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On the origin of some mica-lamprophyres: experimental evidence from a mafic minette

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Abstract

Experimental melting relationships for a mafic minette (mica-lamprophyre) from Buell Park, Arizona were determined under fO2 conditions equivalent to the ironwüstite-graphite and quartz-fayalite-magnetite buffers, at pressures of 10–20 kbar. A comparison between experimental products and phenocrysts in the most primitive minettes indicates that those lavas preserve a near-liquidus assemblage of olivine, diopside and Ti-rich phlogopite crystallized in the upper mantle under fO2≥QFM and in the presence of an H2O-bearing fluid phase. It is suggested that micalamprophyric (minette) magmas may originate from a metasomatized, garnet-bearing peridotitic source at deeper levels in the mantle (P≥20 kbar) but can also be in equilibrium with a phlogopite-bearing wehrlite (±opx) source at pressures of 17–20 kbar, under reducing or oxidizing mantle conditions. Owing to their rapid crystallization rate and high liquidus temperatures, a series of potassic daughter melts (potassic latites and felsic minettes) can be formed by segregation from mafic minette parents during their ascent through the cooler continental crust. The preservation of olivine in equilibrium with phlogopite phenocrysts in primitive minettes precludes a petrogenetic process dominated by assimilation/fractional crystallization in a shallow magma chamber and supports a model by which some lamprophyric magmas are brought to near surface conditions at temperatures in the range of 1,000–1,200° C and chilled rapidly.

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  1. Sonia Esperança

    Present address: Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 5241 Broad Branch Rd, 20015, Washington DC, NW, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, Arizona State University, 85287, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Sonia Esperança & John R. Holloway

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  1. Sonia Esperança
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  2. John R. Holloway
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Esperança, S., Holloway, J.R. On the origin of some mica-lamprophyres: experimental evidence from a mafic minette. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 95, 207–216 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00381270

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