Abstract: The relationship between volcanic and plutonic rocks has been debated for over a century. The controversy has been focused on the petrogenesis of intermediate to felsic rocks, with two main opinions proposed on the formation of silicic volcanic rocks: (1) they crystallized from the melt extracted from the “crystal mush” of granitic magma; and (2) they don’t have relations with the coeval plutonic rocks but have independent magma formation process. In recent years, with the rapid improvements of high-precision dating methods and the combination of other research methods such as geophysics, people have some new understandings on the genetic relationship between siliceous volcanic and plutonic rocks. The models of magma mush and transcrustal magmatic system have received much attention, but they also resulted in new contradictions and problems. This paper systematically summarizes the volcanic-plutonic connection in terms of different viewpoints, research history, and contradictions, and proposes some research areas for future research on the volcanic-intrusive connection. Generally, the overall geochemical similarities between siliceous volcanic and plutonic rocks displayed by big data do not rule out the existence of geochemical
differences that confined to “crystal mush” model in a specific area. At the end of the manuscript, it is pointed out that deep exploration, in-situ detailed geochemical analysis experiments, and modeling are expected to make break throughs in the future study of volcanic-plutonic connection. We suggest that the combinations with continental evolution and environmental changes may be important areas for future research on the volcanic-plutonic connection.

Key words: Volcanic rocks, intrusive rocks, crystal mush, transcrustal magmatic system, silicic magma