Linking crystal shape and dynamic undercooling: a new framework for inferring magmatic crystallization histories

Magmas contain crystals exhibiting diverse shapes and sizes, yet the relationship between crystal shape (specifically aspect ratio) and undercooling ([Formula: see text]), the driving force for crystallization, remains poorly constrained. Crystal shape should correlate with undercooling because undercooling governs the growth regime (interface-controlled versus diffusion-controlled) and thus the resulting crystal form. Prior experiments confirm that large nominal undercoolings drive transitions from polyhedral to hopper, skeletal, or dendritic forms. Large undercoolings reflect rapid decompression or cooling, differing from slower cooling rates typical of magmatic intrusions and storage systems. In such slowly cooled environments, crystals remain polyhedral, exhibiting subtle shape variations. Accurately quantifying crystal shape evolution at relatively low undercoolings could provide critical insights into crystallization histories, improving interpretations of the timescales and processes governing magma storage and eruption dynamics. Experimental verification of correlations between aspect ratios of polyhedral crystals and cooling rates remains inconclusive, possibly because nominal undercooling neglects the dynamic evolution of undercooling throughout crystallization. To address this, we introduce average instantaneous undercooling ([Formula: see text]), a metric capturing dynamic undercooling history during crystallization. Through controlled cooling experiments and numerical modelling, we demonstrate that higher [Formula: see text] histories produce tabular, high aspect ratio plagioclase crystals, whereas lower [Formula: see text] produces more prismatic crystals with lower aspect ratios. These variations in shape reflect undercooling-driven shifts in the predominant growth mechanism operating on different crystal faces. By quantitatively linking crystal shape to [Formula: see text], our study provides a new approach for reconstructing crystallization histories in magmas under varying pH2O-T-t conditions.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00410-025-02278-6.