place oil and water in a jar, screw the lid on, and shake the jar, oil droplets disperse throughout
the water. When you set the jar down, the droplets coalesce to form larger bubbles, which rise
toward the surface, easily displacing the water as they ascend. Granitic magma rises in a similar
way. It forms near the base of continental crust, where surrounding rock behaves plastically
because it is hot. As the viscous magma rises, it shoulders aside the hot, plastic rock, which then
slowly flows back to fill in behind the rising bubble. After a pluton forms, tectonic forces may
push it upward, and erosion may expose parts of it at the Earth’s surface. A batholith is a pluton
exposed over more than 100km.
METHODS OF PLUTON EMPLACEMENT:
The methods of pluton emplacement are the ways magma is accommodated in a host rock
where the final result is a pluton. The methods of pluton emplacement are not yet fully
understood, but there are many different proposed pluton emplacement mechanisms.
Stoping, diapirism and ballooning are the widely accepted mechanisms. There is now evidence
of incremental emplacement of plutons.
The formation of plutons is first a mechanical challenge. Plutons are large igneous bodies up to
several kilometres to tens of kilometres in thickness. Their formation and the associated
deformation of the host rocks must be mechanically compatible on the long term with the
average lithospheric strain rate , and the depth of emplacement of these bodies does certainly
play a significant role. Indeed, the emplacement of a pluton in the shallow upper crust will be
facilitated by the presence of the near free surface, whereas the deformation induced by the
emplacement of deeper plutons in the lowermost parts of the crust will benefit from ductile flow,
either from
the mantle or the ductile crust or even both. However, the development of igneous
bodies may not follow a single growth process.

WHAT ARE VOLCANOES?

Volcanoes are an opening in the earth's crust from which lava, ash, and hot gases flow or are ejected
during an eruption. The material erupted from volcanoes creates a wide variety of rocks and landforms,
including lava plateaus and several types of volcanoes. Many islands, including the Hawaiian Islands,
Iceland, and most islands of the south-western Pacific Ocean, were built entirely by volcanic eruptions. If
lava is too viscous to spread out as a flood, it builds a hill or mountain called a volcano. Volcanoes differ
widely in shape, structure, and size. From the following table we it is observed that the volcano that is
formed by basaltic magma (lesser silica content) is less viscous and has a gentle eruption as compared to
granitic magma.
Although granitic magma usually solidifies within the crust, under certain conditions it rises to the Earth’s
surface, where it erupts violently. The granitic magmas that rise to the surface probably contain only a
few percent water, like basaltic magma. They reach the surface because, like basaltic magma, they have
little water to lose. “Dry” granitic magma ascends more slowly than basaltic magma because of its higher
viscosity. As it rises, decreasing pressure allows the small amount of dissolved

FORMATION OF VOLCANOES:
Deep inside Earth heat and pressure cause the rock to melt, forming liquid rock or magma. Some deep
rocks already are melted. Others are hot enough that a small rise in temperature or drop in pressure can
cause them to melt and form magma. Magma is less dense than the rock around it, so it is forced slowly
toward Earth’s surface. It similar to a process when a bottle of cold syrup is turned upside down and the
dense syrup forces the less dense air bubbles slowly towards the top. After thousands and millions of
years magma reaches the Earth’s surface and flows out through an opening called a vent. Below the
surface magma accumulates in a magma chamber (which then solidifies and forms intrusive structures as
well like plutons, sill, dikes etc). Moreover the steep walled depression around a volcano’s vent is the
crater. As the magma rises towards the surface the crust folds and forms a slope structure made up of
sedimentary and igneous rock.
TECTONIC ACTIVITY AND VOLCANOES:
Volcanoes form in places where plates are moving apart, where plates are moving together, and at
locations called hot spots. Iceland is a large island in the North Atlantic Ocean. It’s near the Arctic Circle
and therefore has some glaciers. Iceland has volcanic activity because it sits on top of the Mid-Atlantic
Ridge. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a divergent plate boundary are when the plates move apart they form
long deep cracks called rifts. Lava flows from these rifts and is cooled quickly by seawater. After cooling
volcanic rock is formed. As more lava flows and hardens it builds up on the seafloor. Sometimes the
volcanoes and rift eruptions rise above sea level, forming islands such as an Iceland. In 1963, the new
island Surtsey was formed during a volcanic eruption.

Places where Earth’s plates move together are called convergent plate boundaries. They include areas
where one oceanic plate slides beneath a continental plate. Volcanoes formed on convergent plate
boundaries erupt more violently than others. Magma forms when the plate sliding below another plate and
the overlying mantle melt partially. The viscous magma is then forced upward to the surface forming
volcanoes.

Some areas at the boundary between Earth’s mantle and core are unusually hot. Hot rock at these areas is
forced toward the crust where it melts partially to form a hotspot. The Hawaiin Islands sit on top of a hot
spot under the Pacific Plate. Magma has broken through the crust to form several volcanoes. The
volcanoes that rise above the water form the Hawaiin Islands.
REFERENCES:
 Physical Geology Earth Revealed by Charles Plummer, David McGeary and Diane Carlson
 Introduction to Physical Geology by Thompson and Turk
 Essential of Geology by Frederick K Lutgens, Edward J Tarbuck and Dennis Tasa
 How do Volcanoes form?
ftp://www2.esuhsd.org/science/Q1000XX/es_subunit_2/volcanosform.pdf

 Methods of Pluton emplacement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methods_of_pluton_emplacement
 Physical controls and depth of emplacement of igneous bodies: A review by Thierry Menand