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Figure 3.
Basalt swirls in a matrix of rhyolite from Yellowstone National Park. Iddings (1899) interpreted relationships such as this as clear evidence that the basalt was melted by the rhyolite. Although experimental petrology in the early twentieth century showed that this is thermodynamically unlikely, Fenner (1938) concurred with Iddings’s field interpretation and appealed to unknown sources of energy to explain the apparently backward melting relationships. Wilcox (1944) showed that these are simply mixed magmas, an interpretation that stands to this day (Pritchard et al., 2013). Width of view 14 cm; photo courtesy of Chad Pritchard.
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