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Evaluating melt genesis and formation of Socotra high silica rhyolites
Samuel Clark (BSc student)

View of Dragonblood trees on Socotra (a UNESCO World Heritage site).

High silica rhyolites (HSR) form via a variety of processes such as extreme crystal fractionation, interstitial melt extraction, small degree partial melts of mafic precursors, etc. Major and trace element analyses define two groups of rhyolites on Socotra – one representing calc-alkaline HSR, likely fractionates of an extracted interstitial melt, and  the other representing tholeiitic rhyolites.