A basaltic-ferrobasaltic granulite association, Oonagalabi gneiss complex, Central Australia: magmatic variation in an Early Proterozoic rift

Abstract

Extremely fractionated basaltic to ferrobasaltic amphibolites and granulites comprise two spatially associated mafic tholeiitic suites (?deformed sills) within the Early Proterozoic Oonagalabi basement gneiss complex, Harts Range, Central Australia. The metatholeiites are characterised by high to very high FeO, TiO2 and P2O5 contents, and variable depletion in CaO and Al2O3. Despite similar Zr/Nb ratios, the rocks from the two suites show different degrees of enrichment in LREE and other “immobile” incompatible elements. The basaltic melts which were parental to the two mafic suites were not comagmatic and the rocks cannot be related simply by fractionation of realistic assemblages of low-pressure fractionating phases. The data suggest that primary basaltic liquids for the two suites were derived by different degrees of partial melting from essentially similar undepleted mantle source regions. Clinopyroxene in the residual mantle assemblage controlled the composition of the segregating melt at lower degrees of melting. The ferrobasaltic compositions imply long residence times for the basaltic magmas in shallow-level differentiating tholeiitic sills and/or magma chambers in a mature propagating rift environment. High-grade (granulite facies) metamorphism, and subsequent restricted metasomatic reequilibration of the mafic rocks with interlayered migmatitic and quartzofeldspathic gneisses, have affected only abundances of certain highly-smobile elements (e.g. K2O and Rb), resulting in the partial disruption of inter-element correlations. However, the geochemical data do not indicate any large-scale depletion of large ion lithophile elements (LILE) in the Oonagalabi gneiss complex.