Abstract
Carbonatite volcanoes are rare, the only active one being at Oldoinyo Lengai in northern Tanzania1 although a few dead volcanic centres with recognizable carbonatitic extrusive materials are known elsewhere in Africa2–6 and one in Germany7. During an expedition in 1980 to the Cape Verde Islands, in the Central Atlantic Ocean 500 km west of Senegal, the eroded remains of a carbonatite volcano were discovered on the island of Santiago just north of Tarrafal at Arruela (Fig. 1). This, the first example of an oceanic carbonatitic volcanic pyro-clastic structure, shows typical carbonatite mineralogy and geochemistry, and demonstrates that carbonatite magmas can be generated in the oceanic lithosphere as well as in the continents.
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Silva, L., Bas, M. & Robertson, A. An oceanic carbonatite volcano on Santiago, Cape Verde Islands. Nature 294, 644–645 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1038/294644a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/294644a0
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