(1998) hypothesized an arc setting for the boninite series rocks from this belt of Canada.
(1998): Boninite series: low Ti-tholeiite associations from the 2.7 Ga Abitibi greenstone belt.
Rocks snatched from the volcano include
boninite lavas, a chemically distinct type of lava previously found only around extinct volcanoes that erupted more than 1 million years ago.
The West Mata Volcano is producing boninite lavas, believed to be among the hottest on Earth in modern times, and a type seen before only on extinct volcanoes more than one million years old.
According to University of Hawaii geochemist Ken Rubin, the active boninite eruption provides a unique opportunity to study magma formation at volcanoes, and to learn more about how Earth recycles material where one tectonic plate is subducted under another.
(1989) Geological setting, petrology and geochemistry of Cambrian
boninite and low-Ti tholeiite lavas in western Tasmania.
A., 1983,
Boninite petrogenesis: chemical and Nd-Sr isotopic constraints: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v.
Geochemical analyses show that the schist is a high-Ca
boninite (high-Mg andesite to basalt).
Because some Archean komatiites are associated with calc-alkaline volcanic rocks and
boninites, Grove and Parman (2004) argued that like recent
boninites, komatiites may result from wet melting above a subduction zone.
Boninites have a distinctive mineralogy and chemistry that requires their initial crystallization from melts at high temperatures (1,250 |degrees~ to 1,300 |degrees~ C) and shallow depths (3 to 10 kilometers)--conditions similar to spreading centers.
Sun and Nesbitt (1978) discussed the origin of low-Ti basalts (later referred to as
boninites by Cameron et al.