The Namaqualand olivine melilitite pipe cluster is a 40 km by 10 km north/south oriented area with at least 10 closely spaced alkaline ultramafic subvolcanic pipes and diatremes containing olivine melilitite and nephelinite, spanning an age range of 35-56 Ma. A related carbonatite complex containing olivine melilitite is also found within this cluster, with an emplacement age of ≈ 55 Ma. The Namaqualand cluster represents the southernmost component of the Late Cretaceous to Paleogene-age Namaqualand-Bushmanland-Warmbad (NBW) lineament, representing a 400 km long NNE-SSW trending feature made of hundreds of diatremes containing ultramafic lamprophyre and kimberlite in addition to the rock types named above. The NBW lineament appears to be an ageprogressive feature, with ages increasing toward the northeast at a rate and direction roughly consistent with Late Cretaceous to Cenozoic African plate motion. This suggests that it could have formed from a single source, such as a mantle plume, with the earlier products being the Warmbad kimberlites, followed by the later diatremes of the Bushmanland cluster and the youngest being the Namaqualand olivine melilitites. This study focuses on the petrography and geochemistry of fresh igneous rocks sampled from 10 pipes in the Namaqualand cluster. The samples have unusual compositions for diatreme-hosted alkaline igneous rocks in that they are relatively differentiated, with whole rock Mg numbers of between 71 and 45. This suggests that many of these samples represent magmas that evolved though more than 50% fractional crystallization of mineral assemblages dominated by olivine but also containing significant melilite, nepheline, phlogopite, titanomagnetite and perovskite. However, least-squares fractionation modelling appears to only provide an approximate guide to the fractionating mineral assemblages. The concentrations of most incompatible trace elements in the Namaqualand melilitites are relatively uniform, suggesting a common source and petrogenesis. Low Pb concentrations in the Namaqualand melilitites, along with their SiO2- and Al2O3-poor major element compositions make it unlikely that they experienced significant (e.g., more than 5-10%) assimilation of local continental crust. The Namaqualand melilitites are characterized by extraordinarily high and variable Nb/Rb and U/Th ratios, and correlations with other elements indicate that these ratios have been affected by variable fractional crystallization of phlogopite and perovskite, respectively. However, this cannot explain the unusually high U concentrations and low Th/U ratios of the most primitive Namaqualand melilitites, which appear to be a source feature. Oxygen isotope ratios of olivine separates indicate that olivines from a large majority of the melilitite pipes have compositions indistinguishable from those from typical upper mantle peridotite (4.9-5.2‰). However, three melilitite pipes emplaced within the mid-Cretaceous Koegel Fontein igneous complex contain M. D. Kirchner University of Cape Town (2022) MSc Thesis olivines with exceptionally low δ18O values (i.e., down to +4.2 ‰). The crustal country rock surrounding the Koegel Fontein complex, as well as igneous rocks strongly contaminated by this crust, have exceptionally low δ18O values (down to -4 and -5.3‰, respectively). The unusually low -δ 18O values of these olivines could be explained by the assimilation of up to 10% of Koegel Fontein country rock crust having the lowest δ18O values measured. Larger amounts of crustal assimilation are not plausible as they would result in detectable increases in SiO2 and Pb/Ce ratios. It is unclear whether the crustal assimilation detected in the melilitites emplaced within the Koegelfontein complex is typical of most Namaqualand melilitites. The Namaqualand melilitites have radiogenic isotope compositions that overlap with those of melilitites and kimberlites from the Bushmanland and Warmbad clusters, as well as with southern African Group I kimberlites. However, the Namaqualand pipes are unique in that some samples have radiogenic isotope values approaching those of HIMU oceanic island basalts (e.g., from St. Helena, Mangaia, Tubuai), whereas the Bushmanland and Warmbad clusters display isotopic compositions that only extend to weaker HIMU signatures. The geochemical and age-distance patterns displayed by the NBW igneous rocks are most consistent with the action of a mantle plume passing beneath the western margin of southern Africa in the Late Cretaceous to Paleogene, resulting in the generation of the NBW lineament. This is consistent with the fact that the samples with the strongest HIMU signatures in the NBW lineament are those that have been emplaced on the thinnest lithosphere, nearest the continental margin. The HIMU signature dominant in the Namaqualand melilitites is presumably related to the plume source, which could contain ancient recycled oceanic crust. The formation of the African megalineament could theoretically be related to the same plume that caused the NBW lineament by triggering a zone of magmatism along a deep-seated zone of weakness in the lithospheric mantle between Southern Africa into the east African rift zone, however, more evidence would be needed to fully support this possibility.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uct/oai:localhost:11427/38034 |
| Date | 06 July 2023 |
| Creators | Kirchner, Michael |
| Contributors | Janney, Philip Edward |
| Publisher | Faculty of Science, Department of Geological Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Master Thesis, Masters, MSc |
| Format | application/pdf |
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