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Fluid dynamic and geochemical evolution of cyclic unit 10, Rhum, Eastern Layered Series

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Stephen R. Tait
Stephen R. Tait
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, U.K.
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Abstract

Lithological, major element, trace element and Sr isotope data from cyclic unit 10 of the Rhum Eastern Layered Series are presented. The lower 65 metres of the unit are peridotite, subdivided on textural and geochemical grounds into a lower homogeneous portion approximately 50 metres thick and an upper heterogeneous portion approximately 15 metres thick. The uppermost 16.5 metres of the unit are allivalite. There are steep geochemical gradients across the peridotite-allivalite boundary in Ni content of olivine and whole-rock Sr isotope composition.

Calculations are presented on the geochemical evolution of a Rhum picritic liquid undergoing olivine precipitation, both when the olivines remain suspended in the residual liquid as they precipitate, and when they are continuously fractionated. Quenched groundmass and olivine compositions from the Rhum dykes and the unit 10 peridotite olivines show good agreement with the suspension model but are inconsistent with the fractionation model. The Rhum chamber is thought to have been replenished with a picritic liquid from which olivine crystallized while held in suspension; however, replenishment by a highly olivine-phyric basalt is also possible. The peridotite probably accumulated rapidly as olivines were dumped out of suspension onto the chamber floor.

The lower part of the peridotite is a poikilitic adcumulate; it is suggested that this formed by convective circulation of melt in the pores of the pile of cumulus olivines. In the latter stages of adcumulus growth, more Fe-rich and isotopically contaminated magma entered the top of the cumulus pile causing cumulus olivines to re-equilibrate and giving the intercumulus plagioclase a higher Sr isotope ratio than lower down. The olivines in the allivalite show steep stratigraphic gradients in major element composition but not in their Ni content. They also show substantial variation in major element composition laterally within the allivalite. It is suggested that these features are a consequence of postcumulus re-equilibration of olivine with migrating intercumulus magma.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 122 , Issue 5 , September 1985 , pp. 469 - 484
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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