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Notes: Abstract The Agnew nickel sulfide deposit is spatially associated with a lenticular body of ultramafic rocks which shows a concentric zonation in metamorphic mineralogy. Olivine + tremolite + chlorite + cummingtonite ±enstatite assemblages occur at the margin of the ultramafic lens, giving way to olivine + anthophyllite, olivine + talc and olivine + antigorite assemblages successively inwards. These rocks are interpreted as having crystallized from komatiitic lavas, and exhibit a spectrum of compositions from those of original flow tops to pure olivine adcumulates. The relative modal abundances of metamorphic olivine, tremolite and chlorite reflect original proportions of cumulus olivine and komatiite liquid in the protolith. Peak metamorphic conditions are estimated at 550° C, based on garnet-biotite thermometry, at a maximum pressure of 3 kb. This temperature falls within the narrow range over which metamorphic olivine may co-exist with enstatite, anthophyllite, talc or antigorite depending upon the fugacity of water in the metamorphic fluid. The observed mineralogical zonation is therefore attributed to infiltration by CO2-rich fluids, generated by decarbonation of talc-carbonate rocks formed during pre-metamorphic marginal alteration of the ultramafic lens. Metamorphic fluids were essentially binary mixtures of water and CO2, with minor H2S having a maximum partial pressure less than 1 percent of total pressure. Enstatite-bearing assemblages formed in the presence of CO2-rich fluids at fluid: rock volume ratios close to one, while anthophyllite, talc and antigorite bearing assemblages formed in the presence of progressively more water-rich fluids at progressively lower fluid-rock ratios.

Notes: Abstract A series of calculations have been carried out to evaluate the effect on cumulus mineral compositions of solidification of trapped intercumulus liquid in orthocumulates. The calculation assumes local equilibrium between phases, and that the system remains chemically closed during crystallization of the trapped liquid. The latter assumption is held to be valid on a scale of tens to hundreds of centimeters. It is not necessary to know the composition of the trapped liquid, as the calculation only requires an estimate of FeO content and trapping temperature. The change in composition of a mineral from that of the initially precipitated cumulus crystals to the final composition after complete solidification is termed the “trapped liquid shift”. Its magnitude depends on the modal proportions of cumulus phases and the initial porosity, and is only weakly dependent on initial phase compositions. Trapped liquid shifts are significant when compared with mineral composition changes occurring during fractional crystallization. Crystallization of 30% trapped liquid gives rise to shifts of up to 10 mol. percent in Mg number of olivine or pyroxene. The size of the shift becomes greater when the initial cumulus assemblage has a lower total FeO+MgO content, and vice versa. As a result of the relationship between trapped liquid shift and cumulus mode, mineral composition variations and trends may be generated in sequences of cumulates which originally had constant compositions of cumulus minerals. For example, in a cyclic unit grading from a pyroxenitic base to an anorthositic top, crystallization of a uniform proportion of trapped liquid will result in an apparent iron enrichment trend from bottom to top of the cycle, as has been observed in the Upper Critical Zone of the Bushveld Complex.

Notes: Abstract Spinifex-textured komatiites at Honeymoon Well, Western Australia, show evidence of partial melting and recrystallization of original igneous textures. Their textures and mineral compositions differ markedly from those typical of komatiites. Spinifex olivine plates are bent and broken, while interstitial space between spinifex and cumulus olivine is occupied by polygonal aggregates of clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene, minor olivine and plagioclase. Similar granular pyroxene-plagioclase aggregates occur as diffuse veins cutting spinifex zones and cumulate zones of the flows and, in places, form the matrix to a breccia containing corroded fragments of spinifex rock. Thermometry based on the two pyroxene assemblages yields temperatures of 1055° to 1141° C, just below the low-pressure komatiite solidus. Mineral compositions are different from those of typical komatiites: clinopyroxenes are Al-poor and Cr-rich, olivines are unusually iron-rich and depleted in Cr and Ca, and the low-Ca pyroxene is bronzite rather than the more typical pigeonite. We interpret these observations as the results of thermal metamorphism, partial remelting and subsequent slow crystallization of originally normal spinifex-textured komatiite flows. The rocks in question occupy a 40–70 m interval sandwiched between two olivine-rich units: an underlying 90 m-thick olivine adcumulate layer, forming part of the cumulate zone of a basal 160 m-thick flow, and an overlying 1 km-thick extrusive body composed mostly of olivine mesocumulate and adcumulate and capped in turn by spinifex-textured flows. Thermal modelling shows that a sinusoidal temperature profile of cool flow tops and hot flow centres would exist within this sequence shortly after eruption. Conductive thermal relaxation of this profile could reheat spinifex zones to the extent of inducing partial melting and textural reconstitution. Such reheating is largely dependent on the time interval between the emplacement of successive flows. Calculations suggest that at Honeymoon Well the emplacement interval must have been of the order of 10 years or less. Textural reconstitution may have contributed to the development of the thick orthocumulate sequences characteristic of komatiites in the Agnew-Wiluna belt.

Notes: Abstract Three distinct categories of magmas — Bushveld “U-type” parent magmas, boninites, and siliceous high magnesium basalts from Archaean greenstone belts —share the distictive geochemical characteristics of high MgO (9%–19%), low TiO2(less than 1%) and high SiO2(greater than 52%). Boninites are generally thought to form by hydrous melting of metasomatized, previously depleted upper mantle, while siliceous high magnesium basalts (SHMB) in greenstone belts have recently been recognized as the products of combined fractionation and crustal contamination of komatiites. Both these mechanisms can apparently give rise to similar end products, and both mechanisms have been proposed for the petrogenesis of Bushveld U-type magmas. A detailed comparison of the three magma types, using data drawn from the literature, shows a broad area of overlap in major elements and most trace elements. U-type magmas are generally intermediate in composition between SHMB and boninites. U-type magmas differ significantly from boninites, and are more similar to SHMB, in three important respects: their relatively high abundances of rare earth elements and degree of light rare earth enrichment; higher FeO/MgO ratio for a given MgO content; and Sm/Nd isotopic systematics indicative of crustal contamination. BU magmas are therefore more likely to be extreme examples of contaminated komatiitic parents than primary “boninitic” mantle melts. The striking similarity in major element chemistry of the three groups may be due to the near-coincidence in compositional space of the mediumpressure, hydrous olivine-orthopyroxene phase boundary, which controls the composition of boninites, with the lowpressure anhydrous phase boundary which controls differentiated SHMB and U-type magmas.