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Composite dikes, consisting of aphyric basaltic margins and phenocryst-rich rhyolitic interiors, cut the Gouldsboro granite of coastal Maine at many localities. Limited hybridization (exchange of crystals, commingling, and mixing) occurs in most of the dikes and indicates that the two magmas were contemporaneous with emplacement of rhyolitic magma following closely in time the initial emplacement of the basaltic dike. Petrographic characteristics and geochemistry indicate that the source of the rhyolite was resident magma in the Gouldsboro granite magma chamber. The composite dikes formed when basaltic dikes ruptured the Gouldsboro magma chamber, permitting partly crystallized magma from the margin of the chamber to flow outward into the center of the basaltic dikes. Field relations of similar composite dikes in other areas (e.g., Iceland, Scotland) are consistent with this model. A second type of composite dike (silicic margins with chilled basaltic pillows) commonly cuts mafic intrusions along the Maine coast and probably formed when a granitic dike ruptured an established chamber of mafic magma, permitting resident mafic magma to collapse downward into the still liquid granitic dike. Most composite dikes have probably formed when a magma chamber was disrupted by a dike of contrasting magma rather than by tapping a stratified magma chamber. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.