Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
| Online Publication Date: 26 Nov 2007
The Rise of the Theory of Differentiation in Igneous Petrology (Part 2 of 2)
The Rise of the Theory of Differentiation in Igneous Petrology (Part 2 of 2)
Page Range: 295 – 320
The theory of differentiation dominated igneous petrology between 1880 and 1903. During this period, petrologists eagerly applied insights from the burgeoning field of physical chemistry to account for differentiation. Acceptance of the Soret effect, a mechanism applicable to differentiation of magma in purely liquid condition, prevailed in the early 1890s. As support for the Soret effect eroded after 1893, a wide range of other mechanisms for producing differentiation was proposed including the Gouy-Chaperon effect (gravity stratification of magma), molecular flow in accord with Berthelot's principle, liquid immiscibility, eutectic crystallization, fractional crystallization, electrolysis, magnetic attraction, and circulation of mineralizing fluids. Consensus about the competing mechanisms of differentiation had not been achieved at the beginning of the twentieth century. The development of differentiation theory arose in the context of increased specialization in igneous petrology. Between 1880 and 1903, virtually only petrologists employed by government surveys or academic institutions theorized about igneous rock diversity. The days of chemist, naturalist, or general geologist contributing to petrogenetic theory were behind. Igneous petrology emerged as a specialized discipline because of the influence of physical chemistry on geology, increasingly available chemical analyses, but, above all, because of the dramatic rise of microscopic petrography in the 1870s that led to precise mineralogical and textural description of thousands of igneous rocks, deciphering of the sequence of crystallization, and abandonment of the age criterion in classification.
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