ISSN:
1432-0967
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Geosciences
Notes:
Abstract Green, salitic pyroxenes occur as megacrysts and as cores in diopsidic pyroxene phenocrysts and microphenocrysts in a wyomingite lava from Hatcher Mesa, Leucite Hills, Wyoming. Al-rich phlogopite (16–21% Al2O3), apatite, Fe-Ti-oxide, Mg-rich olivine (Fo93) and orthopyroxene (En61) also occur as megacrysts or as inclusions in diopside phenocrysts. All of these phases are found in ultramafic xenoliths in the host lava, and petrographic and chemical evidence is presented that the megacrysts originate by the disaggregation of the xenoliths. It is concluded that the latter are accidental fragments of the wall rocks traversed by the wyomingite magma and it is suggested that the clinopyroxene-rich xenoliths, from which the green pyroxenes are derived, formed in the upper mantle as a result of local metasomatism or by crystallization from magmas of unknown composition during an earlier igneous event. The precise role of the clinopyroxene-rich xenoliths (which also contain apatite, Fe-Ti-oxide and amphibole) in the genesis of the Leucite Hills magmas cannot be elucidated on the basis of the available data, but it is unlikely that they represent the source material from which these magmas are derived.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00636514
