Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-tn8tq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-28T10:10:04.894Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

New forms of abundant carbonatite–silicate volcanism: recognition criteria and further target locations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

D. K. Bailey  and
S. Kearns
D. 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
*
*E-mail: ken.bailey@bris.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the Calatrava province of central Spain, numerous Quaternary pyroclastic vents have erupted carbonatite magmas carrying silicate melt fragments, mantle debris and megacrysts. Lava flows are rare. Maar and scoria deposits have carbonate matrices and pass into tuff sheets with carbonate contents >50%, which are spread widely away from the eruptive centres and constitute the most abundant form of effusive carbonate. Immense quantities of mantle debris are present in the erupted material. The tuffs have a distinctive fabric, which consists of a pale matrix carrying black silicate glass clasts that contain globules of immiscible carbonate and carbonate phenocrysts. There is evidence of similar volcanism in the Limagne province of central France and in other intra-continental provinces in Europe and Africa. About 500 vents have been identified in France and Spain: all the vents examined to date have erupted carbonatite magma. Such eruptions are not generally recognized in classical volcanology. As pyroclastic carbonatite was not previously recognized in Spain and France, a detailed examination of other mafic and ultramafic alkaline provinces, where research has traditionally concentrated on lava flows, is vital. For any search to be successful, evidence from the pyroclastic rocks will be required.

Keywords

primary carbonatitespyroclastic rocksCalatrava provinceLimagne provincecarbonate–silicate volcanismQuaternaryintra-continentalmantlemaar
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 76 , Issue 2 , April 2012 , pp. 271 - 284
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2012

