Petrology of Mt. Misery Volcano, St. Kitts, West Indies

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Mt. Misery, a recent volcano on the island of St. Kitts in the Lesser Antilles, is built of basalts, basaltic andesites, and andesites of calcalkali type. Nearly all the lavas are strongly porphyritic and zoned calcic plagioclase is the most abundant phenocryst mineral. A small percent-age of olivine occurs in the basalts and occasionally appears in the andesites. Augite is the principal pyroxene of the basaltic rocks but hypersthene becomes predominant in the andesites. Amphibole occurs very rarely in the andesite flows but is more common in the associated pyroclastics and is very abundant in the ejected blocks. Quartz features occasionally in the andesites and cristobalite is a frequent groundmass constituent. Coarse-grained ejected blocks are of three types; anorthite-bearing blocks, hornblende-eucrites and quartz gabbros. Petrographic and mineralogical data are given for representative rock-types and twenty-two new chemical analyses are presented. Brief consideration is given to the various petrogenetic processes which may be applicable to the Mt. Misery lavas and comparisons are made with other calcalkali provinces.

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