Publication Date:
2007-10-08
Description:
During Late Palaeozoic times, andesite magmas intruded a 100-m thick sequence of Late Carboniferous lacustrine to alluvial siliciclastic rocks, sandwiched between folded Namurian sediments at the base and a thick, partly welded rhyolitic ignimbrite sheet at the top, in the Flechtingen area. An intrusive complex, comprising of two main sills up to 200 m thick and over 20 km in lateral extent, was formed (the Flechtingen Sill Complex, or the lower andesites', previously interpreted as lava flows). In the supposed feeder area the andesitic magmas locally pierced the ignimbrite seal, forming isolated pipes and domes (the upper andesites'). Thickness variations of the sills suggest ponding of the andesite magma within former depositional troughs and syn-emplacement deformation of the host sequence with the formation of swells, basins and fault-bounded grabens at the top of the sills. Locally, thin failed' sills are present. In places, sill margins show domains of flattened and aligned vesicles and planar, sharp contacts to the host sediments. However, in many outcrops and drill cores the sill margins consist of variable andesite breccias and peperties. These fragmental rocks reflect auto- to quench-clastic brecciation of chilled andesite magma (in situ breccias and perlite), variable magma-sediment interactions and later breciation by hydrothermal fluids.
