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Thermal aspects of komatiite generation and greenstone belt models

Abstract

Thermal modelling suggests that the problems posed by the high liquid temperatures (1,650 °C) of peridotitic lavas in Archaean greenstone belts, and the implied high degree of mantle melting (70%), are significantly reduced by considering uprise of a more refractory mantle diapir having an inherent density contrast with the surrounding mantle, and in a tectonic environment analogous to a marginal basin.

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Weaver, B., Tarney, J. Thermal aspects of komatiite generation and greenstone belt models. Nature 279, 689–692 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/279689a0

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