A mafic-ultramafic cumulate sequence derived from boninite-type melts (Niagara Icefalls, northern Victoria Land, Antarctica)

Abstract

The layered sequence from Niagara Icefalls (northern Victoria Land, Antarctica) is related to the Cambrian-Early Ordovician Ross Orogeny. The sequence consists of dunites, harzburgites, orthopyroxenites, melagabbronorites and gabbronorites of cumulus origin. The Mg# of olivine, spinel, orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene from these rocks yields positive correlations, thus indicating formation from melts that mainly evolved through fractional crystallisation. The following fractionation sequence was identified: olivine (up to 94 mol% forsterite) + Cr-rich spinel → olivine + orthopyroxene ± spinel → orthopyroxene → orthopyroxene + anorthite-rich plagioclase ± clinopyroxene. Clinopyroxenes retain the peculiar trace element signature of boninite melts, such as extremely low concentrations of HREE and HFSE, and LILE enrichment over REE and HFSE. U–Pb isotope data on zircons separated from a gabbronorite have allowed us to constrain the age of emplacement of the Niagara Icefalls sequence at ∼514 Ma. The occurrence of inherited zircons dated at ∼538 Ma indicates that the boninitic melts experienced, at least locally, crustal contamination. The Niagara Icefalls sequence can be related to a regional scale magmatic event that affected the eastern margin of the Gondwana supercontinent in the Middle Cambrian. We propose that the formation of the sequence was associated with the development of an embryonic back-arc basin in an active continental margin.