Textural development of the felsic phases in two granodioritic rocks from the zoned Linga superunit of the Peruvian Coastal Batholith has been characterized using serial thin sectioning, image analysis and three-dimensional reconstruction. The study has shown how each mineral phase contributed to the texture during the formation and development of a contiguous crystal framework and during subsequent restriction, isolation and occlusion of the melt-filled porosity. The work highlights the important factors and potential problems in the use of serial thin sections and imaging in the analysis of complex polyphase rock textures.

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Porosity occlusion has been studied in a granodiorite rock from the Peruvian Coastal Batholith. The texture of the granodiorite is characteristic of Cordilleran I-type rocks, and the textural relations and modelled crystallization path within the quaternary An-Ab-Or-Qz system indicate alkali feldspar was the last major phase to start crystallizing. In thin section, alkali feldspar crystals occur both as large anhedral 'plates' containing numerous inclusions, and small interstitial cuneiform 'pockets'. The alkali feldspar pockets are interpreted as late stage nucleation and growth of new crystals in pores that became isolated from the larger crystals during the latter stages of crystallization. Their geometry therefore mirrors that of the pores immediately after isolation.From the modal abundance of the interstitial pockets, and taking into account contemporaneous growth of the other major phases, it is suggested that crystallization in isolated pores involved solidification of the final 3--4% of liquid. Alkali feldspar growth on the rims of the large anhedral plates prior to pore isolation is evidence for the localised (mm-cm scale) diffusion of chemical species within the interconnected melt phase. However, Rayleigh number calculations indicate that the separation of melt from crystals by compositional convection is unlikely to have occurred during interstitial crystallization.