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. (1993) Carbonate magmas. Journal of the Geological Society, 150, 637–651.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, D.K. and Kearns S. (2011) Dolomitic volcanism in Zambia: Cr and K signatures and comparisons with other dolomitic melts from the mantle. Pp. 211–222. in Volcanism and Evolution of the African Lithosphere (L. Beccaluva, G. Bianchini and Wilson, M., editors). Geological Society of America, Special Paper 478. Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado, USA.Google Scholar
Bailey, K. and E.R., Humphreys (2010) The role of carbonatitic volcanism in the degassing of mantle CiO2. Abstract #U21A-0007 of the American Geophysical Union.Google Scholar
Bailey, K., Garson, M., Kearns, S. and A.P., Velasco (2005a) Carbonate volcanism in Calatrava, central Spain: a report on the initial findings. Mineralogical Magazine, 69, 907–915.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, K., Lloyd, F., Kearns, S., Stoppa, F., Eby, N. and Woolley, A. (2005b) Melilitite at Fort Portal, Uganda: another dimension to the carbonate volcan-ism. Lithos, 85, 15–25.Google Scholar
Bailey, K., Kearns, S., Mergoil, J., Mergoil, D.J. and B., Paterson (2006) Extensive dolomitic volcanism through the Limagne Basin, central France: a new form of carbonatite activity. Mineralogical Magazine, 70, 1–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowen, N.L. (1928) The Evolution of the Igneous Rocks. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA, 332 pp. Brey, G.P., Bulatov, V.K. and Girnis, A.V. (2009) Influence of water and fluorine on melting of carbonated peridotite at 6 and 10 GPa. Lithos, 112, 249–259.Google Scholar
Brooker, R.A. (1998) The effect of CiO2 saturation on immiscibility between silicate and carbonate liquids: an experimental study. Journal of Petrology, 39, 1905–1915.Google Scholar
Brown, G.M. (1979) The problem of the diversity of igneous rocks. Pp. 3–14. in: The Evolution of the Igneous Rocks: Fiftieth anniversary perspectives (Yoder, H.S., Jr, editor). Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.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
Dalton, J.A. and Presnall, D.C. (1998) Carbonatitic melts along the solidus of model lherzolite in the system CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-CiO2 from 3 to 7 GPa. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 131, 123–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dasgupta, R., Hirschmann, M.M. and Smith, N.D. (2007) Partial melting experiments of peridotite + CiO2 at 3 GPa and genesis of alkalic ocean island basalts. Journal of Petrology, 48, 2093–2124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawson, J.B. (2008) The Gregory Rift Valley and Neogene-Recent volcanoes of Northern Tanzania. Geological Society Memoirs, 33, 102 pp.Google Scholar
Eggler, D.H. (1989) Carbonatites, primary melts, and mantle dynamics. Pp. 500–545. in: Carbonatites: Genesis and Evolution (Bell, K., editor). Unwin Hyman, London.Google Scholar
Fipke, C.E., Gurney, J.J. and Moore, R.O. (1995) Diamond exploration techniques emphasising indicator mineral geochemistry and Canadian examples. Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin, 423, 86 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goerde Herve, A. (2000) Peperites from the Limagne trench (Auvergne, French Massif Central): a distinctive facies of phreatomagmatic pyroclastics. Pp. 91–110. in: Volcaniclastic Rocks from Magmas to Sediments (Leyrit, H. and Montenat, C., editors). Gordon and Breach, Paris.Google Scholar
Humphreys, E.R., Bailey K., C.J., Hawkesworth, Wall, F., Najorka, J. and A.H., Rankin (2010) Aragonite in olivine from Calatrava, Spain-evidence for mantle carbonatite melts from >100 km depth. Geology, 38, 911–914.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kjarsgaard, B.A. and Hamilton, D.L. (1989) The genesis of carbonatites by immiscibility. Pp 388–404. in: Carbonatites: Genesis and Evolution (Bell, K., editor). Unwin Hyman, London.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
Kogarko, L.N., Henderson, C.M.B. and Pacheco, H. (1995) Primary Ca-rich carbonatite magma and carbonate-silicate-sulphide liquid immiscibility in the upper mantle. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 121, 267–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lloyd, F.E. (1985) Experimental melting and crystallisation of glassy olivine melilitites. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 90, 236–243.Google Scholar
Lopez-Ruiz, J., Cebria, J.M., Doblas, M., Oyarzun, R., Hoyos, M. and Martin, C. (1993) Cenozoic intra-plate volcanism related to extensional tectonics at Calatrava, central Iberia. Journal of the Geological Society of London, 150, 915–922.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macdonald, R. (2003) Magmatism of the Kenya Rift Valley: a review. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences, 95, 239–253.Google 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
Macdonald, R., Rogers, N.W., Fitton, J.G., Black, S. and Smith, M. (2001) Plume-lithosphere interactions in the generation of basalts of the Kenya Rift, East Africa. Journal of Petrology, 42, 877–900.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olafsson, M. and Eggler, D.H. (1983) Phase relations of amphibole, amphibole-carbonate, and phlogopite– carbonate peridotite: petrologic constraints on the asthenosphere. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 64, 305–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Presnall, D.C. (1979) Fractional crystallisation and partial fusion.Pp. 59–76. in: The Evolution of the Igneous Rocks: Fiftieth anniversary perspectives (Yoder, H.S., Jr, editor) Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.Google Scholar
Smith, W.C. (1956) A review of some problems of African carbonatites. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 112, 189–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stoppa, F., Rosatelli, G., Wall, F. and Jeffries, T. (2005) Geochemistry of carbonatite-silicate pairs in nature: a case history from Central Italy. Lithos, 85, 26–47.Google Scholar
Tilley, C.E., Yoder, H.S., Jr. and Schairer, J.F. (1965) Melting relations of volcanic tholeiite and alkali rock series. Carnegie Institute Washington Yearbook, 65, 69–82.Google Scholar
White, P.S. and J.D.L., Ross (2011) Maar-diatreme volcanoes: a review. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 201, 1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, M., Rosenbaum, J.M. and Dunworth, E.A. (1995) Melilitites: partial melts from the thermal boundary layer? Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 119, 181–196.Google Scholar
Woolley, A.R. and A.A., Church (2005) Extrusive carbonatites: a brief review. Lithos, 85, 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wyllie, P.J. (1989) Origin of carbonatites: evidence from phase equilibrium studies. Pp. 500–545. in: Carbonatites: Genesis and Evolution (Bell, K., editor). Unwin Hyman, London.Google Scholar
Wyllie, P.J. and Lee, W.-J. (1999) Kimberlites, carbonatites, peridotites and silicate–carbonate liquid immiscibility explained in parts of the system CaO-(Na2O+K2O)-(MgO+FeO)-(SiO2+Al2O3)-CiO2. Pp. 923–932. in: Proceedings of the VIIth International Kimberlite Conference (urney, G.J.J., Gurney, J.L., Pascoe, M.D. and Richardson, S.H., editors). Red Roof Design, Cape Town, South Africa.Google Scholar
Yoder, H.S., Jr, (1976) Generation of Basaltic Magma. National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC, 265 pp.Google Scholar