Title A mafic-ultramafic cumulate sequence derived from boninite-type melts (Niagara Icefalls, northern Victoria Land, Antarctica)
Author Tribuzio, R.; Tiepolo, M.; Fiameni, S.
Author Affil Tribuzio, R., Universita di Pavia, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Pavia, Italy. Other: Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse, Italy
Source Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 155(5), p.619-633, . Publisher: Springer International, Heidelberg - New York, International. ISSN: 0010- 7999
Publication Date May 2008
Notes In English. 60 refs. GeoRef Acc. No: 287191
Index Terms Antarctica--Victoria Land; absolute age; andesites; Antarctica; back-arc basins; basins; boninite; Cambrian; chemical composition; crystal chemistry; cumulates; dates; geochemistry; harzburgite; ICP mass spectra; igneous rocks; intrusions; mafic composition; major elements; mass spectra; melts; metals; mineral assemblages; mineral composition; nesosilicates; Niagara Icefalls; orthosilicates; Paleozoic; peridotites; petrology; plutonic rocks; rare earths; Ross Orogeny; silicate melts; silicates; spectra; terranes; textures; trace elements; U/Pb; ultramafic composition; ultramafics; Victoria Land; volcanic rocks; zircon; zircon group
Abstract The layered sequence from Niagara Icefalls (northern Victoria Land, Antarctica) is related to the Cambrian-Early Ordovician Ross Orogeny. The sequence consists of dunites, harzburgites, orthopyroxenites, melagabbronorites and gabbronorites of cumulus origin. The Mg#PS of olivine, spinel, orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene from these rocks yields positive correlations, thus indicating formation from melts that mainly evolved through fractional crystallisation. The occurrence of inherited zircons dated at 538 Ma indicates that the boninitic melts experienced, at least locally, crustal contamination. The Niagara Icefalls sequence can be related to a regional scale magmatic event that affected the eastern margin of the Gondwana supercontinent in the Middle Cambrian. (mod. journ. abst.)
URL http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s00410-007-0261-1
Publication Type journal article
Record ID 84655