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Journal of Petrology Volume 42 Number 11 Pages 2169-2171 2001
© Oxford University Press 2001

A Note on the IUGS Reclassification of the High-Mg and Picritic Volcanic Rocks

A. C. KERR1,* and N. T. ARNDT2

1DEPARTMENT OF EARTH SCIENCES, CARDIFF UNIVERSITY, PO BOX 914, MAIN BUILDING, PARK PLACE, CARDIFF CF10 3YE, UK
2LGCA, UNIVERSITÉ DE GRENOBLE, BP 53, 1381 RUE DE LA PISCINE, 38031 ST MARTIN D’HERES, FRANCE

Received April 30, 2001; Revised typescript accepted May 23, 2001


   INTRODUCTION
 
The purpose of this short note is to offer some comments and observations on the new IUGS classification of high-Mg rocks (Le Bas, 2000Go), particularly its use of the terms ‘komatiite’ and ‘picrite’ with no reference to texture or the original usage of these terms. At the outset of this discussion we would like to place on record that we are in agreement with the need to redefine the nomenclature of high-Mg rocks. There are, however, important issues relating to both the use of the term ‘komatiite’ for all extrusive volcanic rocks with >18 wt % MgO and the definition and use of the term ‘picrite’, neither of which are discussed by Le Bas (2000)Go.


   KOMATIITES—A DEFINITION
 
Komatiites were first recognized by Viljoen & Viljoen (1969)Go in the Barberton greenstone belt, South Africa. The features that marked these rocks out as distinctive were not only their high Mg content but . . . [Full Text of this Article]


   THE 1991 IUGS CLASSIFICATION
 

   TESTING THE NEW IUGS CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM: LATE CRETACEOUS KOMATIITES AND PICRITES FROM GORGONA ISLAND, COLOMBIA
 

   PICRITES AND THE NEW IUGS CLASSIFICATION
 

   CONCLUDING REMARKS
 

   FOOTNOTES
 

   REFERENCES
 

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