ALBERT

Description: SummaryThe stratigraphical limits on the age of the Freetown intrusion, Sierra Leone, are very wide, yet the intrusion has not previously been accurately dated by isotopic methods, despite a number of attempts. Rubidium-strontium dating of acid veins contemporaneous with the early stages of the prolonged cooling history of the intrusion provides an age of 193 ± 3 Ma. The veins consist of quartz and orthoclase with relict minerals, principally plagioclase, from thehost gabbro. Electron-microprobe analysis of the altered minerals of the veins, and the petrography of the vein and adjacent host gabbro clearly demonstrate that the veins were formed from a granitic fraction, differentiated in situ from the surrounding solid gabbro with the assistance of a hydrous fluid phase within the incipient vein. This assertion is supported by the identical, low value of the initial 87Sr/86Sr ratio (0·70389) obtained from both the acid and basic rocks, and the technique described here may be useful in dating other, similar, intrusions.

Description: The Freetown Intrusion, Sierra Leone, evolved by recurrent injection of olivine-bearing magma producing an aggregate thickness greater than 6000 m of rhythmically layered rocks. Sedimentation and constrained viscous flow of crystallizing magma concentrated olivine crystals during initial formation whilst concentration of volatiles locally lowered residual melt temperatures. This affected the crystallization of pyroxenes especially in pyroxene-troctolites where abundance of olivine caused deferred pyroxene growth. Three examples are described: (1) Flattened and elongated schlieren of augite enclosing plagioclase in ophitic intergrowths show preferred orientation cutting across primary layering defined by olivine, proving that pyroxene growth was secondary and influenced by stress directions in a relatively rigid rock. (2) In some pyroxene-troctolites, augite is segregated into coarse ophitic nodules which are widely and evenly spaced in a troctolitic host rock. Successful pyroxene nucleation and extensive diffusion caused development of domains of equilibration within a ‘cotectic’ pyroxene-plagioclase-volatile system. Crystallization within this was deferred compared with the surrounding olivine-plagioclase assemblage in which effects of granulitization are conspicuous. (3) Occasionally the pyroxenes are segregated in dispersed lenticular bodies of noritic pegmatite in troctolite. As in the previous cases, growth of pyroxene involved resorption and regrowth of olivine. This reflects the highest temperatures of crystallization in equilibrium with volatile-enriched pegmatite fluids. Temperatures decreased inwards giving a zonal structure and late growth of biotite, orthoclase, and apatite.The formation of late crystalline pyroxenes and pegmatites thus involved extensive diffusion of volatile and other components accompanying the establishment of domains of reduced pressure in hot and slowly cooled rocks subjected to gradual deformation due to progressive subsidence of the central parts of the intrusion. The final fabric is therefore metamorphic resulting from annealing rather than crystal accumulation.

Description: SummaryA gradational increase in concentration of CO2 towards the margins of a very fine-grained basalt dyke has led to the development of a pale marginal facies, enriched in carbonates, particularly siderite. Increases in CO2 from about 3 % in the interior of the dyke to 8 % at the margins are accompanied by decreases in SiO2 and Fe2O3, increases in Al2O3, and less significant changes in the other major components. Cu, Co, and Zn change only slightly, and Cr, Ni, and Li remain constant. Petrographic variation is considerable, even in the superficially homogeneous interior of the dyke, in which it ranges from a type containing a titanaugite (analysed) to one devoid of pyroxene, but containing conspicuous opaque minerals. Microprobe analysis for Fe and Ti shows that these comprise: cotahedral titaniferous magnetite; rodlets, less than 1 µm thick, of rutile partly altered to, or overgrown by, ilmenite; and sub-opaque patches with a very low Ti/Fe ratio. Plagioclase, An55, is the most abundant and constant crystalline phase in the interior of the dyke, but changes to An20 in the marginal facies. Mineral-content of the latter, deduced from optical, chemical, and X-ray data, also includes siderite, serpentine and clay minerals, leucoxene, and apatite. There is no evidence of quartz, sericite, or calcite.Petrographic evidence shows that variations in concentrations of CO2 and H2O affected phase equilibria from the start of magmatic crystallization. Data on the fO2 required for TiO2 and Fe-oxide phases to co-exist at magmatic temperatures indicate that, initially, the concentrations of CO2 and H2O in the interior of the dyke were higher than the values recorded in analyses of the rocks. From this evidence and the field relationships, it is concluded that the intruding magma was rich in volatiles, which diffused towards the dyke margins and, in part, became trapped as the magma congealed, producing a changed marginal assemblage of minerals. The dyke provides a unique glimpse of influences on a basic magma exerted by what S. J. Shand has aptly termed the ‘fugitive constituents’, the transient effects of which are rarely preserved in the rocks.