Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-mwx4w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-25T16:56:22.469Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Extensive dolomitic volcanism through the Limagne Basin, central France: a new form of carbonatite activity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

K. Bailey ,
S. Kearns ,
J. Mergoil ,
J. Mergoil Daniel  and
B. Paterson
K. Bailey*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Queens Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK
S. Kearns
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Queens Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK
J. Mergoil
Affiliation:
Université Blaise Pascal - Departement des Sciences de la Terre, 5, rue Kessler, F-63000 Clermont-Ferrand cedex, France
J. Mergoil Daniel
Affiliation:
Université Blaise Pascal - Departement des Sciences de la Terre, 5, rue Kessler, F-63000 Clermont-Ferrand cedex, France
B. Paterson
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Queens Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK
*
*E-mail: ken.bailey@bris.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recognition of widespread carbonate volcanism in central Spain has led to another case in France, of similar age (23–0 Ma) but with entirely new features. More than 100 new carbonate volcanoes are indicated already, adding a wholly unexpected dimension to this form of activity. Eruptions form layers, mostly of glassy nephelinite fragments in a dolomitic matrix, but some layers are largely dolomite. Major new findings are phenocrysts of dolomite, magnesite and calcite in silicate glass, and spectacular dolomite-nephelinite melt immiscibility, neither recorded previously. Most volcanic carbonatites are Ca rich, and dolomite is rare. The Limagne dolomites share links with those in Spain and Zambia, with chromite a hallmark in all three. Limagne is exceptional in being the first case where dolomite has erupted with co-genetic silicate melt. Mantle debris and magnesite indicate a source within ∼ 100–150 km. Chromite in the dolomite globules, and in the enclosing silicate glass, is similar to that in high-temperature kimberlites, indicating immiscibility in the deep mantle. Recognition of two large, previously undetected provinces of carbonate volcanism in Europe, where there has been active research for >200 y, must lead to the inference that similar cases may await discovery on other continents.

Keywords

dolomitenephelinitemagnesitephenocrystsunmixingkimberlitepeperite
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 70 , Issue 2 , April 2006 , pp. 231 - 236
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bailey, D.K. (1989) Carbonate melt from the mantle in the volcanoes of south-east Zambia. Nature, 388, 415–418 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, D.K. (1993) Carbonate magmas. Journal of the Geological Society, 150, 637–651.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, D.K. and Kearns, S. (2002) High-titanium magnetite in some fine-grained carbonatites and the magmatic implications. Mineralogical Magazine, 66, 379–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, D.K. and Kearns, S. (2003) Carbonatite magmas: natural examples and the phase relations they define. Periodico di Mineralogia 72, Special Issue: Eurocarb, 27–31.Google Scholar
Bailey, D.K., Garson, M., Kearns, S. and Velasco, A.P.(2005) Carbonate volcanism in Calatrava, central Spain: a report on the initial findings. Mineralogical Magazine, 69, 907–915.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, K., Kearns, S., Rosatelli, G., Munoz, M., Choi, C. and Paterson, B. (in prep.) Dolomite volcanism in Calatrava, central Spain: reporting a new world occurrence.Google Scholar
Bowen, N.L. (1928) The Evolution of the Igneous Rocks. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 332 pp.Google Scholar
Brooker, R.A. (1998) The effect of CO2 saturation on immiscibility between silicate and carbonate liquids: an experimental study. Journal of Petrology, 39, 1905–1915.Google Scholar
Chazot, G., Bertrand, H., Mergoil, J. and Sheppard, S.M.F. (2003) Mingling of immiscible dolomitic carbonatite and trachyte in tuffs from the Massif Central, France. Journal of Petrology, 44, 1917–1936.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goer de Herve, A. de, (2000) Peperites from the Limagne trench. Pp. 91–110 in: Volcaniclastic Rocks from Magmas to Sediments (Leyrit, H. and Montenat, C., editors). Gordon and Breach, Paris.Google Scholar
Kjarsgaard, B.A. and Peterson, T. (1991) Nephelinite-carbonatite liquid immiscibility at Shombole volcano, East Africa: petrographic and experimental evidence. Mineralogy and Petrology, 43, 293–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Bas, M.J. (1989) Nephelinitic and basanitic rocks. Journal of Petrology, 30, 1299–1312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macdonald, R., Kjarsgaard, B.A., Skilling, I.P., Davies, G.R., Hamilton, D.L. and Black, S. (1993) Liquid immiscibility between trachyte and carbonate in ash flow tuffs from Kenya. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 114, 276–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, K.R. and Wood, B.J. (1998) The transition from carbonate to silicate melts in the CaO-MgO-SiO2-CO2 system. Journal of Petrology, 39, 1943–1951.Google Scholar
Stoppa, F. and Principe, C. (1998) Eruption styles and petrology of a new carbonatite suite from Mt Vulture (Southern Italy): the Monticchio Lakes Formation. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 80, 137–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woolley, A.R. and Buckley, H.A. (1993) Magnesite-siderite series carbonates in the Nkombwa and Newania carbonatite complexes. South African Journal of Geology, 96, 126–130.Google Scholar
Woolley, A.R. and Church, A.A. (2005) Extrusive carbonatites: a brief review. Lithos, 85, 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar