Magma Transport

The large volume of mafic magma and the forceful way in which it was intruded raise a question about the way the magma was transported that enabled it to penetrate the rocks of the Beacon Supergroup and to reach the surface where it formed large basalt plateaus. This question was considered by Cartwright and Moller-Hansen (2006) for the case of two sill complexes off the coast of Norway. The sills are discordant to the stratification of the country rocks and intersect each other at depths ranging from 8 to 12 km below the sediment-water interface. The authors used seismic data to show that the sills are connected with each other in such a way that they  

Accordingly, Cartwright and Moller-Hansen (2006) concluded that sills can act as conduits for the efficient transport of large volumes of magma through the continental crust and can thereby contribute to the buildup of large lava plateaus on the surface. 

Elliot et al. (1999) addressed the question of magma transport in the Transantarctic Mountains and arrived at the same conclusion as Cartwright and Moller-Hansen (2006). Elliot et al. (1999) discussed various options for dispersal of basalt magma from several sources or from a single source. The most likely scenario seems to be that the magma originated from a source 

13 Ferrar Group Dolerite Sills and the Dufek Intrusion 

The petrogenetic processes which Morrison and Reay (1995) considered in their study of the origin of the Terra Cotta sill included  

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Brandon A., Greaser R., and Chacko T. (1996) Constraints on rates of granitic magma transport from epidote dissolution kinetics. Science 111, 1845-1848. 

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Korenaga J. and Kelemen P. B. (1997) Origin of gabbro sills in the Moho transition zone of the Oman Ophiolite implications for magma transport in the oceanic lower crust. J. Geophys. Res. 102, 27729-27749. 

Ryan MP (1994) Neutral-buoyancy controlled magma transport and storage in mid-ocean ridge magma reservoirs and their sheeted-dike complex a summaiy of basic relationships. Magmatic Systems 57 97-138... 

Peltier A, Bachelery P, Staudacher T (2009) Magma transport and storage at Piton de La Foumaise (La Reunion) between 1972 and 2007 a review of geophysical and geochemical data. J Volcanol Geotherm Res 184(l-2) 93-108... 

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