Aspects of ultrabasic and basic alkaline intrusive rocks from Bitterfontein, South Africa

Abstract

Cretaceous alkaline intrusive rocks present in the Bitterfontein area comprise a suite having compositions ranging from olivine melilitite to syenite. These rocks which include some of lamprophyric affinity form part of the widespread dominantly alkaline suite of intrusives occurring in a broad zone parallel to the south western African coastal regions. This paper presents the petrology of the Bitterfontein alkaline rocks together with mineral and rock analyses. The chemistry of the rocks shows the suite to define a SiO2 enrichment trend linking the compositions of olivine melilitite to oversaturated basic rocks. This trend is compared with trends defined by essentially tholeiitic volcanics and kimberlite-olivine melilitite compositions and a genetic relationship with the latter is apparent. Polybaric crystallisation of a larnite normative liquid in a crustal environment coupled with fractionation especially of phlogopite is important in the generation of members of the Bitterfontein suite. Phlogopite fractionation represents a deviation by the Bitterfontein suite from the evolutionary trend predicted by experimental work for low pressure anhydrous compositions in the Fo-La-Ne-SiO2 system.