Abstract
Malignites from the Poohbah Lake complex of northwestern Ontario, Canada are melanocratic cumulates. Cumulus pyroxene and apatite are poikilitically enclosed in a groundmass of large plates of intercumulus orthoclase and nepheline. Nepheline-feldspar fingerprint-like intergrowths occur. Nephelines are commonly zeolitized and pyroxenes altered to aggregates of biotite and/or garnet by deuteric alteration. Pyroxenes are weakly zoned from Di71 Hd18Ac11 to Di63Hd22Ac15, and are similar to the least evolved pyroxenes of other alkaline rocks. Nephelines all have compositions within the Morozewicz-Buerger convergence field and feldspars have a limited compositional range from Or88 to Or95. Perthites are absent.
Inconsistancies in the usage of the terms malignite and juvite are discussed and it is considered that a non-genetic petrographic classification of nepheline syenites leads to the obscuration of a group of potassic nepheline syenites, characterized by the presence of nepheline plus orthoclase which are typically associated with saturated to over-saturated alkaline rocks, contain pseudo-leucite or nepheline-orthoclase intergrowths, are emplaced in mobile belts and are not associated with rocks of the ijolite-carbonatite suite.
A genetic classification of nepheline syenites is suggested and it is proposed that; (1) mafic-rich nepheline syenites be referred to as mela-nepheline syenites (sensu lato) rather than as malignites; (2) the term malignite be used for magmatic potassic nepheline syenites characterised by the presence of nepheline plus a single potassium-rich feldspar (orthoclase or microcline) and devoid of exsolution perthite under subsolvus conditions; (3) the metasomatic malignites and juvites of ijolite-carbonatite complexes be referred to as varieties of fenites.
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Mitchell, R.H., Platt, R.G. Nepheline-bearing rocks from the Poohbah Lake complex, Ontario: Malignites and Malignites. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 69, 255–264 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00372328
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00372328