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Origin of Archean lamprophyre dykes, Superior Province, Canada: rare earth element and Nd−Sr isotopic evidence

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Abstract

Hornblende- and clinopyroxene-phyric lamprophyre dykes exposed in the Roaring River Complex, Superior Province are alkaline, nepheline-normative, basaltic compositions (>50 wt% SiO2), that range from primitive to fractionated [Mg/(Mg + total Fe)=0.66–0.40; Ni=200–35 ppm], and which have high abundances of light rare earth elements (REE) [(Ce/Yb)n=16–26, Cen=60–300; n = chondrite normalized], Sr (870–1,800 ppm), P2O5 (0.4–1.3 wt%), and Ba (150–900 ppm). Crystal fractionation of the lamprophyres produced coeval gabbro and clinopyroxenite cumulate bodies. A whole-rock Sm−Nd isochron for lamprophyres and gabbro-pyroxenite yields a crystallization age of 2,667±51 Ma Ma (I=0.50929±0.0004; ɛ Nd = + 2.3 α 0.7). Whole-rock Sr isotope data are scattered, but suggest an initial 87Sr/86Sr ratio of ≈ 0.7012, similar to bulk Earth. The elevated levels of light REEs and Sr in the lamprophyres were not due to crustal contamination or mixing with contemporaneous monzodioritic magmas, but a result of partial melting of a mantle source which was enriched in these and other large-ion-lithophile elements (LILEs) shortly before melting. The lamprophyres were contemporaneous with mantle-derived, high-Mg, LILE-enriched monzodiorite to granodiorite of the Archean “sanukitoid” suite. Both suites have concave-downward light REE profiles, suggesting that depleted mantle was common to their source regions, but the higher light REE abundances, higher Ba/La ratios, and lower ɛ Nd values (+1.3±0.3) of the parental monzodiorites suggest a more enriched source. The lamprophyres and high-Mg monzodiorites were derived from a mineralogically and compositionally heterogeneous, LILE-enriched mantle lithosphere that may have been part of a mantle wedge above a subducting plate in an arc environment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geological Survey of Canada, 601 Booth St., K1A OE8, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Richard A. Stern

  2. Department of Earth and Space Sciences, SUNY Stony Brook, 11974, Stony Brook, NY, USA

    Gilbert N. Hanson

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  1. Richard A. Stern
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  2. Gilbert N. Hanson
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Stern, R.A., Hanson, G.N. Origin of Archean lamprophyre dykes, Superior Province, Canada: rare earth element and Nd−Sr isotopic evidence. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 111, 515–526 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00320906

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