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Igneous Rock Compositions and Plate Tectonics
Allen Glazner, afg@unc.eduDepartment of Geological Sciences, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Kent Ratajeski, kratajeski@montana.edu
Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT
Published July 28, 2005.
Description
In this exercise, students use whole-rock major- and trace-element compositions of igneous rocks from a variety of tectonic settings and locations to explore the importance of plate setting in determining magma compositions. Students are split into groups and assigned different tectonic settings to examine and compare with other groups. Datasets are obtained from the GEOROC database, imported into Excel spreadsheets, and graphed to learn how igneous rock compositions are a function of plate tectonic setting.
