Appinitic intrusions in the English Lake District

Abstract

Within the Skiddaw Group, which underlies the mid-Ordovician volcanic arc of the English Lake District, are minor intrusions of calc-alkaline, hornblende-augite rich, dioritic to picritic bodies reminiscent of the appinite suite of the Scottish Caledonides. Representative of these is the Scawgill Bridge microdiorite, a variable, hornblendic body which includes augite-phyric meladiorite and pyroxenite; others include the ‘picrtte’ (augite-meladiorite or cortlandtite) plugs at Dash and Barkbeth. They are distinct from tholeiitic intrusions of similar age represented by the Embleton Diorite, and also from late Silurian biotite-lamprophyres. Despite alteration, primary variation trends indicated by immobile trace elements are also expressed by major elements including Mg, Fe and Ca. Differentiation at Scawgill Bridge is modelled as fractionation of olivine, augite, hornblende and chromite, and a similar process is inferred for the meladiorite intrusions. It is concluded these bodies represent primitive, calc-alkaline magmas related to the Lower Borrowdale Volcanic Group, which fractionated under confined conditions of high P(inH2o). In contrast, the Lower Borrowdale Volcanic Group itself is dominated by plagiophyric rocks which resulted from fractionation at lower P(inH2O).