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early formed sunken crystals. To make room for
itself, it would float up the enclosed lighter silicates,
which would gradually be pushed upward in the
magma chamber (Fig. 5-5). Under quiescent con-
ditions this heavy liquid would form a layer con-
cordant with the grain structure of the host rock.
During its cooling it would expei upward the silicate
crystals still contained in it. If the remaining silicate
were abundant, the resulting ore would be low
grade; if sparse, the ore would be high grade.
On the bottom would be a considerable thickness
of early formed sunken crystals. On this would set-
tle the oxide liquid, kept fluid by mineralizers and
volatiles; above it would be upfloated, calcic pla-
gioclase crystals in layered pattern. Thus the con-
cordant layer of oxides would lie not at the bottom
of the intrusive but in a midsection.
Concordant bodies of.iron oxides entirely en-
closed in mafic igneous rocks have previously been
an enigma. The explanation
just given could ade-
quately account for them. The process may be
termed late gravitative liquid accumulation. Rep-
resentative examples of this process are the exten-
MAGMATIc coNcENTRATON 8 9
/Flgrr"
5-5 ldealized diagram-
matic representation of late
gravitative liquid accumutation.
1. Early stage ot crystaltization
ol basic magrna a, after forma-
tion of chill zone b; 2" layer of
sunken early-formed fenomag-
nesian crystals c, resting on
chill zone b, with rrsh of later
silicate crystals above. whose
interstices are occupied by re-
sidual magma enriched in ore
oxides; 3, mobile oxide-rich.
residual liquid draining down to
layer d, and floating up later sil-
icate crystals; 4, formation ol
concordant oxirie ore body in
which a lew late silicate crys-
tals are trapped as mobile. en-
riched gravitative accumulation
d squeezed out or decanted to
torm the magmatic injections.
sive titaniferous magnetite layers of the Bushveld
Igneous complex in South Africa, concordant mag-
netite deposits of the Adirondack mountains, and
some platinum deposits.
Residual Liquid Injection. The iron-rich residual liq-
uid accumulated in the manner described above
may, before consolidation, be subjected to move-
ment. A gentle tilting of the host rock may cause it
to be decanted and move laterally, pcrhaps inter-
secting slightly the grain structure of the host rock.
Or it may be subjected to pressure by disturbances
such as often accompany magma formation and ig-
neous intrusion and be squirted out to places of less
pressure into the overlying consolidated portions of
the host rock, or into adjacent rocks to form resid-
ual liquid injections.
The place of repose of the iron-rich rcsidual liquid
may be (l) in the interstices between the previously
consolidated silicate grains, or (2) as an unconsoli-
dated liquid segregation in the lower part of the
igneous body.
The squeezing out of a residual liquid from the
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