Abstract
Microdiorite enclaves are arguably the most poorly understood of the more prominent features of granitoids. Surprisingly, they have been invoked as support for completely different models for the origin of chemical zonation in granitoids, depending on whether they are interpreted as restites, syn-plutonic blobs of magma, remobilized cumulate or basified country-rock xenoliths. Here we present the first detailed neodymium and strontium isotope study of suites of such enclaves from two plutons. In both cases we find relatively high σNd values, most readily explained if enclaves represent syn-plutonic injections of mafic magma into the host granitoid magma. As such they are the tangible remains of a very important process of mantle-derived heat and mass transfer operating in the generation of granitic magmas.
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Holden, P., Halliday, A. & Stephens, W. Neodymium and strontium isotope content of microdiorite enclaves points to mantle input to granitoid production. Nature 330, 53–56 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/330053a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/330053a0
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