Greg M. Yaxley

SIMS determination of trace element partition coefficients between garnet, clinopyroxene and hydrous basaltic liquids at 2–7.5 GPa and 1080–1200°C

Abstract Trace element partition coefficients (Ds) for up to 13 REE, Nb, Ta, Zr, Hf, Sr and Y have been determined by SIMS analysis of seven garnets, four clinopyroxenes, one orthopyroxene and one phlogopite crystallized from an undoped basanite and a lightly doped (200 ppm Nb, Ta and Hf) quartz tholeiite. Experiments were conducted at 2–7.5 GPa, achieving near-liquidus crystallization at relatively low temperatures of 1080–1200°C under strongly hydrous conditions (5–27 wt.% added water). Garnet and pyroxene DREE show a parabolic pattern when plotted against ionic radius, and conform closely to the lattice strain model of Blundy and Wood (Blundy, J.D., Wood, B.J., 1994. Prediction of crystal–melt partition coefficients from elastic moduli. Nature 372, 452–454). Comparison, at constant pressure, between hydrous and anhydrous values of the strain-free partition coefficient (D0) for the large cation sites of garnet and clinopyroxene reveals the relative importance of temperature and melt water content on partitioning. In the case of garnet, the effect of lower temperature, which serves to increase D0, and higher water content, which serves to decrease D0, counteract each other to the extent that water has little effect on garnet–melt D0 values. In contrast, the effect of water on clinopyroxene–melt D0 overwhelms the effect of temperature, such that D0 is significantly lower under hydrous conditions. For both minerals, however, the lower temperature of the hydrous experiments tends to tighten the partitioning parabolas, increasing fractionation of light from heavy REE compared to anhydrous experiments. Three sets of near-liquidus clinopyroxene–garnet two-mineral D values increase the range of published experimental determinations, but show significant differences from natural two-mineral Ds determined for subsolidus mineral pairs. Similar behaviour is observed for the first experimental data for orthopyroxene–clinopyroxene two-mineral Ds when compared with natural data. These differences are in large part of a consequence of the subsolidus equilibration temperatures and compositions of natural mineral pairs. Great care should therefore be taken when using natural mineral–mineral partition coefficients to interpret magmatic processes. The new data for strongly hydrous compositions suggest that fractionation of Zr–Hf–Sm by garnet decreases with increasing depth. Thus, melts leaving a garnet-dominated residuum at depths of about 200 km or greater may preserve source Zr/Hf and Hf/Sm. This contrasts with melting at shallower depths where both garnet and clinopyroxene will cause Zr–Hf–Sm fractionation. Also, at shallower depths, clinopyroxene-dominated fractionation may produce a positive Sr spike in melts from spinel lherzolite, but for garnet lherzolite melting, no Sr spike will result. Conversely, clinopyroxene megacrysts with negative Sr spikes may crystallize from magmas without anomalous Sr contents when plotted on mantle compatibility diagrams. Because the characteristics of strongly hydrous silicate melt and solute-rich aqueous fluid converge at high pressure, the hydrous data presented here are particularly pertinent to modelling processes in subduction zones, where aqueous fluids may have an important metasomatic role.

Detrital zircon age constraints on the provenance of sandstones on Hatton Bank and Edoras Bank, NE Atlantic

Abstract: U–Pb dating of detrital zircons shows that the provenance of Cretaceous–Palaeogene sandstones on Hatton and Edoras banks (SW Rockall Plateau) comprises magmatic rocks dated at c. 1800 Ma and c. 1750 Ma, respectively. Their depositional setting, first-cycle mineralogy and unimodal detrital zircon populations suggest that these sandstones are of local origin. The zircon age data are therefore considered to provide constraints on these poorly understood areas of the Rockall Plateau. The U–Pb dates are directly comparable with U–Pb zircon crystallization ages from granitoid rocks reported from the Ketilidian Belt of southern Greenland and from the Rhinns Complex of western Britain. Hf isotopic data from the Edoras Bank sample are consistent with derivation from a juvenile Palaeoproterozoic block. In conjunction with previously reported Sm–Nd Tdm model ages from the Ketilidian Belt, Rockall Bank and the Rhinns Complex, these data extend the known distribution of a large juvenile Palaeoproterozoic terrane spanning the southern NE Atlantic. In contrast, Hf isotopic data from the Hatton Bank sample imply a large contribution from Archaean crust. The zircon population from Edoras Bank also contains sparse Mesoproterozoic grains, providing evidence for the presence of volumetrically minor Grenville-age intrusions in the southern part of the Rockall Plateau.

Redox preconditioning deep cratonic lithosphere for kimberlite genesis – evidence from the central Slave Craton

We present the first oxygen fugacity (fO2) profile through the cratonic lithospheric mantle under the Panda kimberlite (Ekati Diamond Mine) in the Lac de Gras kimberlite field, central Slave Craton, northern Canada. Combining this data with new and existing data from garnet peridotite xenoliths from an almost coeval kimberlite (A154-N) at the nearby Diavik Diamond Mine demonstrates that the oxygen fugacity of the Slave cratonic mantle varies by several orders of magnitude as a function of depth and over short lateral distances. The lower part of the diamond-bearing Slave lithosphere (>120–130 km deep) has been oxidized by up to 4 log units in fO2, and this is clearly linked to metasomatic enrichment. Such coupled enrichment and oxidation was likely caused by infiltrating carbonate-bearing, hydrous, silicate melts in the presence of diamond, a process proposed to be critical for “pre-conditioning” deep lithospheric mantle and rendering it suitable for later generation of kimberlites and other SiO2-undersaturated magmas.