A key idea of the session is of bring together a diverse group of igneous petrologists to evaluate the current state-of-the-art in our understanding of processes of magma differentiation, crystallization and solidification in plutonic magma chambers of variable form and size (dykes, sills or large intrusions) and variable composition (granitic, alkaline and mafic-ultramafic). The fundamental aspects of magma chamber processes to be addressed by this session are as follows: the relative effects of in situ crystallization versus crystal settling in evolving magma chambers and the origin of layering; the role of thermal and compositional convection in magma differentiation; the effects of compaction and post-cumulus melt migration within the cumulate pile on compositional profiles of magmatic bodies; the formation of chilled margins and compositional reversals along the intrusive contacts of plutonic bodies; the interactions between resident melt in the chamber and inflowing magma during chamber replenishment events; the origin of different compositional profiles in dykes and sills. This session welcomes field, textural, mineralogical, geochemical, isotopic, experimental and numerical examination of plutonic intrusions that provide us with new ideas on how magma chambers operate and develop.

Invited speakers: Prof. Grant Cawthorn, South Africa; Prof. Liya Kogarko, Russia; Prof. Fernando Bea, Spain.